Life story retold by Yota Dimitriadi with information from an article by Reginald L. Hine
The following account of Mr Draper’s life includes extracts of newspapers of the time. As such some of the language used represents stereotypical portrayal of the Roma people and will be considered upsetting and inappropriate today.
Frederick DRAPER died at the age of 105 on Saturday 25th January 1902, in a cottage at Whitley Wood, Reading, where for the last quarter of a century he had lived with his eldest son, Wellington DRAPER, who was 82 when Frederick died. Frederick’s wife had died 50 years earlier. For some time the family had resided in Silver Street, Reading, but of late years they moved to a small cottage by the roadside at Whitley Wood. Up till the final year of his life, Frederick appeared to have enjoyed fairly good health, although nearly blind, and very hard of hearing. Both Fred and his son Wellington were inveterate smokers.
Draper belonged to a Roma family and claimed to be oldest Gypsy in the world. “Although there is no entry the parish registers, it appears to be beyond question that deceased born at Bix, near Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, in June, 1797, was thus in his 105th year.” As such he had lived in three centuries. Some reports say that Frederick also used the name ‘Sam’ in his interactions and as such the sketch above and some of the info shared are based on accounts for both names. “Equally without written authentication, but also reliable, is the fact that his son, Wellington Draper, was born on the 19th June, 1815. The latter had son who served for a time the Royal Artillery.” It was also reported that Frederick’s mother, registered as Sabina DRAPER (also known as Sybil or Sibelina), had lived to be 108 years old. She is buried in St Mary, Wargrave. When his mother died, Frederick inherited the aged family donkey. The Reading Mercury reported on Sabina’s death (Reading Mercury, 6 March 1859):
“An inquest was held before R. Clarke, Esq., Coroner, on Monday, the 7th inst., at Wargrave, on the body of Sibelina Draper, a Gipsy woman, who, if the statements of the husband can be relied on, would have attained the extraordinary age of 109 years next month. It appeared from the evidence that about a fortnight since the deceased and her husband, George Draper, with a daughter, camped in a lane near the above village; the deceased had been an invalid for the last seven or eight years, but her faculties were
good; she had not had medical attendance for a long time. On Sunday a great many persons went to the camp to see the deceased, it being understood that she was of the age above stated; she ate her dinner and meals on Sunday as well as ever, and appeared to enjoy herself with a pipe, which she had been in the habit of smoking for many years. About half-past six in the evening, the deceased died suddenly in the presence of her husband, daughter, and a Mrs. Wise, who resided in the village, and was passing by at the time. Mr. Taylor, surgeon, of Wargrave, examined the body, and considered death arose from old age. Verdict accordingly.”
The Drapers were typical van-dwellers, attending fairs over considerable radius, selling baskets, clothes-pegs, etc., and dealing in horses. The three generations had been employed as rod-sorters, etc., by Messrs. D. J. Cook, High Street, Reading, working in the yard of the firm in Thorn Lane, Duke Street. When the first entry of payments to ”Fred Draper” appeared in their books between 40 and 50 years before his death, the place was known as “The Island,” and was still in Mr. D. J. Cook’s occupation.
“By the time he became a centenarian , he was already a celebrity, much written about and photographed in the papers. A strong tobacco, warranted to make for longevity, was named after him, and folk would walk out from Reading town with ounces of ‘Draper’s Delight ‘ in their pockets , and gossip with him for hours and hours and hours.” (Hine, 1932, p124). The Echo (January 1902) reported that Frederick had distinct recollections of the Battle of Waterloo.
In January 1901 Reading Standard included a brief article about the Drapers. In February 1902 The Royal Magazine also published an article entitled “People who have seen three centuries” by Stephen Bunn. Draper’s portrait appeared in company with other centenarians.
“The Daily Mail of Monday last gave an account of a visit paid to the cottage of the aged gipsy named Draper. who is still living in a dilapidated cottage at Whitley Wood, Shinfield, and who is described as a Berkshire patriarch nearing his 104th birthday. The old man will, it appears, attain the remarkable age of 104 years if he lives till next June. With old Gipsy Draper lives a son who is now 83 years of age, and who looks after his father, and the latter still calls him his boy. The poor old man has nearly, if not entirely, lost the sight of both eyes ; and when the representative of the Daily Mail visited the cottage he writes:— The old man lay drowsing in a heap on a couch of sacking. He was fully dressed, and wearing an old cap on his heed, and a couple of old coats were thrown over him.The writer thus further describes the poor old man— His hair was greyer and thinner, his skin more waxen, his nose more hooked than his 83 yeare old son ; and his sightless eyes were like pits. On the arrival of the visitor the aged son got his father up from off the sacking couch and dropped him in a chair by the fire, where the old man answered several questions which were put to him about things and events when he was young. and when the country, he said, was much better off. The Daily Mail representative further remarks — The Drapers during the past quarter of a century have settled down in a bit of a four-roomed, redbrick cottage at Shinfield, behind a scraggy hedge of elder bushes. Before that they lived in tents as gipsies.” (Berks and Oxon Advertiser-Friday 26 April 1901).
