Busby’s stoop chair, the Dead Man’s Chair

Among the many stories of cursed objects is that of Thomas Busby’s chair, also known as the “Dead Man’s Chair”. It is said that Thomas, before his execution, cursed his favourite chair: anyone who sat in it would die.

The story

It was 1702 and Thomas Busby lived in North Yorkshire, near the market town of Thirsk. He was a counterfeiter and a heavy drinker: together with his father-in-law, Daniel Auty, he ran a coin-forging business, along with other shady dealings. And he had his favourite pub, with his favourite chair: a plain oak chair, the one now known as the cursed chair.

One day the two men argued over their business, and the quarrel ended in the worst possible way: Busby killed his father-in-law. According to the most common accounts he struck him on the head with a hammer.

The curse

The crime was soon discovered, and so was its author. Busby was tried and sentenced to death by hanging. There are several versions of the curse. In the best-known one, his last wish was to drink one more beer at his favourite pub. The guards stayed on the alert, fearing an escape attempt, but he calmly sat in his chair, drank his beer and, as he got up, cast the curse: anyone who sat there after him would die. In another version he was drunk in that chair when he was arrested, and cursed it then.

After the execution Busby’s body was gibbeted at the Sandhutton crossroads, beside an inn. That inn was later renamed the Busby Stoop Inn, where “stoop”, in local dialect, is said to refer to the post from which the body hung. For a long time the execution site, opposite the pub, was said to be haunted by Busby’s ghost.

Despite everything, the landlord decided to leave the chair where it was. And from that day, according to legend, very strange things began to happen.

Strange deaths

It is said that one evening a chimney sweep sat in Busby’s chair. He left the pub blind drunk, and the next day he was found hanged near the spot where Thomas had been executed.

During the Second World War, Canadian airmen were stationed at the nearby base of Skipton-on-Swale and often went drinking at the Busby Stoop. According to locals, those who sat in the chair never came back from their bombing missions over Europe.

In the 1970s other fatal accidents were linked to the chair. There are stories of a young builder who sat in it on a dare and shortly afterwards fell from scaffolding, and of a delivery man who rested in it for a moment and soon after died in a road accident. The landlord, Tony Earnshaw, then decided to move the chair to the cellar, and finally to get rid of it.

The chair today

In 1978 the chair was donated to Thirsk Museum, on one condition: that it be hung high up, so that no one could sit in it, not even by mistake. And it is still there, suspended on the wall, out of everyone’s reach, even the cleaners’.

There is, however, a detail that spoils the legend a little. A furniture historian examined the chair and noticed that its spindles had been machine-turned, whereas 18th-century chairs were made on a pole lathe. In his view the chair dates from around 1840, a full 138 years after Thomas Busby’s death. If so, Busby could never have sat in that chair, let alone cursed it.

Yet, true or not, no one at the museum seems keen to try sitting in it.

Sources

• Wikipedia – Busby Stoop Chair