Introduction
Patrick Cotter O'Brien (19 January 1760 - 8 September 1806) was the second of just 29 people known to medical history to have verifiably reached a height of 8 feet (240 cm) or more. Who was this immense Irishman and why was he buried in Bristol?
Patrick Cotter
Patrick Cotter was born on January 19, 1760, near Belgooly, which is close to Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. His parents were farmers, his father's name is unknown but hs mother was named Margaret.
In his teens Patrick had grown to a great height and was, according to some accounts, was over 7 ft (2.13 m) tall. He worked as a stonemason, bricklayer, and plasterer and was famous in the Kinsale area for his ability to slate shed roofs and plaster ceilings without the use of ladders.
In 1779, when he was eighteen, his father sold him to a showman for £50 per annum for three years. His arrivel in Bristol was advertsied in the local papers, such as:
The Surprising Irish Gianat - Only Nineteen Years old, yet measures Eight Feet high, and is allowed to be the most extraordinary person for Size and Proportion that ever appeared in Europe, is just arrived in this City, and to be seen at the House of Mr. Safford, Watch Maker, opposite St. Stephen's Church, in Clare Street.
Soon after, Patrick insisted that he was paid wages besides the food, clothing, and lodging stipulated in the contract with his father. The showman had him put into a debtor's prison. William Watts, a hosier, came to Patrick's rescue and had him released. Patrick then went on to exhibit himself for his own profit. He became a popular attraction at the St James' and Temple fairs in Bristol, and on the first occasion that he attended a fair He was met with such success that he earned £30 in three days.
He may have run a public house in Bristol called the "Giant's Castle".
He soon added O'Brien as a stage name so that he could claim descendancy from Brian Boru who was High King of Ireland from 1002 to 1014.
Patrick was soon one of the most popular fairground attractions and not only toured local fairs but travelled to London, where he appeared regularly at the St Bartholomew fair. The advertisements for his appearances claimed that he was nearly 9 ft (2.74 m) high, although he always showed a reluctance to be measured. In 1785, he appeared at a show in Sadler's Wells Theatre and delighted the crowd by shaking the hands of the audience in the upper boxes. He later appeared at the Haymarket Theatre and made a tour of Wales in 1794.
A handbill for one of his appearances in London read:
Just arrived in Town, and to be seen in a commodious room, at No. 11 Haymarket, nearly opposite the Opera House, the celebrated Irish Giant, Mr. O'Brien, of the kingdom of Ireland, indisputably the tallest man ever shewn; he is a lineal descendant of the old puissant King Brien Boreau, and has in person and appearance all the similitude of that great and grand potentate. It is remarkable of this family, that, however various the revolutions in point of fortune and affiance, the lineal descendants thereof have been favoured by Providence with the original size and stature which have been so peculiar to their family. The gentleman alluded to measures near nine feet high. Admittance, one shilling.
He was married in late 1776. "O'Brien, who last winter exhibited his person in St. James's-street, was lately married at Pancras Church, to a young woman, of the name of Cave, who lived in Bolton-row, Piccadilly." This is the only reference to his wife.
In 1785, he advertised that he could be seen by 'the quality', selectively inviting people to visit his room in St James Street, London, working between 11am and 4pm. He charged two shillings, but also admitted the 'humbler sort' later in the day for a shilling. He toured the United Kingdom for nearly 25 years, living in Bristol, London and Essex.
Audiences paid between one and two shillings to attend his shows, and illustrations and keepsakes of the 'Irish giant' were highly sought after. He had a sound business head and purchased property in Bristol and a house in Epping Forest.
Patrick Cotter O'Brien illustrations
In the above picture, the centre illustration is by A. van Assen and the one on the right is Patrick with musician Count Józef Boruwłaski, who was just 3 ft tall.
Patrick was known as a witty and generous host, soon building up a wide circle of friends. In 1804, he put on his last London show and a Mr Blair, a surgeon, who visited him estimated that he was around 7 ft 10 in. (2.39 m) tall. Blair also noted that Cotter was in poor health and recorded his lack of energy and feeble pulse. He later wrote:
His limbs were not very stout, especially his arms, and I judged that he had scarcely got the use of them for, in order to lift up his hand, he seemed obliged to swing the whole arm, as if he had no power of raising it by the action of the deltoid muscle.
Patrick Cotter's Death
Patrick lived in Hotwells Road where he died on September 8, 1806, aged just 46. A big enough hearse could not be found for his body so the part of the coffin unable to fit into one was covered with a black cloth. It required fourteen men to carry the coffin from the hearse to the grave - into which he was lowered with pulleys.
