LINCOLNSHIRE CLERGYMAN WEIGHED A HUGE 43 STONES

THE Reverend Joseph Coltman was intelligent, wealthy, genial and the fattest man in Regency England.

- By DOMINIC COX

The one time Lincolnshire clergyman weighed 43 stones, had to use a strengthened velocipede, to get around, and needed a team of vergers to help propel his huge body up into the pulpit when it was his turn to give a sermon.

After serving as a curate at Winceby, near Horncastle, and then the rector of the adjoining Hameringham with Scrafield parish, Coltman moved north of the Humber, to Beverley Minster where he was eventually appointed perpetual curate (vicar).

Meanwhile, he became England’s fattest man on June 21, 1809, which was the day that the even fatter (52 stone) one-time Leicester jail keeper Daniel Lambert died at the age of 39 in the Waggon and Horses Inn at Stamford after a day at the races.