Resting beneath a stone vault surrounded by an ornate iron fence in the The Brothers’ Cemetery in St. Peter Port, Guernsey is a woman whose life was celebrated by the entire island for the last decade of her life and whose death was reported in papers around the world in 1903. She was a woman who was born into wealth and privilege and led an interesting and long…very, very long life. In fact, the reason the last ten years of her life was celebrated by the entire island was because her life spanned three centuries! Margaret Ann Harvey Neve was born on May 18, 1792 and passed away just one month shy of her 111th birthday on April 4, 1903.
To give some perspective on her life: The year she was born, 1792, was the year the French Revolution began, Oranges were introduced to Hawaii, British explorer Captain George Vancouver lands on the site of what is now Vancouver, British Columbia, Court martial begins for instigators of the mutiny on the Bounty on board HMS Duke in Portsmouth harbor, presided over by Vice-Admiral Samuel Hood, and George Washington is re-elected as the President of the United States. By the time she was 20 years old, in 1812, the Napoleonic wars were in full swing, the poet Lord Byron made his famous maiden speech in the House of Lords, the United States Congress authorizes war bonds to finance War of 1812, the Great Fire of Moscow burns out after 5 days, 75% of the city destroyed and 12,000 killed, and "Grimm's Fairy Tales" or "Children's and Household Tales" by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm is first published.
By the end of her life in 1903, Margaret Ann witnessed or probably heard of inventions such as the battery, gas lighting, steam-powered locomotives, electric lighting, the printing press, tin cans, sewing machines, photography, the typewriter, postage stamps, the telegraph, the telephone and even automobiles.
Margaret Ann Harvey Neve was the first recorded female supercentenarian and the second validated person to reach the age of 110, after Geert Boomgaard. She was also the first proven individual whose life spanned three centuries.
