Busby's stoop chair
{{Short description|Allegedly haunted chair}}
{{use British English|date=November 2017}}
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File:Sign for the Busby Stoop - geograph.org.uk - 2147526.jpg
The Busby's stoop chair or the Dead Man's Chair is an oak chair that was supposedly cursed by the murderer Thomas Busby before his execution by hanging in 1702 in North Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom.
The chair is said to have remained in use for centuries at the Busby Stoop inn, near Thirsk. Due to the many deaths later attributed to people sitting in the chair, the landlord donated it to Thirsk Museum in 1978.{{cite news |last1=Minting |first1=Stuart |title=18th Century murderer's chair continues to captivate supernatural fans |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/leader/11566417.18th-century-murderers-chair-continues-captivate-supernatural-fans/ |access-date=8 March 2024 |work=The Northern Echo |date=29 October 2014 |language=en}}
A furniture historian examined the chair and found it to have machine-turned spindles, whereas 18th-century chairs were made using a pole lathe. He dated the chair to 1840, 138 years after Busby's execution.
Background
Thomas Busby was arrested, tried and condemned to death after he murdered his father-in-law Daniel Auty (or Autie) in 1702. Auty and Busby were running a coin counterfeiting business (as well as other criminal enterprises) and they argued about the business which ended with Busby killing Auty.{{sfn|Grainge|1859|p=157}} One variation of the story has Busby cursing the chair whilst on his way to his execution, whereas another says that he was drunk in the chair when he was arrested and cursed it then.{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Peter|title=Yorkshire's historic pubs|date=2005|publisher=Sutton Publishing|location=Stroud|isbn=0-7509-3983-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/yorkshireshistor0000thom/page/179 179–181]|url=https://archive.org/details/yorkshireshistor0000thom/page/179}}
Busby was gibbeted at Sandhutton crossroads,{{cite book | last = Peach | first = Howard | title = Curious Tales of Old North Yorkshire| publisher = Sigma Leisure| year = 2003 | page = 98 | isbn = 1850587930 }} beside an inn, which later had its name changed to the Busby Stoop Inn.{{cite news|title=Eating Owt...at The Busby Stoop|url=http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/6957149.Eating_Owt___at_The_Busby_Stoop/|accessdate=1 November 2017|work=Darlington and Stockton Times|date=29 March 2005}} The site of the execution, opposite the pub on the A61 and A167 crossroads (now a roundabout), was said to be haunted by Busby's ghost.{{cite web| url = http://www.thirskmuseum.org/chair.htm| title = The infamous Busby Stoop Chair| publisher = Thirsk Museum| accessdate = 24 March 2012| url-status = dead| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20120320170842/http://www.thirskmuseum.org/chair.htm| archivedate = 20 March 2012}}
Deaths
Locals claimed that during the Second World War, Canadian airmen from the nearby base at Skipton-on-Swale went to the pub and those who sat in the chair never returned from bombing missions over mainland Europe. In the 1970s some fatal accidents were linked with the chair. In 1978 the chair was ultimately hung from the ceiling of Thirsk Museum to prevent occupancy, even by maintenance.
Cultural references
In the Japanese webcomic Hetalia: Axis Powers, "Busby's Chair" is depicted as an artefact which kills anyone who sits in it, and which causes them to be "dragged straight down to hell".{{cite AV media |people= |date=9 June 2010 |title=Hetalia: Axis Powers - Episode 26 (SUB) |trans-title= |medium=DVD |language=Japanese, English |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zT8kvtKJxc |access-date=7 August 2015 |time=1:08 |publisher= }}
Busby's chair was mentioned in an episode of the television programme Unsolved Mysteries, and a similar story about a cursed chair was included in an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.
References
{{reflist}}
=Sources=
- {{cite book|last=Grainge|first=William|title=The Vale of Mowbray: a historical and topographical account of Thirsk and its neighbourhood|url=https://archive.org/details/valeofmowbrayhis00grai|year=1859|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall & Co|location=London|oclc=559956399}}
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