Busby's stoop chair

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. 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.