| Mary
Billinge - Liverpool's oldest inhabitant! |
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Liverpool’s
oldest inhabitant was Miss Mark Billinge, who for many years
lived at 4 Edge Lane.
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| Edge
Lane and Mary's house taken recently. |
Mary
was born on the 24th May 1751, the only child of Eccleston
farmer Thomas Billinge and his wife Lidia.
She was christened at Prescot St Mary.
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The
entry reads:
Mary, daughter of William Billinge a farmer and Lidia
his wife was born on 24th May. |
She
died on the 20th December 1863 aged 112 years and 6 months
and was buried in the then newly created Toxteth Cemetery,
where her memorial stone may still be seen in Section B.
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One
unusual feature of Mary's will was her inistruction
that all money, properties and goods left to women should
remain in their possesion - rather than be counted as
the property of their husbands or male relatives as
was the norm at the time of her death.
This did not change until the Married Women's Property
Act was passed in 1882. |
From
time to time Mary is remembered in various newspaper articles
which usually prepetuate the myth that she left most of
her money to a local animal charity. Her will however, does
include bequests to her ‘pet’ charities - orphanages.
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| Her
gravestone is now so weathered that the inscription
can barely be read. |
Mary’s
death announcement stated she had retained her faculties
in a very remarkable degree to the last and was never known
to have been confined to her bed for a single day until
the week preceding her decease.
In the 1851 census Mary gave her age as 70, while in the
1861 it was 86 - but she died aged 112 just 2 years later!!
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