After seeing a picture that Dark Antiques had for sale of Daniel Lambert (1770-1809), who was renowned as the HEAVIEST MAN in England, I had to pay his grave a visit as it wasnt to far from myself.
Daniel was born in Leicester and took over from his father as keeper of Leicester’s Bridewell prison, a prison for minor offenders.
Daniel during this time put on more and more weight due to being less active sat by a jail door all day.
In 1806, a strange advertisement appeared in a London newspaper. It described the “greatest Curiosity in the World,” a Mr. Daniel Lambert, who weighed 50 stone (700 pounds). People could come and see Lambert and his girth — for a price. In a time when obesity was regarded as a curiosity, Lambert became something of a legend.
Daniel weighed 52 stone 11 lbs (335 kgs) upon his death. He died on the 21st June 1809, whilst visiting Stamford to attend the races here. He was staying at The Waggon and Horses, an inn that used to be on High Street, St Martin’s. He is buried in the graveyard of St. Martin’s Church, in High Street, St. Martins.
A window and part of a wall at the inn had to be dismantled to allow his body to be removed for burial. The coffin required 156 square feet (14.493 sq.m) of wood, wheels were fitted and it took ‘upwards of twenty men’ with ropes to lower it down a sloping ramp into the grave.
The engraving on his tombstone can still be read:-
In remembrance of that prodigy in nature
Daniel Lambert a native of Leicester
Who was possessed of an exalted and convivial mind and,
In personal greatness had no competitor:
He measured three feet one inch round the leg and Weighed fifty two stone eleven pounds.
He departed this life on the 21st June 1809
Aged 39 years.