“Only one unpleasant incident marred the equanimity of his old age. An up-to-date Board of Guardians resolved that he was too unwashed and verminous for the reputation of its district, whereupon he was removed to its workhouse and held down in a hot bath . It was an indignity that the old Gypsy had not experienced before . It gave him the first cold he had ever had, and such an appalling cold that the officials , dreading lest his death should be laid at their door , hurried him back to his own dwelling, where , with his days considerably shortened , he smoked the last ounces of his life away and died, with his pipe in his mouth.” (the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 1932, page 124). Newspapers reported that Frederick’s death was the result of a fall (Echo (London) – Monday 27 January 1902).
Around Christmas on Saturday 21 December 1901, a month before Frederick’s death, the following appeal was published in the Reading Mercury:
“THE ” OLDEST INHABITANTS ” OF READING
To the EDITOR of the READING MERCURY. Sir, -Many of your readers may not have heard that there are two inhabitants of the Borough of Reading whose united ages are 187 years, but such is the fact. Their name is Draper. The elder reputed to be 107, but I believe his verified age is 104, and he is looked after solely by his ”boy,” aged 83. They live at Whitley Wood and are in very poor circumstances, being only receipt of 3s. per week from the parish. The younger one had 3s. from the same source until recently, when a son, who is at work, went to live with them, and it was discontinued. They have to keep fires night and day for the centenarian, and this with the rent amounts to 5s. week. So the rent and the living for the three people have to come out of the small earnings of the one son. Considering the season, I thought if these facts were known in your valuable Paper some kind friends would be glad to help to make this aged couple more comfortable during their few remaining years. A fund might be raised for the purpose, and I will gladly receive and acknowledge gifts on their behalf. I enclose my card, and remain, Sir, Yours truly, A SUBSCRIBER”
The appeal was successful, as on Saturday 01 February 1902 the following was published on Reading Mercury:
“A few weeks ago an appeal on behalf of the Drapers was published in the Mercury, and the gifts sent in response were handed to the centenarians family by a gentleman who interested himself in their case.”
The ‘subscriber’ and author of the second letter to the newspaper was possibly Rev J. F. WARREN, Vicar of Christchurch, as he made two more appeals in 1902 in aid of a decent funeral for Frederick. Frederick had been in very straitened circumstances of late years, and as his friends were in poor circumstances as well, the Vicar made himself responsible for the funeral wanting Fred to avoid a pauper’s funeral, which he had dreaded.
“To the EDITOR of the READING MERCURY.
SlR,-Mention has recently been made in your columns of the old Gypsies Draper, living at Whitley Wood, in this parish. The father died at an age reputed as 104, but certainly over 100. The son, himself 84, had no means of burying his father, nor are there any relations able to help him. In order to save them from a parish funeral, which both had dreaded, I have advanced money for the burial expenses, £5. If any of your readers, who are interested the Drapers, will help them and will send to me, will see that any sum left, after paying the funeral expenses, is used for the benefit of the son, who is much shaken by his father’s death, and is unfit for any work present.
Yours truly, J. F. WARREN.
Christ Church Vicarage, Reading.”
Reading Mercury – Saturday 01 February 1902
An update followed in Reading Mercury on 2nd May 1902:
“To the EDITOR of the READING MERCURY.
Sir.—You were good enough to insert an appeal in January from myself in behalf of the gipsy Draper, Whitley Wood. As a result of this I received the sum of £8 6s. 6d. from various friends. This has enabled to meet the funeral expenses and with the balance to help the son by small disbursements as need arises.
Yours faithfully,
J. F. WARREN.
Christ Church Vicarage“
The funeral took place on the afternoon of Thursday 30th January at Reading Cemetery. The funeral arrangements, though of a simple character, were well carried out by Mr. A. B. Walker, of Crown Street. The body was conveyed directly from the cottage at Whitley Wood, where he died, to the cemetery, and the whole of the service, at the Cemetery Church, and at the grave, was conducted by the Bev. W. D. Hawken. There was a large assembly to witness the laying to rest of the centenarian. Wellington, who was among the mourners, was so much affected by the ceremony that had to be led away from the graveside by his relatives. Frederick is buried in the consecrated part of the cemetery.
Unfortunately, Wellington ended up in the Wokingham Union workhouse after his father’s death where he died in 1917 at the age of 97.
“After Gypsy Draper’s death , the boy ‘ Wellington’ went to live at Shinfield . People used to say he looked older than his old father , and he was certainly grimier . He came by an untimely end just as his father had done , for he was taken to the infirmary at Wokingham and forcibly bathed , ‘ and that , ‘ writes his friend Henry Goddard , ‘ killed him .’ ”
(the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 1932, page 124).
Wellington was buried in a pauper’s grave at the Wokingham Union Workhouse on 17 January 1917.
The following is a full article on Frederick Draper as it appears in the book Hitchin Worthies – Four Centuries of English Life by Reginald L. Hine (1932):
unmarked grave, consecrated part of the cemetery