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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Old Parr
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(Thomas Parr, d. 1635) Famous for having supposedly lived 152 years. He was brought from Shropshire to London in 1635 to be shown to Charles I and was then exhibited publicly at a tavern in the Strand. The strain killed the old man. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where an inscription declares that he was born in 1483 and lived in ten reigns. Clearly that enticingly round number of reigns had influenced the supposed date of his birth. Edward IV died in 1483, and a child born in that year had lived in four reigns by the age of two (Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III, Henry VII).
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