William Bradley (giant)
Britain's tallest man

William Bradley (10 February 1787 – 30 May 1820), known more commonly as Giant Bradley or the Yorkshire Giant, was a British man known as one of the tallest to ever live, measuring 7 feet 9 inches (2.36 m), the same height as Angus MacAskill from Scotland.
Early life
William Bradley was born in Market Weighton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on 10 February 1787, the fourth of thirteen children. He weighed 6.35 kg (14.0 lb) at birth. Although Bradley would become Britain's tallest recorded man, his family was generally of average height. His father was described in later accounts as a master tailor, although the Market Weighton parish registers identify him as a butcher. He stood about 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in), while Bradley's mother, Anne, and most of his siblings were of average stature. One sister, who died in an accident at the age of 16, was also said to have been unusually tall. According to later local accounts, Bradley's father made bespoke clothing to accommodate his son's exceptional growth.
Bradley grew rapidly throughout childhood. By the age of 11, he reportedly weighed 70 kg (150 lb), and by the age of 18 he weighed 171 kg (377 lb).
“William Bradley (giant)” enters the record as britain's tallest man. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Bradley and giant can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“William Bradley (giant)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Bradley and giant provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8005835. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1787 and 1820.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “William Bradley (giant)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow William Bradley (giant) primary sources, William Bradley (giant) archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Bradley (giant)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “William Bradley (giant)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.