All below dates have are in the Gregorian calendar.

Francis Knaggs, who died at Sleights, was buried in 1828 in near-by Ugglebarnby at the claimed age of 101.

There is only one matching baptism, being the one recorded at Glaisdale on 2 March 1728.

However, since a hunch cannot prove itself without evidence, we shall investigate.

Francis appears in the register of the neighboring parish of Eskdaleside, where he had 4 children baptised.

• John (bapt 24 Nov 1770 in Eskdaleside - buried 1770 in Whitby)
• Elizabeth (bapt 24 Sept 1773 in Eskdaleside)
• Margaret (bapt 26 Feb 1776 in Eskdaleside)
• Francis (bapt 29 May 1780 in Eskdaleside - buried 1780 in Eskdaleside)

From the baptism of the younger Francis, we learn that Mrs. Knaggs's name was Margaret.

There is a burial record in Ugglebarnby from 1816 for a 77-year-old Margaret Knaggs of Sleights, which confirms that the baptisms are a match.

Using the above information, we find that Francis married Margaret Jowsey on 5 December 1769 in Whitby; they were both residing in the city at the time.

Although there was a Francis Knaggs baptized at Whitby in 1738, he cannot not be same person as the Sleights centenarian.

I am certain that Francis and Margaret were not born in Whitby, and only resided there for a time so they could marry by banns.

To start, it just would not make sense for Francis to not settle his family in Whitby. Why raise a family in a small rural parish if one is already established in a large town?

Clearly, he was already established elsewhere, in this case the small parish of Eskdaleside.

Furthermore, there was a Jowsey family living in Eskdaleside by the 1730s; the parents married in 1735 and had their first known child in late 1739. Just enough space to fit in Margaret's birth.

Although Margaret is absent from the Eskdaleside baptism register, she does not appear in Whitby prior to her marriage.

It is very unlikely that she just slipped through the cracks in an established town such as Whitby.

Therefore, both Francis and Margaret must have born outside of Whitby, the former somewhere along the River Esk and the latter in Eskdaleside. With this established, we can look for earlier documents.

In Egton, a town near the River Esk between Glaisdale and Eskdaleside, Francis married Jane Cook on 28 November 1747.

They had two sons, documented only in Egton:

• Francis (bapt 2 Jun 1750 - buried 10 Aug 1809)
• John (bapt 25 May 1753 - buried 30 May 1754)

Jane was buried in Egton on 23 April 1754, just one week before her son John.

Given that Francis Knaggs not only married in the 1740s but also lived in a town near Glaisdale in his youth, it is indisputable that he was baptized on 2 March 1728 in Glaisdale and buried sometime in 1828 at Ugglebarnby, aged at least 99 years.

The only issue is that we don't know when exactly he was buried, so there is a chance he died at 99.

Otherwise, his case is relatively solid.

The cut-off is at 1836 because the titleholder preceding William Goring is currently unidentified.

• I haven't been able to find data for Scotland for 1905-1919, so take that section with a grain of salt.
• Feel free to double-check the data. 

William Goring (26 May 1732* - 31 Jan 1836) ??-103

Ann Riddell (29 Jan 1734* - 19 Feb 1838), 102-104

Margaret Turnbull (19 Mar 1736* - 20 Oct 1838), 101-102

Solomon Osbourne (22 Aug 1737* - 11 Feb 1839), 101

Rebecca Emery (6 Apr 1738* - 14 Dec 1839), 100-101

Jane Williams (24 Nov 1739 - 8 Oct 1841), 100-102

Joseph Day (26 Sept 1741 -  27 Jan 1842), 100

Richard Spalding (8 Oct 1741* - 16 Dec 1844), 100-103

Thomas Lovering (26 Nov 1743* - 9 Aug 1845), 101

Mary Axford (26 Apr 1744* - 15 Aug 1845), 101

Dorothy Buttiman (26 Mar 1745* - 30 Sept 1851), 100-106

Elizabeth Gray (22 May 1748** – 2 Apr 1856), 103-107

Elizabeth Curgenven (1 May 1752 - 6/7 December 1856), 103-104

Ann Cook (13 Sept 1754 - 13 Jul 1857*), 102

Agnes Forrester (4 Oct 1755 – 20 Feb 1861), 101-105

Margaret Thornton Clarke (8 Feb 1758* - 7 Mar 1864), 103-106

Mary Redshaw (2 Feb 1763* - 13 Aug 1865), 101-102

Sarah Stephens (23 Jan 1764 - 30 Mar 1867), 101-103

Margaret Longmire (15 Apr 1765 - 24 May 1868), 101-103

Jacob Wilhelm Lüning (19 May 1767 - 23 Jun 1870), 101-103

John May (2 Jul 1769* - 16 Apr 1871), 100-101

Susannah Steavenson (14 Dec 1769 - 2 Jan 1874), 101-104

Mary Fortune (23 Nov 1771 - 24 Jan 1874), 102

Mary Arthur (28 Jan 1772* - 14 Apr 1874), 101-102

Mary Brockman (29 Sept 1772 - 15 Sept 1874), 101-102

Isabel Morison (10 Nov 1772 – 19 Nov 1877), 101-105

Jane Sanderson (18 Jan 1776 - 5 Feb 1881), 101-105

Martha Gardner (8 Oct 1776 - 10 Mar 1881), 104
Ann Webb (25 Nov 1776 - 4 Aug 1881), 104

