[Mike1975]

One year after Watson’s article in Century Magazine, Mr. Ed. Bootman, of Halifax wrote an article for the English Stock-Keeper which claimed to know not only the types of dogs used to create the Yorkie, but also their names:

https://archive.org/stream/americanb...arch/yorkshire

"Swift's Old Crab, a cross-bred Scotch Terrier, Kershaw's Kitty, a Skye, and an old English Terrier bitch kept by J. Whittam, then residing in Hatter's Fold, Halifax, were the progenitors of the present race of Yorkshire Terriers.

These dogs were in the zenith of their fame forty years ago. The owner of Old Crab was a native of Halifax, and a joiner by trade. He worked at Oldham for some time as a journeyman, and then removed to Manchester, where he kept a public house. Whether he got Crab at Oldham or Manchester I have not been able to ascertain. He had him when in Manchester, and from there sent him several times to Halifax on a visit to Kitty. The last visit would be about 1850.

Crab was a dog of about eight or nine pounds weight, with a good Terrier head and eye, but with a long body, resembling the Scotch Terrier. The legs and muzzle only were tanned, and the hair on the body would be about three or four inches in length. He has stood for years in a case in a room of the Westgate Hotel, a public house which h]s owner kept when he returned to his native town, where, I believe, the dog may be seen to-day.

Kitty was a bitch different in type from Crab. She was a drop-eared Skye, with plenty of coat of a blue shade, but destitute of tan on any part of the body. Like Crab, she had no pedigree. She was originally stolen from Manchester and sent to a man named Jackson, a saddler in Huddersfield, who, when it became known that a five-pound reward was offered in Manchester for her recovery, sent her to a person named Harrison, then a waiter at the White Swan Hotel, Halifax, to escape detection; and from Harrison she passed into the hands of Mr. J. Kershaw, of Beshop Blaise, a public house which once stood on the Old North Bridge, Halifax. Prior to 1851 Kitty had six litters, all of which, I believe, 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. After 1851, when she passed into the possession of Mr. F. Jaggar, she had forty-four puppies, making a total of eighty.
Mr. Whittam's bitch, whose name I can not get to know, was an old English Terrier, with tanned head, ears, and legs, and a sort of grizzle back. She was built on the lines of speed. Like the others, she had no pedigree. She was sent when a puppy to the late Bernard Hartley, of Allen Gate, Halifax, by a friend residing in Scotland. When Mr. Hartley had got tired of her, he gave her to his coachman, Mason, who in turn gave her to his friend Whittam, and Whittam used her years for breeding purposes. Although this bitch came from Scotland, it is believed the parents were from this district.

The last-named writer has so fully identified the three dogs first employed to manufacture the breed, together with their names, ownership, characteristics, and other facts concerning them, that there can be no doubt as to the authenticity of the history of the origin of the breed. His history, although published in the Stock-Keeper in 1887, has never been publicly contradicted, and it is evident that there can now be no grounds for following the reasoning of writers who claim that the origin is a mystery.
The development since that time judging from an examination of the pedigrees of the most prominent dogs of the breed has been the result of judicious selection from and breeding with dogs that most nearly approached what fanciers and breeders thought ought to be the type; and it is probable that so long as a dog of this breed was known to have some of the blood of the original Old Crab, Kershaw's Kitty, and Whittam's bitch the sole progenitors of the breed former breeders did not inquire too curiously into the pedigree of all the dogs used. This seems to be a reasonable supposition, and should fully account, in the case of some prominent dogs, for the lack of a complete pedigree running back to the three dogs above named. It is a well-established fact that the principal strains have been most jealously guarded by the people in the north of England. "

According to Joan Gordon, Old Crab was most likely a Waterside Terrier or Clydesdale Terrier, Kitty was no doubt a Paisley Terrier, Whittam's bitch was likely to have been out of Old English Terriers from the Manchester area.


Then she adds " the threads in the loom were set and the task of weaving ready to commence. Taking the offspring of these dogs, the early breeders began spinning their bloodlines. With interest in prize winning and competition growing in numbers, the shuttles' pace increased. The Yorkshire's complete development is so woven into the developing sport of showing dogs..."


Here I want to add another great book "Dog shows and doggy people" written on 1902 by C.H. Lane.

There you can read about the Fosters and of course the first dog shows.

https://archive.org/stream/dogshowsd...e/106/mode/2up

If you have any other information on the subject please share it with us