A MOST CERTAIN AND INFALLIBLE METHOD TO PREVENT THE DANGER WHICH OFTEN ATTENDS THE HANGING BY THE FOOT OR LEG IN THE STIRRUP BY RIDERS PALLING OR BEING THROWN FROM THEIR HORSES
Year: 1769

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANNE
STELL, late of Keighley, in the West Riding of the County of York, Spinster,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Twenty-
third day of May, in the ninth year of His reign, did give and grant unto
me, the said Anne Stell, His especial licence that I, the said Anne Stell, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "A MOST CERTAIN AND INFALLIBLE METHOD TO PREVENT THE DANGER WHICH
OFTEN ATTENDS THE HANGING BY THE FOOT OR LEG IN THE STIRRUP BY RIDERS
PALLING OR BEING THROWN FROM THEIR HORSES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a provisoe obliging me, the said Anne Stell, under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and how 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 same (relation being thereunto had)
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Anne Stell, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A' most Certain and
Infallible Method to prevent the Danger which often attends the Hanging by
the Foot or Leg in the Stirrup by Riders falling or being thrown from their
Horses, is described in the manner following (that is to say) :-
The Invention consists in the contrivance of an angular staple made of iron
or other metal, and at its extreme ends has holes made therein, by which it

page_text: is fastened to the saddle-tree by rivetts or screw nails. In the under part is a
grove made of a convenient depth, & extends in length from the saddle-tree to
the length of the angle or extremity thereof; in which grove is fixed by an iron
pin a steel spring the breadth and length of the groove or notch; at the end of
this angle is one other notch, three quarters or half an inch deep, in which
is fixed by an iron pin an iron or steel trigger or finger, upon which it turns.
This trigger is about one inch and a quarter long, and is compressed upon the
under side by the steel spring fixed in the grove which regulates this trigger
in its motion of turning up or falling down; it also fixes and holds it steady
and fast when it stands upright. Between this trigger and the inner perpen-
dicular angle of the staple (and upon that projection) the stirrup leather is
hanged which supports and bears the rider and stirrup iron. To the said inner
perpendicular angle of the staple is fixed by a screw a steel spring to receive
the trigger or finger: when the rider's foot or leg hangs in the stirrup, the
stirrup and leather draw back and form a sloping or angular line. The horse
always moves forward and directly opposite to the line of the stirrup and
leather. In this position the stirrup leather upon the support or part where it
hangs bears hard and presseth upon the trigger, when it opens or falls down,
and gives leave for the stirrup and leather, with the foot or leg fast therein, to
slide off from the part on which it hangs, and so is discharged from the
saddle.