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The Arkwright Tribes
John Arkwright, father of John Hungerford Arkwright, and son of Sir Richard Arkwright, the creator of the modern spinning industry, had the estate of Hampton Court, Leominster purchase by his father given to him some time after his twentieth birthday. He started managing his estate about 1819, but did not have any real control until after the death of his father, when his debts were paid off and he also inherited about a quarter of a million pound sterling in cash. He is belived to have started breeding Herefords seriously from the time of his marriage to Sarah Hoskins, daughter of Sir Hungerford Hoskins, a well known Hereford breeder of the pre Herd Book days. John Arkwright died in 1858 and the estate and the Hereford herd was inherited by his son John Hungerford Arkwright. It is in the hands of J H Arkwright that the herd acheives unparalled status. Until his death in 1904 J H Arkwright bred some of the best cattle in the Herd Book. Not only did he maintain a large herd he also maintained quite a high percentage of diversity within the herd. This is reflected in the fact that of the eighty orginal tribes in the Hereford Herd Book thirteen were developed at Hampton Court. Today there are six female tribes from Hampton Court in the Traditional Hereford Club Herd.
The six tribes are Lively, Silk, Gaymaid, Oyster Girl, the favourite of the Arkwrights, Pearl, and the most successful of all the Arkwright tribes, the Curlys. Strictly speaking J H Arkwright did not start the Curly family, that honour goes to a Mr Hickman, who sold a cow with no name to J Arkwright, who produced a daughter Hickman's Pleasant, by Reliance. Four of the cows were from unknown cows, served by, and produced a heifer by, Reliance 278. The Livelys are more difficult to trace than many. According to H C Dent they may have been descended from a cow purchaed from the Newton herd of D Williams.
The Curly Tribe, started at Hampton Court with the purchase of an unknown cow, possibly owned by a Mr Hickman. This unknown cow produced Hickmans Pleasant by Reliance 278. Many good cattle were produced from this tribe at Hampton Court, but is more famous for the part of this tribe that ended up at the Vern, where it produced a considerable number of high quality animals, sold within and exported from Britain. These included such cows as Curly 13th (74/427), mother of Vern Boxer, grandmother of Eaton Eastern Venture, and great great grandmother of Curly Vern 114th the start of one of the two Curly families at Llandinabo, and the present derivative of the Curlys today. A second example is Curly 7th (70/590), mother of Vern Quoit and Vern Zurly, grandmother of Vern Zeus, and Vern Eros. Then there was Curly Vern 79th, mother of Vern Quist, Vern Tuesday and Llandinabo Vintage, as well as Llandinbo Curly, and the second Curly family at Llandinabo. These three examples also have a unique correlation, they may be from the same tribe, but their breeding is over twenty years apart, quite an achievement for "The Captain".
The Curlys however, did go to other herds, and one family at Free Town produced the bull Freetown Contrite, a show winner in the late 1940's.
The Gaymaid tribe started with a cow by Reliance 278 at Hampton Court. However, just to complicate matters her name was Old Curly. Old Curly became Curly, Gaily and finally Gaylass (7/231) in 1858, the year J H Arkwright took over the running of the herd from his father J Arkwright. Gaylass 31st (40/814), born in 1902 was sold at the dispersal sale of Hampton Court on the death of J H Arkwright in 1904. She was purchase by the Newman Brothers of Lower Wickton, and produce Gaylass 2nd (54/464), which was bought by W A Newman of Tillington, brother of F J Newman of Lower Wickton, at the Newman Brothers dispersal. W A Newman bred this line on under the prefix Tillington until the middle of the last century, when the family moved first to Tyrells and then to Llandinabo. Today the Gaymaid family are reasonably widespread with representatives in more than five herds.
