This extraordinary person, whose height was eight feet seven-and-a-half
inches, was born at Kinsale, in Ireland. His real name was Patrick
Cotter. He was of obscure parentage, and originally laboured as a
bricklayer. His uncommon size rendered him a mark for the cunning of a
showman, who, for the payment of 50_l._ per annum, had the privilege
of exhibiting Cotter for three years in England. Not contented with
his bargain, the huckster underlet to another speculator the liberty
of showing him; and poor Cotter, through resisting this nefarious
transaction, was saddled with a fictitious debt, and thrown into a
spunging-house in Bristol. In this situation he was visited by a
gentleman of the city, who, compassionating his distress, and having
reason to think that he was unjustly detained, generously became
his bail, and investigated the affair; and not only obtained Cotter
his liberty, but freed him from all kind of obligation to serve his
taskmaster any longer. He was then but eighteen years old. He retained,
to his last breath, a due sense of the good offices of the Bristol
stranger, conferred upon him when he was sorely in need; and the giant
did not forget his benefactor in his will.
It happened to be September when Cotter was liberated; and by the
further assistance of his benefactor, he was enabled to exhibit himself
in the St. James's fair at Bristol; and in three days he found himself
possessed of thirty pounds, English money. He now commenced a regular
exhibition of his person, which he continued until within two years
of his death, when having realized sufficient money to enable him to
keep a carriage, and live in good style, he declined to exhibit any
more, which was always irksome to his feelings. He was unoffending and
amiable in his manners; was possessed of good sense, and his mind was
not uncultivated; he long kept a journal of his life, which a whim
of the moment induced him to commit to the flames. He died in his
forty-sixth year, September 8th, 1806, at the Hotwells, Bristol. He was
buried in the Roman Catholic chapel, Trenchard Street, at six o'clock
in the morning, this early hour being fixed on to prevent as much as
possible the assemblage of a crowd; but it is stated that at least
2,000 persons were present. The coffin, of lead, measured nine feet two
inches in the clear, and the wooden case four inches more; it was three
feet across the shoulders. No hearse could be procured long enough to
contain the coffin, the projecting end of which was draped with black
cloth. Fourteen men bore it from the hearse to the grave, into which
it was let down with pulleys. To prevent any attempt to disturb his
remains, of which Cotter had, when living, the greatest horror, the
grave was made twelve feet deep, in a solid rock. A plaster cast of his
right hand may be seen at the College of Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Birth Extraordinary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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