A Novel Mode of Transport

In the 16th century, European travellers returning from the Orient and the New World brought with them an idea for a new, practical mode of transport.

It depended not on draught animals like horses and mules, which were unpredictable and needed to be sheltered and fed, but on another power source of which there was a cheap and endless supply – people.

Litters of various kinds had been used in the East for many centuries (in India they were known as palanquins), and in Europe as far back as the Roman Empire.

The essential design was simple: a wooden cabin with a door and windows (often curtained) was carried by two or more bearers by means of poles roped to it or slid through brackets on the sides.

When it reached these islands, it became known as the sedan chair; the name seems to have come from an Italian word descended from Latin sedere, ‘to sit’.

For the better-off with a retinue of servants, the attractions were obvious: a quick and (relatively) painless form of transport which saved the traveller from trudging through the mud and indescribable filth which carpeted the streets of most towns and cities.

No wonder the idea caught on rapidly. The wealthy and powerful could express their status through ownership of elaborately-carved chairs and their liveried bearers, or ‘chairmen’ as they became known.

In time, those who could not afford their own sedan chair could hire one in the same way that we hire a taxi today. The chairs and their operators were even licensed and regulated.

A sedan chair had the crucial advantage of being smaller than the wheeled carriages of the time, and so could negotiate narrow streets while by-passing traffic jams.

They also had priority on pavements; when the chairmen cried ‘By your leave’ or ‘Chair ho’ (which evolved into a modern term of farewell), pedestrians were forced to leap aside to let them through.

In larger towns and cities there was keen competition between operators, and the strongest chairmen were in particular demand, though as a profession they had a reputation for bad behaviour, especially drinking and swearing.

Spalding had its own service, and an 1806 rule book survives in the archives of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society (SGS). There were two sedan chairs, and subscribers paid an annual fee of one guinea for the right to hire them.

A scale of charges is set out according to the length of the journey and the time of day or night: up to 880 yards for six pence, 1,320 yards for nine pence, and beyond this a shilling.

Fares were doubled after midnight, except for passengers leaving the Theatre or Assembly – Spalding nightlife obviously went on until later in those days.

The duties of chairmen are listed, with financial penalties for breaching them, including a fine of two shillings and six pence for using the poles for any purpose other than carrying the chair (the mind boggles.)

The SGS museum holds one of the rather fetching jackets they wore, as well as the leather harness by which they transferred the weight of the chair onto their shoulders.

By the early 19th century, the sedan chair was falling out of use; streets were being improved and paved, and the introduction of the popular hackney carriage effectively sounded its death-knell.

An invoice for repairs in 1864 by Walter White, a coach manufacturer based in Double Street, shows on its letter-heading the very different types of conveyance he was used to dealing with by then.

Nevertheless, the account books show that Spalding’s sedan chairs had over 30 subscribers as late as 1862, and continued in use until 1879, after which one was returned to a Theophilus Johnson, whose widow donated it to the Society. It remains on display to this day in the SGS museum, where it has recently been undergoing some restoration.

We may feel that the sedan chair is a reminder of a more sedate and elegant age, and in its own way it helped to democratise urban transport.

If you would like to see this and other evocative reminders of the past, both local and global, why not visit our museum in Broad Street, Spalding, or, even better, become a member? Details of our open days can be found on our website, our Facebook page and in the pages of the Free Press and Spalding Guardian, or email us at info@sgsoc.org for more information.