The Lively tribe is belived to have started in the herd of David Williams of Newton, Brecon. The orginal cow Newton by Chance 348, is the same sire as Sir David, David Williams's most influential bull. This family passed into the possession of J Arkwright and then his son J H Arkwright. Under the management of the Arkwrights the Lively family were extensive and successful. At the dispersal of the Hampton Court herd Lively 42nd (38/664) was sold. From this cow a line was established that served the Dent family well. A member of this family was Reserve Female Champion in 1929, and exported to Australia. The family over here was sold to D A Prosser. Who then sold a member of the family to the new Weston herd of G J Thomas. From Weston Lively 6th was purchased by Llandinabo, where the family is today. The Livelys did produce one outstanding bull at Hampton Court, Spring Jack. He can be seen in an early photograph, by W H Bustin,along with two other bulls Rose Cross 2nd, and Red Cross. Spring Jack is the bull in the middle of the three bulls.
The Oyster Girl tribe is a most facinating read. At Hampton Court this family, one of thirteen, was not really one of the favoured. Yet after the dispersal of the Hampton Court herd the descendents of this tribe become unrivalled in their prominence. Three of the all time great bulls in the breed come from cows in this tribe. Lancer of Pitsford, Astwood Convoyer (Junior Champion 1934 and Grand Champion 1935), and perhaps the greatest of them all, Tarrington Optimist. The Haven had an outstanding Oyster Girl family from the early forties through to today, and several successful bulls were bred by E L Lewis and Son. No less than twelve females from this family have been award class winner at the Royal Show between 1939 and 1970. Six of these class winners went on to win the Female Championship. The key one as far as the modern day family is concerned is Oyster Girl 100th, bred by F J Newman of Lower Wickton. The Oyster Girls at the Wickton were quite outstanding, forming about a quarter of the cows sold at the Wickton dispersal in 1942. F J Newman won the Female Championship in 1939 with Oyster Girl 82nd (71/491). She was sold at the dispersal of the Wickton herd in 1942 to Lord Brocket as well as Oyster Girl 81st (71/491). Some of the dam lines and the sire dam lines in the AI bull pedigrees come from this latter cow. At the Wickton dispersal A E Everall purchased Oyster Girl 100th (75/261) He bred this line successfully and parted with the cow Sherlowe Oyster Girl 13th (93/454) to E L Lewis and Son, who started their Oyster Girl family. A member of the Haven family returned to Sherlowe, where a descendent was purchased by F W Cook and Son, for their Albany Herd. The Oyster Girls can be found there today. The Oyster Girl tribe is one of the most successful tribes in the Breed, and its achievements are only surpassed by the Curly tribe.
The Pearl tribe was considered with very high reguard at Hampton Court, and produced several famous breeding bulls for J H Arkwright, including Red Cross, Good Cross, Praire Star and Pearl Cross. All of these bulls can be seen in the pedigrees of animal still in the Club herd today. The line moved to Lynhales after the Hampton Court disperal. At the dispersal of the Lynhales herd a member of this line, Pearly 2nd (54/546), was sold to H J Dent. He sold a further member to F J Newman of the Wickton. Mr Newman sold "The Captain", Pearl 27th (66/504) to add to his Vern herd. Major Symonds purchase Pearl Vern 9th (79/695) and it proved to be a very good investment. The Pearl line at Llandinabo is today's resevoir of the Pearl family.
The Silk tribe was started out of an unknown cow by Reliance 278. The first named cow was called Silk, and the tribe continued to be called Silk until the late 1890's when a branch was sold to S Robinson, a relative of J H Arkwright by marriage. Stephen Robinson, and his son Stewart bred this line successfully till the Lynhales dispersal in 1924. Here "The Captain", R S de Q Quincey purchased the heifer Silk 6th (54/546), for his herd at the Vern. O S Hellyer purchased Silk 24th (77/383) from the Vern, starting a line at Eaton, a member of which branch was purchased by F M Symonds, where the Silk tribe are based today. Always quite a small tribe, it however, has produced some outstanding males and female, particularly at the Vern. Vern Dick 89659 was the most noted of sires generated by this tribe, out of Silk 25th (80/822) by Vern Robert 67228.
