THE CURIOSITIES OF LONGEVITY, 
37 
“Book of Worthies” as having lived 140 
years, and his wife, 120 years. As a very 
convincing proof of the above, it was 
stated in court that he outlived five leases 
of twenty-one years each, made to him after 
his marriage. Thomas Gangheen died 1814, 
aged 1 12. He was called at the age of 108 
to prove the validity of a survey made in the 
year 1725, and his testimony contributed 
chiefly to the termination of an important 
lawsuit. Jane Forrester died 1766, aged 
138. When she was 132 years of age, her 
intellect was so clear that she made oath in 
a Chancery suit to have known an estate, the 
title to which was then in dispute, to have 
been enjoyed by the ancestors of the present 
heir one hundred and one years. “ Peter 
Garden died near Edinburgh in 1775, aged 
13 1 years. He lived during eight reigns. 
He was of gigantic stature, and retained his 
health and entire faculties to the last hour.” 
It is worthy of remark, that the most 
of those who have become very old were 
married more than once, and often at a 
very late period of life. There is rarely 
an instance of a bachelor or spinster having 
attained great age. Once left alone, the 
centenarian seeks a new spouse. His lone- 
liness becomes oppressive. All familiar faces 
are gone ; the playmates of youth, the com- 
panions of early manhood, the friends ot 
middle life, the associates of declining years 
long ago passed away to sure and rapid 
death. But let him marry again, and then 
he and his consort will walk down the hill 
of life to the grave in joy and peace, and 
probably die within a few hours of each 
other. 
Some of our venerable friends married 
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, 
and thirteen times; but James Gay, of 
Bordeaux, in France, eclipsed them all in 
connubial pertinacity. He died in 1772, 
aged only one hundred and one; but he 
found it convenient and agreeable to marry 
sixteen wives, yet died childless. Mar- 
garet McDowal, a Scotchwoman, who 
died in 1768, aged one hundred and six 
years, has found a unique place in his- 
tory because she married and survived thir- 
teen husbands. It seems to us that a meet- 
ing of these wives or these husbands beyond 
the “ Shining Shore ” would have suggested 
itself to these marriageable old folk, and have 
caused them to hesitate somewhere among 
the last half dozen. How much more beau- 
tiful the example of Mrs. Agnes Skuner, an 
Englishwoman, who died 1499, aged one 
hundred and nineteen. She chose to rever- 
ence the memory of her husband through 
a widowhood of ninety-two years. We 
receive a new and touching view of the sol- 
emn vow taken at marriage, “ I promise to 
love, cherish, protect, etc., until death us do 
part,” in the case of John Rovin and his 
wife, who died at Temeswar, Hungary, in 
1741, he aged one hundred and seventy- 
two, and she, one hundred and sixty-four. 
They lived as husband and wife during the 
long period of one hundred and forty-eight 
years, and their youngest son at the time of 
their decease was aged one hundred and 
sixteen. If the fiftieth anniversary of a wed- 
ding day is worthy of a golden celebration, 
what shall be the fitting entertainment for 
that happy pair who, during nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty years, have borne each other’s 
joys and sorrows ? Terentia, the wife of 
Cicero, lived to see one hundred and seven- 
teen years. Cicero secured a divorce from 
her because he wanted to marry a rich young 
woman. After the divorce Terentia married 
Sallust, the historian. He dying, she was mar- 
ried the third time to Messala Corvinus, and 
yet again a fourth time to Vibius Rufus. As 
an exception to this matrimonial rule may 
be mentioned the case of Marie Mallet, 
a Frenchwoman and a spinster, who died 
aged one hundred and fifteen. She con- 
tinued the business of dressmaking and 
millinery until her one hundred and tenth 
year. At her death forty-five women, who 
had formerly been her apprentices and were 
now far advanced in age, went before her 
body to the tomb. 
The study of this subject reveals the fact 
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