The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929) Fri 1 Apr 1910121356

DEATH OF A CENTE-
NARIAN.
MR WILLIAM VINCENT.
The death is announced of Mr. William
Vincent at Vernon street, Norwood. The
deceased was in his 103rd year,
Mr. Vincent completed his hundred and
second year on August 5th last. During his
long life he never remembered having been
under a doctor's care. Almost to the end
be was active, and used to chop all tbe
wood for the kitchen stove, and carried his
wife her meals, she having been bedridden
with rheumatism for years. Every day he
took a brisk half-hour's walk, and though
he had only one eye was able to read with
out glasses. He was born at St. Hillary,
Cornwall, and was the son of a miner. He
could remember, when about seven years of
age, the pressing of men for service before
the battle of Waterloo. Three who went
from his village were named Wolfe, Per-
dray, and Hancock. When 19 he went to
work at a mill at St. Earth. Cornwall, and
after 10 years returned to St. Hillary and
worked in the mines there, and afterwards
at Redimore, where he married his first
wife.
He arrived in South Australia in 1846,
with his wife and two sons, in the emigrant
ship Santepore. There were on board 700
emigrants, the majority of whom were
landed at Port Adelaide. Mr. Vincent,
with others rode to Adelaide in a one-
horse cart. He was first engaged at Black
Forest, raising limestone for buildings to be
erected in Adelaide, and was among those
employed under Mr. James Mellor to grub
and clear the land for laying out the
south park lands of the metropolis. Later
he took up land at McLaren Vale. While
at the Vale he lost his wife. Not being
successful at farming, he worked as a
labourer, and helped to make bricks for
the McLaren Vale mill, now used for the
manufacture of Hardy's wines. Mr. Vincent
was among those employed to lay the first
metal for the road between McLaren Vale
and Noarlunga. After 14 years at McLaren
Vale, during which time he married again,
in 1862 he left for Noarlunga, where for 43
years he worked at whatever came in his
way. Almost the first job he did there was
under Mr. Hornel, who was contractor for
road drains 4 ft. wide and 3 ft. deep on the
roadside between the Horseshoe and Square
Waterhole, nearly 20 miles. That distance
he used to walk twice every week to his
home to obtain fresh food. The rest of his
days at Noarlunga he worked chiefly at the
local mill, stoking and stacking, at times
with little rest. Many weeks he worked six
days and four nights without feeling any
ill effects from the hard and constant
labour, which was remarked by all around,
and earned for him the name of ''Iron
Billy".
Mr. Vincent had a large family. Among
them were Messrs. William Vincent, of
Forest Range, and Charles Vincent, of Bro-
ken Hill; these were his first wife's sons.
Children of his second wife were Mr.
Joshua Vincent, of Broken Hill: Mrs.E.
Lang, of Norwood; Mrs. E. Wallis and
Mrs. C. Gottschalk, of Maylands; and Mrs.
J. Lang, of Clyde street. Norwood. Mrs.
Vincent (Miss Mary Long), who is an octo-
genarian, came from London as nursemaid
to the family of Mr. Ward (late City
Coroner), who with seven children was
bound for Melbourne in the passenger ship
Annie Maria in 1850. On the same ship
was the family of Chief Justice Way. al-
though His Honor was not among them.
On arrival at Port Adelaide she broke her
engagement as nursemaid, and shortly af-
terwards at McLaren Vale met Mr. Vin-
cent. In December, 1851, they were mar-
ried at the Independent Church by the
Rev. J. Hall. Mrs. Vincent some time ago
stated that she had a hard-working, model
husband— a strict teetotaller, and during
their 59 years of married life she never
knew him to spend an hour away from
home for recreation.