🏪 The 'chair of death' brought quick death to those who sat on it 🏪
Some believe that the location of certain houses and lands bring bad luck to those who live in them. For example, when a person has an unexpected accident or death, there are many people who believe that it happened because of a defect in the house they live in or the land on which the house is built. Such beliefs have been socialized not only in Asian countries like Sri Lanka but also in European countries like the United Kingdom. Among the things they believe bring bad luck are not only land and houses but also household items such as chairs, tables and clocks.
This article is about one such chair, called the 'Death Chair', which has a history of more than 300 years and is housed in a museum in North Yorkshire, UK. The chair, which is believed to be linked to a curse by a man named Thomas Busby who lived in North Yorkshire in the 1700s, is now hanging in a museum. It is called the chair of death as several people who sat here died unexpectedly.
🏫 Thomas Busby 🏫
Raised in North Yorkshire, Thomas was a young man in the 1700s. Not having received much education, he engaged in various illegal activities including forging coins to earn money. In addition, he is said to have committed theft and extortion. By this time, he had developed a love relationship with a young woman who lived in his village. Her father, Daniel Orty, was also a counterfeiter like Thomas.
🏬 A murder 🏬
Later, they both started counterfeiting coins together. During this time, Ooty found out that Thomas had a relationship with his daughter, and it was strongly opposed. Apart from that, there have been various disagreements between them regarding the coining activities. One day, during a fight between the two over this issue, Ooty was killed by a blow from Thomas. As a result of the investigations carried out regarding Oti's murder, the country's investigative units were able to arrest Thomas in a very short time. At the end of the trial, he was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to be hanged. It is also said that the body of Thomas who was hanged was hanged in a public place.
Thomas, who was taken to a restaurant before his death
Sentenced to death, Thomas was taken to a restaurant in Sandhattan, North Yorkshire (the building can still be seen today) before being hanged. One theory is that he was hanged on the spot, while others say that he was taken to the restaurant to drink alcohol at his last request. Even today, the ghost of Thomas is said to haunt the area.
Cursed chair
The 'chair of death', the subject of this article, is the chair that Thomas sat in during his stay at the aforementioned restaurant. He is said to have sat there for a long time and cast a curse upon it before being taken to be hanged. Legend has it that he made the curse by saying, "Death will soon follow anyone who sits in my chair." Since then, it has been believed that almost everyone who sits in this chair dies unexpectedly.
The fate of those who sat in the chair
Whether a chair can be cursed is a somewhat problematic matter, but during the time that this chair was kept in the aforementioned restaurant, several people who sat in it have really suffered untimely deaths. It is said that one day in 1894, a cleaner sat on this chair and the next morning he hanged himself in a place next to it. Also, during the Second World War, a group of Canadian soldiers who stayed in a camp next to the restaurant sat on this chair to show their bravery and all of them died during the war operations.
In 1967, two Royal Air Force pilots who were sitting in this chair were killed when their car crashed into a tree on their way home. A few years later, a construction worker who was seated here fell off a roof and died a few hours later. At the same time, a cleaner who was seated here by mistake died of a blood clot in the brain