Round-robin (document)

This described the practice of signatories to petitions against authority (usually Government officials petitioning the Crown) appending their names on a document in a non-hierarchical circle or ribbon pattern (and so disguising the order in which they have signed) so that none may be identified as a ringleader.

[2][3] This practice was adopted by sailors petitioning officers in the Royal Navy (first recorded 1731).

Early examples of it, such as 1557 treaty including Mōri Motonari[4] as a prominent signer, were used for signing alliances between multiple military clans and were intended more for removing the hierarchy and emphasizing the equal status between signers rather than for a disguise.

In modern Japan, there are more casual usages of the similar style of signing for ceremonial purposes including school graduation and significant events in group sports.

A round-robin letter was authored in Cuba after the cessation of hostilities in 1898 by a committee of 10 brigade commanders of the American Army's V Corps including acting brigade commander Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish–American War, to accelerate the departure of the American Army back to the United States during the rainy disease-plagued summer season.