Annual Register 1764.gif The Annual Register for 1764 mentions that ‘Died lately ... in  the 125th year of his age, George Kirton , of Oxnop hall, near Reeth, in Yorkshire, esq; a gentleman more remarkable for fox-hunting than the famous Mr. Draper; for, after following the chace on horseback till he was upwards of 80, so great was his desire for the diversion, that (till he was 100 years old) he regularly attended unkennelling the fox in his single-horse chair. He was an instance that length of days is not always intailed on a life of temperance and sobriety; for no man made freer with his bottle than he did, even till within ten years of his death.

George’s father Anthony was the copy-holder at Oxnop from the late 1600s. Information supplied by Blair Southerden, George’s 5x great grandson.