Friday, 5 February 1875
A REMARKABLE OLD LADY. - Mr John Cambois, in a letter to a weekly contemporary, supplies the following particulars of a remarkable old lady and her family, showing five generations living at one time. Job Sheldon was born September 25, 1788, and died in the 72nd year of his age. Elizabeth, his wife, was born September 10, 1785, and is still living at a place called Hill Top, in the borough of Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Elizabeth Sheldon is mother to 14 children - seven sons and seven daughters, 13 of whom lived to be married, and have large families. She is grandmother to one hundred children; she is great grandmother to one hundred and one children; and she is great-great-grandmother (or whatever term you may call it) to one child, John Anthony Bamford, who was born at Cambois, September 14, 1874, a fine strong and healthy child. There have thus already descended from Elizabeth Sheldon two hundred and sixteen souls. The old lady enjoys pretty good health, smokes upwards of one ounce of tobacco per day, and is still likely to live a long time. Should she be spared a few more years there is every reason to believe that she will see the above number of children of third, fourth, and fifth generations more than doubled. As a great contrast to the present depression of trade and surplus of labour, I may remark that during the French war with Napoleon I, the above Job Sheldon, who was a working collier, on purpose to be excused from going to fight the French, was bound as an apprentice to his own father, which apparently was a safeguard against the most sudden and serious surprisals of the press gangs of that period. The war over and peace proclaimed Job married, having still upwards of three years to serve to complete his apprenticeship. He asked for his freedom, which, on account of his getting married so young, his father refused, claiming L20 or the terms of the apprenticeship fulfilled. Money was not plentiful then, but on Job making his case known to a charter-master, who went under the soubriquet of "Doggy Jack," the latter agreed to pay the L20 for him if he would go and work for him, which Job readily complied with, and so obtained his freedom.