Thomas Peters

Thomas Peters
Thomas Peters in 1857.
Birth:	6 April 1745? Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Death:	26 March 1857 Arnhem, Netherlands
Age:	111 years, 354 days?
Country:	NED
Disputed

Thomas Peters (April 6, 1745 — March 26, 1857) was a Dutch supercentenarian and possibly the first supercentenarian on record, however he is currently unverified by the GRG. He was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, and died in Arnhem, Netherlands. He was verified by Guinness World Records, however, the documents used to verify him have since been lost. At the time of his death, he was the oldest person ever at the age of 111 years 354 days, having surpassed Pierre Darcourt in age. It would be another 42 years until the next verified supercentenarian, Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, also from the Netherlands. His age was not surpassed until Delina Filkins, and he was the oldest man ever until Shigechiyo Izumi (unless he is discounted, in which case the next recordholder for oldest man ever is Mathew Beard).

Biography

His parents died when he was very young, and he was recruited into the army. He served in the cantons in Switzerland in his youth, and then stayed in Rome with the army for two years. He later served under Napoleon, with his military service taking him to Egypt in 1798. He also fathered an illegitimate child, named Maria Petronilla, with a woman named Theodora Reijnen while he was staying in the Netherlands. In 1797, he was a witness to the baptism of his son-in-law, also named Thomas. Presumably, shortly after returning from Egypt in 1800, he married Theodora, who later died at the age of 87 on September 28, 1849. At the end of his life, he was receiving payments of 1 gulden each week for his service from the king, and he died on March 26, 1857, aged 111 years, 354 days.