Daniel Defoe 
Dickory Cronke The Dumb Philosopher or Great Britains’s Wonder 

(Excerpt): "A faithful and very surprising Account how Dickory Cronke, a Tinner’s son, in the County of Cornwall, was born Dumb, and continued so for Fifty-eight years; and how, some days before he died, he came to his Speech; with Memoirs of his Life, and the Manner of his Death."