More about William Bradley

Extract from "The wonderful life of William Bradley the Yorkshire giant of Market Weighton, East Yorkshire" by Keith Lowe

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William Bradley, generally known as the "Yorkshire Giant", was born in Market Weighton on the 10th February 1787, the fourth son of a family of thirteen. His father John was five feet nine and a half, and his mother Ann was of average height for a woman.

They were born natives of the town where John Bradley was a respectable master tailor. His brothers and sisters were of normal size, except one sister who would have been nearly as tall as her giant brother, had she not died at the age of sixteen. Another sister drowned herself in the stream which runs from Springwells to Market Weighton after she had kept company with a soldier of whom her father strongly disapproved.

The infant giant at birth weighed fourteen pounds and was baptised in Market Weighton Church on the 17th February 1787. It soon became apparent to all that William was to be huge and by the age of eleven years he weighed eleven stone. At nineteen years he weighed twenty seven stones and measured seven feet and eight inches in height, and amazingly a year later he had grown another inch, so at the age of twenty he had reached an outstanding height of seven feet and nine inches (still recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest person ever to live in Great Britain).