Famous Misers in History

Silas Ou, Reporter|October 4, 2018

To start off a miser is a person who EXCESSIVELY hoards money and never spends it. Ex: Scrooge, Scrooge McDuck etc.  There are many misers in this world. But some misers put them to shame. They never spent the money and it just rotted in the ground. But these four British and Swedish misers took it to the extreme. Like eating rotten food, nearly starving themselves to death, and wearing rags for their whole lives. Somehow, despite the first three living such a horrible lifestyle in such an unhealthy environment, they all lived past the age of 74. This is amazing because the average Englishmen back then(during the early 1700s) lived to around forty according to most estimates.

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To start off our list we have John Elwes. A British parliament member, he inherited 33 million pounds (in today's money) yet never ever in his adult life ate more than a boiled egg a day. He rode around London on an old horse. His mom was also a miser. Despite inheriting 13 million pounds (in today's money too) she starved to death. But back to John. He started going to sleep at sundown so he wouldn't need to buy candles. Soon he started dressing in rags and people gave him pennies because they thought he was a beggar. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Some say he ate rotten food and lived in vacant houses when his tenants weren't there. Despite his frugality, he gave large sums to his friends, once giving 7,000 pounds to one of his friends, (about a million pounds today) a huge sum at the time. He lived to the age of 75.