A SPRING SADDLE AND STIRRUPS UPON A NEW CONSTRUCTION
Year: 1776

page_text: WALKER, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sadler, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His Let-
ters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Seventh day of June, in the sixteenth year of His reign, did give and
grant to me, the said John Walker, His special licence, full power, sole privi-
ledge and authority, that I, the said John Walker, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, throughout that part of His Majesty's
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A SPRING SADDLE AND STIRRUPS UPON
A NEW CONSTRUCTION;" in which said recited Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said John Walker, by writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within four calendar months after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, and the Statute in that
behalf made, relation being thereunto respectively had, may more at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, and in
pursuance of the said 'Statute, I, the said John Walker, do hereby declare

page_text: that my said Invention is composed, made, and performed in manner herein-
after mentioned, that is to say:-
As to the Saddle.-The object I had principally in view was to take off
that stubborn resistance usually met with in the common make of saddles; in
order to which, I conceived that if those parts which lay in the way to gall
and hurt the rider were removed, and something springy or elastick introduced
in their stead, and at the same time the other needfull properties preserved,
the end would in a great measure be answered. I, therefore, with this view,
invented spring or elàstick barrs of steel, which I apply or substitute instead
of the wood barrs commonly made use of in saddles hitherto made, which, by
lying low and being placed a good space asunder, are more out of the reach
of feeling by the rider; and a proper foundation being laid, the seat is then
formed of soft stuffing, or by webbs stretched at length, which, when seated on,
sinks and rises by means of the springiness or elasticity of the barrs, agreeable
to that motion which the action of the horse gives the rider, and by which
means also the severity of the pressure in both man and horse is greatly
taken off.
As to the Stirrups. From an attention to the cause of a person's foot
fastning in the stirrup when thrown from on horseback, it appears that, for
want of a sufficient or proper heighth to clear the fore part of the foot from
the stirrup, it is wedged so fast between the top and bottom as to baffle every
effort of the person thrown to disengage himself from it. To remedy which,
I have invented a stirrup of such an heighth as to clear that part of the foot;
and to prevent its going or running quite through the stirrup, a plate is fixed
or hung by a joint to the top of the stirrup, with a spring to keep it in its due
place, so that the fore part of the foot of the person thrown easily raises or
forces the plate up, and thereupon the whole foot will be immediately freed or
disengaged from the stirrup.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and, seal, this
Seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and seventy-six.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of October, in the
year of our Lord 1776, the aforesaid John Walker came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King
and Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth.
Inrolled the Seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and seventy-six.