Archibald McArthur (5 Sep 1777 – 25 Oct 1881), 103-104

Thomas Butterwick (31 Mar 1780 - 28 Nov 1882), 101-102

Rhoda Bunn (23 Feb 1781 - 1 Jul 1884), 101-103

Johanna Hastings (14 Mar 1782 - 12 Mar 1886), 102-104

Sarah Harris (10 May 1782 - 3 Apr 1887), 104

Catherine Heaton (25 Mar 1783 - 2 Feb 1888), 104

Mary Tucker (12 Apr 1784* - 8 Feb 1888), 104

Margaret Barton (18 Jan 1785 - 7 Jan 1890), 103-105

Isaac Bone (3 Oct 1787 - 22 Jan 1892), 102-104

Isabella McAndrew (17 Mar 1789* – 20 Apr 1892), 102-103

Betty Webster (25 Feb 1790 - 14 Jun 1896), 102-106

Jane Major (2 Apr 1791 - 2 Aug 1896), 105

Marian Wood Garland  (16 May 1791 - 21 Feb 1897), 105

Margaret Ann Neve (18 May 1792 - 4 Apr 1903), 105-110

Anna Maria Browne (3 Nov 1797* - 3 Dec 1904), 105-107

Agnes Fleming (17 Feb 1799 – 29 Apr 1905), 105-106

Caroline Bremridge (21 Jan 1801 - 15 Dec 1905), 104

Honor Coleman (22 Feb 1801* - 24 Jan 1908), 104-106

John Causton (16 Dec 1804 - 1 Sept 1908), 103

Marianne Hensley (15 Oct 1805 - 13 Feb 1910), 104

Frances Elizabeth Bristow (13 May 1808* - Q2 1911), 102(-103?)

Sarah Wadsworth (22 Jan 1809 - 16 May 1914), 102-105

Rebecca Clarke (9 Jun 1810 - 5 Jul 1914), 103-104

Rhoda Payne (13 Jun 1810 - 18 Feb 1916), 104-105

Annis Moore (20 Jan 1811 - 12 Apr 1916), 105

Sarah Gardiner (9 Jul 1812 - 25 Dec 1918), 105-106

Ann Marie Tayspill (11 Oct 1813 - 7 Mar 1919), 105

Janes Welsford (14 Sept 1814 - 17 Mar 1919), 104

Anna Eliza Mozley (22 Jan 1815 - 14 Aug 1919), 104

Edmund Turner Pearse (24 May 1815 - 18 Oct 1920), 104-105

Frederick William Stabbins (17 Jul 1815 - 22 Jan 1922), 105-106

I can't wait to see similar databases for other countries if some people are interested in making ones

Such a database should be possible for the UK, but the titleholders from 1904-1920 need to be found.  There is also a possible titleholder from Wales I haven't been able to verify.

I just uploaded in the French forum an updated version of the timeline of the oldest French people titleholders. The previous went back to 1921, and it is now extended to 1830.

My wish is to succeed in extending it to the 18th century one day, but finding documentation is becoming more and more difficult.

I can't wait to see similar databases for other countries if some people are interested in making ones.

Three women born in 1649, 1660 and 1665. No releasing of their identities yet because I may introduce them in a publication later this year or during the next year.

Olivier Péle

His sister, Bernardine, died in 1668 at the age of 95. Their father, Olivier le jeune, died in 1609 just shy of 81.

I was amazed to find a portrait of Elizabeth Gray (11 May 1748 – 2 Apr 1856) which was posted in a Facebook group. I researched her claim back in 2019 on the 110 Club; to sum up there is early and late-life evidence to support her case, and a fairly complete family tree, but in my view it's unlikely that enough mid-life evidence would exist to verify her claim with the rigor of today's cases. Nevertheless, with a family history of longevity (her mother and two of her siblings would probably also have been within the 50 oldest living people in Scotland at the time of their deaths) I personally think it's fairly likely her claim is true. 

Her age was actually the subject of investigation 142 years ago. I'm not sure if you've seen this, but her great-nephew wrote to the London Spectator to correct a printed statement that the oldest age proven had been 106. 

A death report in the press. The dates of birth and death are almost correct:

La Gazette - 11 February 1713

"Marguerite Desnos, widow of Mr. des Bassieres Beard of Saint-Malo, died on 26 January 1713, aged 104 years 6 months, being born on 28 July 1608, and having retained her judgment until her death".

That means the 1st, 2nd and 6th earliest French centenarians all died in Saint-Malo.