Dark Somerset: The 'giant' that died in Taunton

Just ten years later, he would be dead and laid to rest - with much ceremony and spectacle in a Taunton churchyard.

This is the story of the Lincolnshire Giant and how Taunton became his final resting place.

Always unusually tall, by the time Sewell was an adult, he was 2.2m - seven feet, four inches - tall, almost three feet across and weighed 37 stone.

During his travels, he made many friends, but while visiting Swansea in 1826, he developed typhus fever and lost his sight.

His illness made him 'blind, feeble and helpless’, and he was forced into the poorhouse until he recovered enough to begin touring - and making money - again.

When he arrived in Bristol, kind people helped him with his needs, and he was eventually able to continue on to Exeter and Taunton.

Seeing the blinded, destitute giant, the residents of Taunton and Exeter swung into action, raising money to buy him a caravan so he could continue to tour and make a living.

He was taken on by James Bromsgrove (also referred to as Broomsgrove in certain publications) who owned a menagerie based at the Harp Inn on the Taunton-Shoreditch Turnpike.

He helped Sewell continue to tour the country, pairing him with Natty Farnham, a fellow performer who stood at only 37 inches tall - a little over three foot - and weighed 68lbs (almost five stone).

Farnham used to lead the giant around the fairs and assizes - a spectacle recounted by Thomas Hardy in his poem At a Country Fair.

“At a bygone Western country fair

I saw a giant led by a dwarf

With a red string like a long thin scarf;

How much he was the stronger there

The giant seemed unaware.

And then I saw that the giant was blind,

And the dwarf a shrewd-eyed little thing;

The giant, mild, timid, obeyed the string

As if he had no independent mind,

Or will of any kind.”

When he returned to Taunton, Sewell often lodged with a carpenter named Luxton who lived in Church Square.

Sewell's public appearances eventually took him back to his old haunts in Swansea, but he was never completely well, and during one of these appearances he became critically ill.

According to the Monmouthshire Merlin printed on 11 July, 1829:

"He arrived on Wednesday and exhibited the whole of Thursday (fair day) with a midget called Farnham.

"Friday evening he complained of being unwell and shortly afterwards had several epileptic fits, which so completely shook the caravan, that the men were obliged to secure the wheels to prevent it from falling.

"Some medical men were immediately sent for, but it was evident that he could not survive long, and he expired about 12 o'clock on Saturday night."

Before his death, Sewell had for his body to be returned to Taunton, where he believed the kindness experienced there would also be extended to his corpse.

Newspapers reported that the giant had a ‘great horror’ of his body being taken after his death for study and dissection - perhaps not entirely unfounded, given that bodysnatchers were stalking the graveyards of the area looking for fresh cadavers to sell to medical students.

Sewell’s caravan, containing his body, travelled from Swansea to Gloucester and Bristol and then into Taunton, accompanied by Bromsgrove and Farnham. Throughout the journey, Bromsgrove was approached time and time again by people wanting to buy the corpse, including one particularly persistent Frenchman.

Bromsgrove denied all such requests and Sewell’s coffin, made of elm, an inch thick and measuring nearly 8ft in length, was lowered into the ground on the north side of St Mary Magdelene Church on July 13, 1829, in a service conducted by Rev H Bowery.

His funeral expenses were all covered by John Bluett, a prosperous grocer, tea dealer and later a wine and spirit merchant from the town. The spectacle of the ceremony drew large crowds, and the giant’s long grave - although now sadly lost - was 'seen for many years'.

With a modern eye, It is likely that Joseph Sewell’s blindness and early death were precipitated not by typhus fever but were a direct result of his condition - Gigantism.

His blindness, fits and early death were almost certainly the results of the increasing pressure caused by a pituitary tumour or by cerebrovascular disease.

At the time of his death, aged just 24, he required five yards of broad cloth for his custom-made coat, five yards of cloth and lining for his waistcoat and seven yards of patent cord for his trousers.

While time has faded the memory of Sewell, much the way that weather has worn away any trace of his grave, there is one permanent reminder of the man whose faith in Taunton was so well-founded.

His shoes - 14½ inches long, and 6½ inches wide - are on permanent display at the Museum of Somerset, in Taunton and remain one of their most popular exhibits.

Column written by Laura Linham