Republican Herald

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Topham, the Strong Man.-The most extraordinary instance of human strength recorded in modern times, is that of Thomas Topham, a man who kept a public house at Islington. Mr. Hatton in his History of Derby, gives this account of him :-He performed surprising feats of strength-as breaking a broom-stick of the first magnitude by striking it against his bare arm, lifting two hogsheads of water, heaving his horse over the turnpike gate, carrying the beam of a house as a soldier carries his firelock, &c. When this second Sampson appeared at Derby as a performer in public, at a shilling each, upon application to Alderman Cooper for leave to exhibit, the magistrate was surprised at the feats he proposed, and as his appearance was like that of other men, he requested him to strip, that he might examine whether he was made like them : but he was found to be extremely muscular. What were hollows under the arms and hams of others, were filled up with ligaments in him.
He appeared nearly five feet ten, turned of thirty, well made, but nothing singular; he walked with a small limp. He had formerly laid a wager, the usual decider of disputes, that three horses could not draw him from a post which he would clasp with his feet; but the driver giving them a sudden lash, turned them aside, and the unexpected jerk had broken his thigh.
The performance of this wonderful man, in whom were united the strength of twelve, were, rolling up a pewter dish of seven pounds as a man rolls up a sheet of paper; holding a pewter quart at arm's length, and squeezing the sides together like an egg-shell; lifting two hundred weight with his little finger and moving it roundly over his head. The bodies he touched seemed to have lost their powers of gravitation. He also broke a rope fastened to the floor, that would sustain twenty hundred weight. He lifted an oak table six feet long with his teeth, though half a hundred weight was hung to the extremity; a piece of leather was fixed to one end for his teeth to hold. two of the feet stood upon his knees, and he raised the end with the weight higher than that in his mouth. He took Mr. Chambers, Vicar of All Saints, who weighed twenty-seven stone, and raised him with one hand. His head being laid on the chair, and his feet on another, four people fourteen stone each, sat upon his body, which he heaved at pleasure. He struck a round bar of iron, one inch in diameter against his naked arm, and, at one stroke, bent it like a bow. Weakness and feeling seemed fled together.
Being a master of music, he entertained the company with Mad Tom. I heard him sing a solo to the organ in St. Werburgh's church, then the only one in Derby : but though he might perform with judgment, yet the voice, more terrible than sweet, scarcely seemed human. Though of a pacific temper, and with the appearance of a gentleman, yet he was liable to the insults of the rude. The ostler at the Virgin's Inn, where he resided, having given him disgust, he took one of the kitchen spits from the mantel-piece, and bent it round his neck like a handkerchief; but as he did not choose to tuck the ends in the ostler's bosom, the cumbrous ornament excited the laugh of the company, till he condescended to untie his iron cravat. Had he not abounded with good nature, the men might have been in fear for the safety of their persons, and the women for that of their pewter-shelves, as he could instantly have roll up both? One blow from his fist would forever have silenced those heroes the Bear-garden, Johnson and Mendoza.
At the time of his death, which happened 10th of August, 1749, he kept a public-house in Hog-lane, Shoreditch. Having, two days before, a quarrel with his wife, he stabbed her in the breast. and immediately gave himself several wounds, which proved fatal to him, but his wife recovered.