Thomas Parr (Age Myth)

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Thomas Parr, engraving by Matthäus Merian

Thomas Parr (* allegedly February 1483 in Winnington near Shrewsbury , Shropshire ; † November 14, 1635 ), called Old Parr or Old Tom Parr , was an Englishman who was allegedly 152 years and nine months old .

Life

Thomas Parr, like his father John Parr, was a farm worker. He became known for his " biblical age " of 152 years. According to his own information, he was born in 1483 and was already a local celebrity in his home town of Winnington near Wollaston in Shropshire (at the time parish of Alberbury, district of Sallop, now Darwin Country), 10 miles west of Shrewsbury , near the Welsh border, when he died in 1635 Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel "discovered" and brought to London for the amusement of the English royal court . But he could only remember a few events in his long life. Still, it attracted curious crowds, and Cornelis van Dalen made a portrait of the old man, which can be seen today in the National Portrait Gallery . Parr died just six weeks after arriving in London; According to the autopsy report of the doctor William Harvey (discoverer of the blood circulation), the rich food, heavy wines and pollution in the big city were not his thing. His organs were in such good condition that if he had continued his usual diet he could still have been alive. King Charles I had Parr buried in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey and had a tombstone erected on which it is written that Parr was subject to ten kings in his life:

Thomas Parr, oil painting by an unknown painter, around 1635

THO: PARR OF YE COUNTY OF SALLOP. BORNE
IN AD: 1483. HE LIVED IN YE REIGNES OF TEN
PRINCES VIZ: K.ED.4. K.ED.5.K.RICH.3.
K.HEN.7.K.HEN.8.K.EDW.6.Q.MA.Q.ELIZ
K.JA. & K. CHARLES. AGED 152 YEARES.
& WHAT BURYED HERE NOVEMB. 15th 1635.

in German:

THO. PARR FROM THE COUNTY SALLOP. BORN
AD 1483. HE LIVED UNDER THE RULE OF TEN
PRINCES, namely K.ED.IV. K.ED.VKRICH.III.
K.HEIN.VII. K.HEIN.VIII. K.ED. VI. KGN. MA. KGN. ELIS.
K. YES. & K. KARL. ACHIEVED 152 YEARS.
& WAS BURIED HERE ON NOVEMB 15. 1635.

He became known nationwide when the poet John Taylor published a kind of biography of Parr in 1635, entitled The Olde, Olde, Very Olde Man . As a result Parr went into English folklore and became the epitome of Merrie England (Merry England - the happy England, the "good old days"). Taylor reported that Parr was born in 1483 and attributed his longevity to a vegetarian diet and chaste lifestyle. According to this, Parr only married at the age of 88 (80), had two children and at the age of 100 had a brief extramarital affair with child consequence, for which he repented. After the death of his first wife in 1603 (1595), he remarried at the age of 122 (1605). In 1635 he met the painter and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens , who made sketches of him. The English painters John Condé and George Powle (2nd half of the 18th century) made several drawings based on Rubens' models. His house in Winnington still exists.

Thomas Parr was dissected by William Harvey shortly after his death ; the report was published as an appendix to the book De ortu et natura sanguinis ( On the Origin and Nature of Blood ) by John Betts in 1669. The finding rather suggests that Parr has not even reached the age of 70. Catherine Parr, a supposed great-granddaughter, is believed to have died in Cork in 1792 at the age of 103.

Others

A whiskey brand from Scotland has been named Grand Old Parr with a portrait after Peter Paul Rubens since 1909 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Thomas Parr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Meyer's Large Conversational Lexicon . 6th edition. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1909, encyclopedia entry “Age” ( zeno.org [accessed on October 23, 2019]; there only information in full years).
  2. ^ P. Lüth: History of Geriatrics. 1965, pp. 153-154.
  3. ^ Thomas Seccombe: Parr, Thomas. In: Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 43. London, 1895.
personal data
SURNAME Parr, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Parr, Old; Parr, Old Tom
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Englishman who allegedly lived to be 152 years and nine months old
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Winnington near Wollaston, Shropshire , Shrewsbury ( Shropshire ), England
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1635
Place of death London