50 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



Old Richard Tomkins was famous for his work oxen, 

 and thought so much of his cattle that they were 

 specifically mentioned in a division of his property 

 made in 1720. One cow called Silver, in particular, 

 and her calf, were allotted specially to his son Ben- 

 jamin commonly referred to as "the elder" in con- 

 tradistinction to his own son of the same name, "the 

 younger," the subject of this reference. This in- 

 cident of the Silver cow is significant because the 

 grandson is said to have laid the foundation of his 

 celebrated herd nearly 50 years later, mainly by 

 the use of a sire called the Silver Bull (41). It is 

 not a violent presumption, therefore, to assume that 

 this name indicated a strain of outstanding merit 

 running through the original Tomkins stock, which 

 was carefully preserved and passed on from father 

 to son as a precious possession. 



Benjamin, the elder, born in 1714, farmed at 

 Court House and Wellington Court, at which latter 

 place Benjamin junior was born in 1745. The father 

 died in 1789. We have but meager details as to his 

 operations with cattle, but it is supposed that he pre- 

 served the old blood and that Benjamin the younger 

 first established his eminence as a cattle breeder by 

 the use of the Silver Bull mentioned above. 



The purchase of two cows at Kington Fair about 

 1766 is mentioned by English authorities as among 

 the earliest investments of Benjamin the younger. 

 It must of course be understood that this was long 

 before the days of recorded pedigrees and herd 

 books. All that is known is that, according to Mr. 



