Giants and dwarfs.

  • Wood, Edward J.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Giants and dwarfs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    BAMFORD, THE GIANT. of the church of Ewelrn, near the Duchess of Suffolk’s tomb. In May, 1763, while some workmen were digging a vault under the master’s apartment in the Charter- house, they discovered a perfect human skeleton, of a surprising length; the thigh-bone measured two feet two inches, and the other bones were in propor- tion. The Gentlemans Magazine for December, 1765, and the Annual Register for the same year, record that at that time there were in York a boy and girl, not quite seventeen years of age, who were twins, and of surprising stature, the former being seven feet three inches, and the latter seven feet two inches, in height. In November, 1768, died, at the age of thirty-six years, Edward Bamford, the gigantic hatter, of Shire-lane, Temple Bar, a native of Staffordshire. He was seven feet four or ten inches in height. It is said that two hundred pounds were offered for his body by the surgeons for dissection. He left a wife, who gave birth to a son on the day of her husband’s death, and nearly lost her own life after the delivery in consequence of the great size of the child. A por- trait of Bamford with Coan, the Norfolk dwarf, was engraved by Roberts in 1771. In 1769 some thigh-bones, alleged to have be- longed to prelates who had been buried in Ely Cathe- dral, were discovered there. They measured eight- een inches and upwards in length. The Rev. Mark
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