3-028-155 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Matthew Greathead, of Richmond, Yorkshire, a hundred years old, 1870. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Riley. '...many of us can testify to having known, among our personal acquaintance, two or three old men or women who before they died were nearer to a hundred than to ninety years of age. We have been favoured by the Rev. C. H. Drinkwater, Curate of Richmond, in Yorkshire, with a communication respecting Matthew Greathead, a neighbour of his there, who actually attained his hundredth year on April 23, having been born on that day in 1770, in the parish of High Coniscliffe, in the county of Durham, four miles from Darlington. His baptismal register runs thus: "Matthew, son of John Greathead, was baptised on the 24th day of April, 1770." He is a widower, and has one son and two daughters living, with four grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren. We are glad to say that this venerable sire enjoys good health and spirits; he is in full possession of all his senses and mental faculties; he can read without spectacles; and his memory is still good. Mankind ought to thank him for setting us all a happy example. He has been a Freemason seventy-two years, and is, no doubt, the oldest member of that brotherly craft in the United Kingdom'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.