100 YEAR OLD SCOTCH.

[Currie]

100 YEAR OLD SCOTCH – FIVE CASES.

Caledonian Mercury, Thursday, July 5, 1810.
LONGEVITY.—There is now residing at Priestgill, near Strathaven, William Ruthven, a native of that parish, in the hundred and eleventh year of his age. He served many years in the Scots Greys; wrought at the cooper business many years in Dumfries, and for the last 15 years since the death of his wife, and the loss of his eye sight, he has traversed Lanarkshire, Galloway, &c. with his daughter and her husband, who are tinkers. His mental faculties are not impaired.


Caledonian Mercury, Thursday, October 15, 1812.
REMARKABLE LONGEVITY.—There is now living in the parish of Tippermuir, about five miles to the north-west of Perth, John Hay, aged 107 years, in very good health. He was born in the parish of Gask, bred a farmer, and now resides on a small pendicle of land, belonging to the Earl of Kinnoul, by whose bounty his wants are supplied. He is married to a second wife, but his children are all dead. He can walk 10 or 12 miles a day. In the course of his long life, he seldom tasted spirituous liquors. —He remembers, in the year 1715, carrying ammunition to the King’s army, and of seeing a cannon dragged by 16 oxen and two horses.


Caledonian Mercury, Saturday, October 17, 1812.
A singular marriage took place lately near the Old Head in Caithness, between a woman of 100 years of age and a man of 70, being her third husband.—It is somewhat remarkable, that on the same night she was married to her first husband, her second was born.


Caledonian Mercury, Monday, January 31, 1814.
DIED at Terraughtie, on the 16th current, JAMES BLACK, one of the oldest men in Dumfries-shire. This extraordinary old man was 110 years of age, retained his distinct hearing to the last, and within a few weeks of his death, could, with his spectacles, read his small print bible. What is still more remarkable, he lately got an entire new set of teeth.


Caledonian Mercury, Thursday, July 1, 1819.
There is at present residing at Pinkell Cottage, near Newton-Stewart, the seat of Lieut.-General the Hon. Sir William Stewart, Alexander MacCreadie of Sorby, whose corporeal and mental faculties seem but little impaired by the wasting hand of time, although he is at present in the 106th year of his age. This singular specimen of antiquity possesses such a youthful cheerfulness in conversation, and such a fondness of relating the manners and customs of the people of Galloway in the early part of his life, as to make him not only an amusing, but likewise a very instructive, companion. When he was a young man, about 90 years ago, he says “there was not a spinning wheel to be seen frae the Brigend o' Dumfries to the braes o' Glennap, nor were the people of Galloway acquainted with dyeing any other colour than black, which, when mixed with white wool, was made into clothing (hodden grey) for both lairds and ladies, and was far afore the twittery worm-wabs made now a days." The broad national bonnet was invariably wore by men of every station in this quarter then, except by the Earl of Galloway and Colonel Agnew of Sheuchan: “they introduced the thriftless fashion of wearing hats into this country." Linen sarks were only wore by the tap gentry, an' nane o' them had either necks or han-bans" Looking glasses were then so scarce, that gin a bonny lass wanted to see hersel, she had like my joe Janet either to keek into the draw-well, a cog fu' o' water, or a dub at a dykeside.'' This curious chronicler was born in the parish of Kirkinner in the beginning of the year 1714, and has always been a laborious and hard-working man. When he was 102 years of age, during the harvest season he bound up the grain cut by four able shearers, and to the present. time be cooks all his own victuals, casts his own peats, and manages all his own affairs, and can read the smallest edition of the Psalms of David without the help of' spectacles. He was never out of Galloway except once, and then only for a few days. His present journey from Sorby to Pinkell Cottage was undertaken at the desire of Sir William Stewart, who would have conveyed him in a carriage, but the old man preferred. travelling on foot, and performed the last nine miles of his journey with great ease in about four hours.


Alan

[joette]

A singular marriage took place lately near the Old Head in Caithness, between a woman of 100 years of age and a man of 70, being her third husband.—It is somewhat remarkable, that on the same night she was married to her first husband, her second was born.

I want her to be in my lineage! Any of them what a marvelous lot.

[sheilajim]

Alan, Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed reading it.