DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0045
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LONGEVITY,
Perhaps no Presbytery in the Church of Scotland, nor
any Society consisting of only 29 Members, can produce
50 many instances of Longevity, as are at present to be
found among the Members of the Presbytery of Ayr.—•>
Each of the five senior Ministers of the Presbytery, have
enjoyed a Benefice within its bounds more than half a cen-
tury. The dates of their respective ordinations, as entered
on the Presbytery records, are the following :—Rev. John
Steele, Stair, 14th Aug. 1755, above 68 years ; Rev. Dr.
William Dalrymple, Ayr, 18th Dec. 1746, nearly 57 years;
Rev. Dr. David Shaw, Coylton, 29th June, 1749, above
54 years; Rev. Dr. Andrew Mitchell, Monkton, 11th
July, 1751, above 52 years; and the Rev. Matthew Big-*
gar, Kirkoswald, 5th October, 1752, above 51 years:--
In all 282 years.
The joint ages of these gentlemen amount to 419 years.,
The advanced age to which they have attained, affords a
striking proof how much temperance and regularity con-
tribute to prolong the period of human existence. Mr.
Steele is the father not only of the Presbytery of Ayr, but
of the Church of Scotland.
A SINGULAR CHARACTER.
Mr. George Crank, of Shrewsbury, died there last
week, (Dec. 19, 1803,) aged 91 years. He was formerly
a Clothworker, and very abstemious, eating very little ani-
mal food/ and drinking nothing but water and milk from
his earliest years. He had some innocent peculiarities;
one of which was, that he never wore a hat, but when he
was going to church, where he was a regular and devout
attendant, be the weather how it might. He was constantly
present in Court during the Assizes, and before the Mayor
and sitting Justices in the Exchequer; from whence the
public
LONGEVITY,
Perhaps no Presbytery in the Church of Scotland, nor
any Society consisting of only 29 Members, can produce
50 many instances of Longevity, as are at present to be
found among the Members of the Presbytery of Ayr.—•>
Each of the five senior Ministers of the Presbytery, have
enjoyed a Benefice within its bounds more than half a cen-
tury. The dates of their respective ordinations, as entered
on the Presbytery records, are the following :—Rev. John
Steele, Stair, 14th Aug. 1755, above 68 years ; Rev. Dr.
William Dalrymple, Ayr, 18th Dec. 1746, nearly 57 years;
Rev. Dr. David Shaw, Coylton, 29th June, 1749, above
54 years; Rev. Dr. Andrew Mitchell, Monkton, 11th
July, 1751, above 52 years; and the Rev. Matthew Big-*
gar, Kirkoswald, 5th October, 1752, above 51 years:--
In all 282 years.
The joint ages of these gentlemen amount to 419 years.,
The advanced age to which they have attained, affords a
striking proof how much temperance and regularity con-
tribute to prolong the period of human existence. Mr.
Steele is the father not only of the Presbytery of Ayr, but
of the Church of Scotland.
A SINGULAR CHARACTER.
Mr. George Crank, of Shrewsbury, died there last
week, (Dec. 19, 1803,) aged 91 years. He was formerly
a Clothworker, and very abstemious, eating very little ani-
mal food/ and drinking nothing but water and milk from
his earliest years. He had some innocent peculiarities;
one of which was, that he never wore a hat, but when he
was going to church, where he was a regular and devout
attendant, be the weather how it might. He was constantly
present in Court during the Assizes, and before the Mayor
and sitting Justices in the Exchequer; from whence the
public