Death of a chairman: a new William Hunter manuscript.

On Tuesday, 6 May 1760, the Order of the Garter conducted the installation of a knight at Windsor Castle, outside London. A day of ceremony and festivity, participated in by a throng of knights, nobility, clergy, and others, ended with a splendid ball and supper.1 On Wednesday most of those who attended as well as numerous servants made their way back to London (1). Among the travelers were four chairmen who had gone to Windsor to work at their trade of carrying gentlemen about in sedan chairs (2, 3). About 8 PM, as the four men were crossing Hounslow Heath, halfway to their homes in London, they overtook a tanner's wagon, returning after delivery of a load of leather. The chairmen asked for and were given a lift. Already in the vehicle, pulled by three horses, were two wagoners, an old woman, and a little boy. All made themselves comfortable for the rest of the journey; "coming along, we were merry," said one of the chairmen later. But soon trouble struck. The wagon was overtaken by a chaise marine drawn by two horses and occupied by a man and a woman.2 The chaise was accompanied by another man on horseback. Immediately after he passed the wagon the horseman, one William Roberts, angered by something, turned back. The chairmen and wagoners later claimed, in effect, that they were proceeding quite innocently on the left side of the wide road and that they had said nothing to Roberts. However, a bystander reported that, although the wagon was moving, no one was driving it and that it collided, or almost collided, with the chaise. The latter, it was later disclosed, carried strong boxes containing jewelry and other valuables. Probably the jewelry had been worn at the installation. Roberts, the leader of the party, had been assigned to guard the chaise and its contents on the return trip to London. Testimony about what followed was partly contradictory. We can safely assume that not all the persons on the London road that evening were sober. Clearly some of the testimony was prejudiced. The chairmen and wagoners said that William Roberts, astride his horse, struck out with his whip at the lead horse of the wagon team, forcing them into the ditch. Amid curses and angry shouts from the wagon, the horseman again plied his whip, first on the team and then on the men in the vehicle. William Robinson, a young chairman, later swore that Roberts struck him with his hanger, a short, slightly curved sword much in vogue with sailors, cutting Robinson's forehead. He jumped or fell from the back of the wagon, faced his assailant, and brandished or struck out with a three-foot-long willow stick he carried. Roberts again