Edward Bright was born in 1721 and was a post boy in his youth riding daily to Chelmsford, but he was forced to give this up at the age of 12 because of his weight - an incredible 12 stone. He later became a candle manufacturer and grocer. The house and shop of which he was a tenant still stands in the High Street immediately to the east of the Plume Library, it is now known as Church House, built about 1700.
Although in early 18th century Britain life expectancy was a measly 35-40 years old at birth, once people survived childhood they could generally be expected to live into their 60s. Bright, then, died prematurely on 10th November 1750, at the age of just 29, and was thought to be the 'largest man that had ever lived in this Island'. The last time that he had been weighed was when he was aged 28, he was 584lbs or nearly 42 stones, 264kg. in weight. He measured 5'9" in height and round the chest measured 5'6" and the stomach 6'11". No wonder that at the end of his life it was written 'his corpulence so everpower'd his strength that his life was a burden and his death a deliverence'. He left a wife and five children, Mary, his wife, outlived him by some 36 years.
Buried in All Saints' church on the 12th November in a vault near the tower arch he needed a special coffin made for him, a note in the parish burial register records that 'A way was cut through the wall and staircase to let it down into the shop [his grocers shop, and] it was drawn upon a carriage to the church and slid upon rollers to the vault made of brickwork, and interred by the help of a triangle and pulley. He was a very honest tradesman, a facetious companion, comely in his person, affable in his temper, a tender father and valuable friend.'
What is surprising is that his killer was typhoid rather than pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. Another mystery, one which has not been satisfactorily explained, is how he got so big in the first place. As transport was minimum, mainly horse and cart, he must have clocked up a fair amount of miles walking regularly surpassing on a regular basis today's recommendation of 30 minutes of walking a day. He was also a working man, not a member of the nobility who had traditionally dominated the obesity scene by having servants do their working and horses their walking. Bright was both a candle merchant and a grocer and therein may be a clue. Being surrounded by food all day he may have been tempted to frequently nibble on his own produce. But on the other hand, this was before you could gorge on saturated snacks and sugary drinks.
To celebrate Edward's life there is a bronze plaque in Kings Head Courtyard off the High Street in Maldon, this waymark, or take a stroll down to the Maldon Museum in Promenade Park to look at a replica of his waistcoat and a sculpture of an infamous wager that was made in the Black Bull pub, it basically amounted to a game of 'see how many men we can fit into a fat dead man's waistcoat', a wager which has since gone down in local folklore.
The bronze sculpture commemorating the local tale of the Fat Man of Maldon was created in 2000 by Catherni Stern and can be found in the Kings Head Centre Courtyard. An adjacent plaque bears the following text:-
EDWARD BRIGHT
Edward Bright lived in
Church House, Maldon.
He was born in 1721
and died when he was
only 29 years old,
weighing 44 stones (279Kg).
When his waistcoat was
sent to the tailors to be
let out, Edward Codd
wagered Mr Hance that
seven hundred men could
be contained inside
Bright's waiscoat. He
won his bet when
seven men from
Dengie "Hundred" were
buttoned in with ease.
Dengie Hundred was the C18th equivalent to the modern day council.
A rather gruesome entry at Essex Terror! gives an alternative reason for Edward's large size.