Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

There is a boy about two miles from Tadcaster that is not five years of age, whose stature is above an ell high, his thigh is three quarters about, his face is like a man’s, with much hair upon it, he hath capacity for employment as a man, and eats as much as another ordinary man, as is able to carry the third part of a full horse-load of any thing. This November 1, 1664. Many people go to see him, a gentleman offered his father £40 to let him take up his son to London, and keep him well, and deliver him safely to him again, but he refused.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Something is wrong here: an ell is short for his age. Who was he?

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Ell (1) W/G ·
• Freak (2) W/G ·
• Gigantism (2) W/G ·
• Heywood, Oliver (1630-1702) (34), Bolton-born nonconformist minister and diarist, active in the West Riding, resident at Northowram, ejected for his beliefs W/G ·
• Tadcaster (10) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

Something is wrong here: an ell is short for his age. Who was he?

Something to say? Get in touch

Similar

Order the book:

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

The year is transcribed as 1661, which is both impossible (the Act of Uniformity under which the Rev. Bloome was dismissed only passed in 1662) and unlikely (prior and subsequent entries are all for 1666).

I don’t get all the symbolism. Who did the army represent?

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