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William John Thoms (1803 – 1885) was a British
British people

The British are citizenship of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, one of the Channel Islands, or of one of the British overseas territories, and their descendants....
 writer credited with coining the term "folklore
Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
" in the 1840s. Thoms's investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths. Hence, he is the "father of age validation research" to demographers
Demography

Demography is the statistical study of all populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, that is, one that changes over time or space ....
.

Thoms was an antiquary and miscellaneous writer, for many years a clerk in the secretary's office of Chelsea Hospital. He was in 1845 appointed Clerk, and subsequently Deputy Librarian to the House of Lords
House of Lords

The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". The Parliament comprises the British monarchy, the British House of Commons , and the Lords....
.






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William John Thoms (1803 – 1885) was a British
British people

The British are citizenship of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, one of the Channel Islands, or of one of the British overseas territories, and their descendants....
 writer credited with coining the term "folklore
Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
" in the 1840s. Thoms's investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths. Hence, he is the "father of age validation research" to demographers
Demography

Demography is the statistical study of all populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, that is, one that changes over time or space ....
.

Thoms was an antiquary and miscellaneous writer, for many years a clerk in the secretary's office of Chelsea Hospital. He was in 1845 appointed Clerk, and subsequently Deputy Librarian to the House of Lords
House of Lords

The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". The Parliament comprises the British monarchy, the British House of Commons , and the Lords....
. He was the founder in 1849 of Notes and Queries
Notes and Queries

Notes and Queries is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism"....
, which for some years he also edited.

Among his publications are Early Prose Romances (1827-1828), Lays and Legends (1834), The Book of the Court (1838), Gammer Gurton's Famous Histories (1846), Gammer Gurton's Pleasant Stories (1848). He also edited Stow's London, and was secretary of the Camden Society
Camden Society

The Camden Society, named after the early English historian William Camden, was founded in 1838 in London to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books....
.

In the 1870s, William Thoms began investigating claims to "ultra-centenarianism." His essays and in particular his book, Human Longevity: Its Facts and Fictions (1879) make William Thoms the "father of age validation research," especially relevant to the topic of supercentenarians.

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.

Thoms is credited with inventing the word folklore in an 1846 letter to the Athenaeum
Athenaeum (magazine)

The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
. He invented this compound word to replace the various other terms used at the time, including "popular antiquities" or "popular literature". He was fond of the works of Jacob Grimm, which he considered remarkable.

Thoms is buried in Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in West Brompton, a part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London, England....
, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
.

Publications

  • The Longevity of Man. Its Facts and Its Fictions. With a prefatory letter to Prof. Owen, C.B., F.R.S. on the limits and frequency of exceptional cases. London: F. Norgate, 1879.


See also


  • Longevity claims
    Longevity claims

    Longevity claims are claims to extreme longevity that either cannot be verified or for whom only some evidence is available. Longevity claims differ from existing verified supercentenarian cases, and also from longevity myths in that either some evidence exists, the case has not been proven false, and/or the claim was not constructed as a re...
  • Longevity myths
    Longevity myths

    Longevity myths are cultural narratives that speak of exceptional, improbable or impossible longevity, with or without eternal youth. These stories include age exaggeration of various kinds....
  • Supercentenarian
    Supercentenarian

    A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the senescence of 110 years, something achieved by only one in a thousand centenarians . Furthermore, only 1 in 50 supercentenarians live to be 115 and only 1 in 70,000 centenarians lives to be 120....


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