The will of Patrick Cotter otherwise O'Brien of the City of Bristol, Gentleman was proved at London, 7th October 1806. Regarding his burial he wrote:
I order and direct that my body may be interred in the said Roman Catholic Chapel in a Grave made as deep as can be done with propriety, and that a monument be erected in the Chapel to my memory and that my coffin may be a plain one with an inscription on the breast plate of my age, height and the name of the town in which I was born.
The executors were his good friends William Watts, Hosier, and James Donovan, Mariner, both of Bristol
In his will he mentions his mother, Margaret Cotter, and left her the proceeds from investing £2,000 raised from the sale of his estate. He mentions his brother, John Cotter. He also mentions his three cousins: Daniel Keefe of Kinsale, Cork Ireland, a Mason he had worked with many years before, and Daniel's sisters; Nancy Riley and Peggy Keen. They each got £100. The proceeds from a sum of £500 invested, were to be given to a child of the name of Peggy White who was then living with her mother. The Kinsale Roman Catholic Charity School received £100.
The will was signed as "Patrick Cotter, otherwise O'Brien".
His mother died in 1823, aged 100 years
Patrick left specific instructions for his burial. He was to be encased in three coffins, the outer coffin being over 9 ft long, and was then buried in a 12-ft (3.66 m) grave with iron bars in the lobby of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Trenchard St., Bristol.
Cotter's burial took place at around 6 a.m. in order to discourage onlookers but a crowd of over 2,000 still gathered to witness the interment. His memorial in the church said that:
Here lie the remains of Mr Patrick Cotter O'Brien, a native of Kinsale, in the kingdom of Ireland. He was a man of gigantic stature, exceeding eight feet three inches in height, and proportionately large.
His manners were amiable and unoffending, and the inflexible integrity of his conduct through life, united to the calm resignation with which he awaited the approach of death, proved that his principles were strictly virtuous. He died at the Hotwells, on the 8th of September 1806, in the 46th year of his age
The church was built as the first Roman Catholic church in Bristol since the Reformation in the 16th century. The foundation stone was laid in March 1788, and the building opened on Sunday, June 27, 1790. The church survived as part of the St. Mary on the Quay parish property until 1978 when it was sold for redevelopment as housing. The Trenchard Street facade was kept and the rest demolished in May 1981.
Exhumation
Patick had a fear of being examined for scientific or medical research and requested that his body be entombed in twelve feet of solid stone. Despite his wishes, Cotter's body was exhumed three times in 1906, 1972, and finally in 1986.
The 1906 exhumation caused quite a commotion. The grave was found in March 1906, when workmen accidentally discovered his coffin whilst laying drains. The "more like a rowing boat than a coffin" caused crowds to see the bones of Patrick as their forebears had flocked to see him during his lifetime. The Catholic Bishop of Clifton intervened, ordering the burial ground to be closed and stating that the remains would be reinterred. However, permission was given to an anthropologist, Professor Edward Fawcett of the University College of Bristol, to examine the remains. Fawcett estimated Patrick's height to have been 7 feet 10 inches. The bones were re-interred in a second vault near to the original gravesite
The remains of Patrick Cotter O'Brien as discovered in Bristol in 1906
In the above picture, Dr. Fawcett, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bristol, (seated, making notes) and Mr. Charles A. Stevens, Solicitor, examine the remains of Patrick Cotter O'Brien upon their discovery during works at the old Catholic Church at Trenchard Street, Bristol, in 1906. The plank with numbers shows the measurement of the skeleton in feet, for comparison
In 1924, Patrick's brass coffin plate was discovered attached to a wall below ground near to the place of his re-interment. It was removed to the church of St. Mary on the Quay.
When his remains were examined in 1972, they were taken to Bristol University where they were x-rayed and examined by a team of anthropologists who determined that while alive, he would have stood 8 ft 1 inch tall. It was also revealed that he was a pituitary giant who later suffered from acromegaly, a condition resulting in excessive growth hormone. He also suffered a malformation of the skull and enlargement of the sella turcica, a saddle-shaped depression in the skull that houses the pituitary gland, and he also suffered from osteoarthritis.
Due to the redevelopment of his gravesite in 1986, Home Office permission was received and the remains of the Giant of Kildare were finally cremated by Francis Connor of St. Mary on the Quay after a church service in his honour.
Patrick's massive boots are on display at the Kinsale Museum and one of his arms is preserved at Hunterian Museum, in the Royal College of Surgeons, London.
Sources & Resources
Cotter (alias O'Brien), Patrick - Dictionary of Irish Biography
Patrick (Cotter) O'Brien (1760 - 1806) - WikiTree
Patrick Cotter: Ancient and Modern Giants - Chambers Book of Days
Patrick Cotter O'Brien 1760 - 1806 - Pathological Bodies Project
Patrick Cotter O'Brien, 'The Bristol Giant' (1760 - 1806) - Bristol Museums
Patrick Cotter O'Brien - 8 feet 1 inches - The Tallest Men