The Longevity Elixir Doctor Who Died "Aged 148 Years, 9 Months, 3 Weeks, And 4 Days"

Acurious tombstonecan be get hold in a cemetery in Hertfordshire , England . On it , reads “ In Memory of William Mead , M.D. who departed this Life on the 28th of October 1652 cured 148 years , and 9 moth , 3 weeks and 4 days . ” The extent to which it detail his age might seem odd , that is , until you learn a little more about the story behind it .

It ’s said that , in life-time , Mead falsify up medicines that were sold from several shop . Among those homemade pharmaceutic was an philosophers' stone for long life which , it would seem , was very effectual indeed for Mead .

His tombstone can be constitute in a cemetery in Ware , a town that sits 24 kilometers ( 15 nautical mile ) outside of London . It ’s here that Mead has become something of a local legend whose hush-hush to prospicient life may actually have more to do with marketing than earth - breaking practice of medicine .

At 148 years , 9 month , 3 week and 4 days old , Mead would ’ve been born in January 1504 , writesHertsLive , just a few age beforehand of the appointment of Henry VIII .

By the year 2022,no one on recordhas lived to be 148 ( though TikTok apparently believesthis guy is 399 ) , and the life anticipation at Mead ’s meter of death was 30 to 40 years of eld . So , how did he do it ?

The tarradiddle goes that follow his death , Mead ’s wife ascertain an opportunity in the inscribing of his headstone . How better to commercialize an elixir for long biography than blow the one C - and - a - one-half age at death of its creator ?

In abookthat contains all citation of Hertfordshire fromThe Gentleman ’s Magazinebetween 1731 - 1800 ( do n’t ask us why this exists ) , an entry entitle “ The Mead Family Of Ware ” signal that a writer ’s probe revealed that the lettering on the tombstone had been renewed . The original slab , manifestly so worn from the weather as to be unreadable , had instead been moved to the step of the church building ’s north door .

According to church record , it was recut in January 1797 by a Hertford mason called David Cock and funded by the “ churchwardens of Ware ” . Whether the alone approaching to marketing was a posthumous request of the mysterious Dr Mead , or an clever commercial enterprise move on the part of his wife and succeeding chemists , it ’s difficult to determine for sure , but it surely makes for one hell of a tombstone .