Henry Jenkins of Ellerton in Yorkshire. Who Lived to the suprizing Age of 169.

Date1752

Designed and engraved by Thomas Worlige

MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paper

DimensionsOverall: 13 5/16 × 9 1/2in. (33.8 × 24.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund

Object number2024-217

DescriptionUpper margin reads: "HENRY JENKINS of ELLERTON in Yorkshire. Who Lived to the suprizing Age of 169./ Which is 16 Years longer then Old Parr. Taken from an Original Painting done by Walker."
Middle margin reads: "Tho.s Worlige/ Delin et Fecit/ 1752."
Lower margin reads: "The great Age of HENRY JENKINS, by M.rs Anne Saville/ When I came first to live at Boston, I was told serveral parti/ culars of the great age of Henry Jenkins; but I believed little/ of the story for many years, till one day he coming to beg an/ alms, I desired him to tell me truly how old he was. He paused/ a little, and then said, that to the best of his remembrance, he was/ about 162 or 3; and I asked what Kings he remembered? He said/ Henry the Eight. I asked what public thing he could longest/ remember? He said Flowden field. I asked, whether the King/ was there? He said no, he was in France, and the Earl of Surry was/ General. I asked him, how old he might be then? He said, I believe/ I might be between 10 and 12; for says he I was sent to Northallerton/ with a horse load of arrows, but they sent a bigger boy from thence to/ the army with them. All this agreed with the history of that time;/ for bows and arrows were then used, the Earl he named was General,/ and King Henry the Eight was then at Tournay. And yet is obser/ vable, that this Jenkins could neither write nor read. There were/ also four or five in the same parish that were reputed all of them/ to be 100 years old, or within two or three years of it, and they all/ said he was an elderly man, ever since they knew him; for he/ was born in another parish, and before any registers were in/ Churches, as it is said: he told me then too, that the was butler/ to the Lord Conyers, and remembered the Abbot of Fountains/ abbey very well, before the disolution of the Monasteries./ Henry Jenkins departed this life December, 1760 at Ellerton/ upon Swale in Yorkshire; the battle of Flowden field was/ found September 9, 1513, and he was about 12 years old,/ when Flowden field was fought. So that this Henry Jenkins/ lived 169 years, viz.t 16 longer than Old Parr; and was the/ oldest man born upon the ruins of this post diluvian world. In the last century of his life he was a fisherman, and used/ to trade in the streams; his diet and coarse and sour, but/ towards the latter end of his days he begged up and down./ He hath sworn in Chancery, and other courts, to above 140/ years memory and was often at the assizes at York,/ where he generally went on foot: and I have heard some/ of the country Gentlemen affirm, that he frequently swam/ in the rivers after he was part of the age of 100 years. In the King's/ Remembrancers office in the Exchequer is a record of a/ deposition in a cause by English bill between Anthony Clark and Smirkson, taken 1665, at Kettering in Yorkshire,/ where Henry Jenkins, of Ellerton upon Swale, labourer,/ aged 157 years, was produced, and deposed as a witness./ Epitaph on a Monument erected at/ Boston in Yorkshire by the Subscription of/ several to the Memory of Henry Jenkins./ Blush not, marble./ To rescue from oblivion/ The memory of/ Henry Jenkins./ A person obscure in birth,/ But of a life truly memorable:/ For/ He was enriched/ With the goods of nature./ If not of fortune,/ And happy./ In the duration, If not variety,/ Of his enjoyments:/ And,/ Tho' the partial world/ Despised and disregarded/ His low and Immible state/ The equal eye of Providence/ Beheld and blessed it/ With a Patriarchs health and length of days:/ To teach mistaken man,/ These blessings are entaild on temperance,/ A life of labour and, a mind at ease./ He lived to the amazing age of/ 169./ Was interrd here December 6,/ 1670./ And had this justice done to his memory,/ 1743."
Label TextThis print includes a portrait of Henry Jenkins, who claimed to have lived to 169 years old. The print also includes Mrs. Anne Saville's recollection of a conversation with Jenkins, where remembered King Henry VIII and the Battle of Flodden. The print also has an epitaph honoring Jenkins' memory. This print is discussed in the Joseph Ball letterbook, which is in Colonial Williamsburg's collection. In a December 1757 letter to Benjamin Waller, Ball wrote that he sent to Waller "a Print of Old Jenkins, said to be the oldest man born since the flood."
ProvenanceBefore 2024, Grosvenor Prints (London); 2024-present purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).