William Ball

William "Billy" Ball (1795–1852), the "Shropshire Giant", was a nineteenth-century iron puddler and "giant". He was born in June 1795 at Horsehay, Great Dawley, Shropshire where he would live for his whole life. His exact date of birth is unrecorded, but he was baptised on 8 July. He was the first son of five children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Ball of Horsehay. As an adult he was tall and weighed more than forty stone. It was said that his "waistcoat was so big that three men could be buttoned into it". In September 1819, aged 24, he married Mary Bailey. They had two children, Eliza (1823–1824) and Thomas (1824–1839). In 1824, both his wife and daughter died. Thomas also died young, at fifteen. Next year, 1825, he married Margaret Wood (1790-c.1850), who bore him no children.