Senior Yorkie Talker
Join Date: May 2012 Location: Athens, Greece
Posts: 174
| I found an interesting letter published in " Halifax Courier" concerning Joshua Swift - the owner of Old Crab Star of Pellon led the way for Calderdale's Yorkies - Halifax Courier Quote:
Most of the following details are taken from an account by Edward Boothman of 32 Woodhead Street, Pellon, published in "The English Stockkeeper" of 1887.
In the late 1840s, Joshua Swift, a Halifax-born journeyman joiner then living in Oldham, Lancs, owned a dog called "Old Crab."
Boothman says that Crab had "a good terrier head and eye, but with a long body, resembling the Scotch Terrier," but no pedigree.
His owner brought him across to Halifax, where Crab was mated with "Kitty", a drop-eared Skye Terrier. Kitty had come via dubious means into the hands of a Mr Harrison, a waiter at the old White Swan Hotel in Crown Street. Harrison passed her on to J Kershaw, landlord of the Bishop Blaize public house, 4 Charlestown Road, near old North Bridge. Boothman tells us "Prior to 1851 Kitty had six litters, all of which were by Crab.
"In these six litters she had thirty-six puppies, twenty-eight of which were dogs, and served to stock the district with rising sires."
In 1851, Kitty was sold to Mr F Jagger, after which she had forty-four more puppies.
John Wittam, a railway labourer, of 8 & 9 Hatters Fold, Causeway (near the Parish Church) also had a bitch, "an Old English Terrier, with tanned head, ears and legs, and a sort of grizzle back." Her name is not recorded, but she too had no pedigree, and had originally been sent to Bernard Hartley, a wealthy merchant, of Allangate, near King Cross, by a friend in Scotland.
In due course, Hartley passed her on to his coachman, Mason; and he in turn gave her to Mr Wittam. She also was mated with Crab, and holds a most significant place in the Yorkshire Terrier pedigree. Returning from Manchester to live in Halifax, Joshua Swift became landlord of the Westgate Hotel. He brought Crab with him. After death, the dog's body was stuffed, placed in a glass case, and displayed for decades in the hotel. Boothman gives the impression the dog was still on display there in 1887. But Joshua Swift had died in 1870, and his widow Martha succeeded him as licensee of the Westgate.
"J Kershaw" may have been the Joseph Kershaw who later operated a beerhouse in New Road, Halifax, in 1861. I cannot trace an F Jagger in this area at the right time.
By 1891 Edward Boothman had moved to Upper Mile Cross, Highroadwell. Later still, he moved to the Bradford area, where he died in 1929.
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Swift's Old Crab and Kershaw's Kitty were both in Huddersfield Ben pedigree https://archive.org/stream/TheKennel.../n609/mode/2up
If you look closely the grandsire of Ben is " Thomas Ramsden's Bounce".
This is the same dog that Stonehenge is referring to in his book https://archive.org/stream/dogsofbri.../n277/mode/2up Quote:
"SINCE the first edition of this book was published, a considerable change has taken place in the type of several of the terrier family. At that time the Yorkshire terrier was represented by an animal only slightly differing from the old Scotch dog, his shape being nearly exactly the same, and his coat differing simply in being more silky. Such an animal was Mr. Spink's Bounce as introduced in the accompanying engraving, and by comparing his portrait with that of Mrs. Foster's Huddersfield Ben, illustrating the article on the Yorkshire terrier, it will readily be seen that a great development of coat has been accomplished in the latter; and, indeed, that except in colour there is a vast difference between the two. A facsimile of Bounce would have a faint chance of taking a prize even in a small show, under the present state of canine law, whether exhibited as a Yorkshire " blue tan," or simply as a broken- haired terrier ; and though the strain to which he belongs is common enough, it
can scarcely be considered as anything but nondescript. So also with the type represented by Mr. Eadclyffe's Eough ; many such dogs are scattered about through England and Wales, but they have no locus standi on the show bench ; and, as Mr. Radclyffe himself found by experience, it is useless to exhibit them if successful prize-taking is the aim of their owners, " Rough " took my fancy greatly when shown unsuccessfully at Islington in 1865, and I have understood that the breed is remarkably game and excellent as a vermin killer. "
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Stonehenge is referring to him as "Mr. Spink's Bounce".
According to Joan Gordon, Mr. Spink owned Bounce but later he sold him to Mr. Ramsden.
In Ben's Pedigree among others we can find a dog named Haigh's Teddy.
This is a son of Swift's Old Crab and Kershaw's Kitty - one of the 28 males that Kitty had with Crab.
Haigh's Teddy son was (Old) Sandy (No 3652) https://archive.org/stream/TheKennel.../n613/mode/2up
As you can see Sandy is listed under 7lbs. So the small size was available to them after ONLY one generation.
More about the weight history you can find here Weight History Of the Yorkshire Terrier |