OBJECT FILE
Busby's Stoop Chair
FOLLOWThirsk Museum, 14–16 Kirkgate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
THE OBJECT
An oak chair from the Busby Stoop Inn at Sandhutton, near Thirsk, linked by tradition to Thomas Busby, hanged in 1702 for murdering his father-in-law Daniel Auty. In 1978, after a drayman who had sat in it died in a road accident the same day, the landlord asked Thirsk Museum to take it on condition that it was never sat in again; it hangs high on the wall. A furniture historian has since dated the chair to about 1840 from its machine-turned spindles — it cannot have been Busby's.
REPORTED ACTIVITY
A run of deaths in the 1960s–70s among people said to have sat in the chair, including RAF aircrew from nearby Skipton-on-Swale during the war, is the substance of the legend. The dating undercuts the origin, not the reputation; the museum keeps it hung.
WHERE IT IS NOW
On public display — kept by Thirsk Museum. Thirsk Museum, 14–16 Kirkgate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
PROVENANCE · 2 ENTRIES
TRACE ON THE MAP →1840 – 1978
successive landlords of the Busby Stoop Inn
Busby Stoop Inn, Sandhutton, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
1840 is the chair's estimated manufacture date, not a documented arrival at the inn.
Source: The Northern Echo, 29 Oct 2014 (furniture historian's dating c. 1840; the chair's years at the inn)
1978 — CURRENT LOCATION
Thirsk Museum
Thirsk Museum, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Source: The Northern Echo, 29 Oct 2014; Thirsk Museum, 'displays' (hung out of harm's way in 1978)
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS · 0
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