HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



35 



CHAPTER III. 



FOUNDATION HEREFORD HERDS Continued 



HEWER HEREFORDS. 



(ft 27) Indebted as we are and as all writers 

 on Hereford history must be to Messrs. James 

 Macdonald and James Sinclair for the concen- 

 tration of facts compiled by them in their 

 "History of Hereford Cattle" (1886), we can- 

 not do better than, with this acknowledgment, 

 quote them in this chapter almost exclusively. 



The student of the Herd Book will find that 

 nearly every valuable strain of the Herefords 

 at the present day is full of Hewer blood. The 

 influence of the Hewer cattle has, indeed, been 

 remarkable. It is not merely that a few fami- 

 lies that have become exceedingly valuable are 

 of this line of descent, but that the modern 

 character of the entire breed has to a large 

 extent been determined by this variety, not 

 alone as regards color markings, on which the 

 Hewer impress has been very powerful, but on 

 the more essential matters of shape and quality. 

 This being the case, it is needless to say that 

 a most important section of Hereford history 

 is that relating to the proceedings of the Hew- 

 ers. Here again, however, reliable information 

 is not over plentiful. 



It may be explained that the original idea of 

 the founder of the Herd Book was to confine 

 it to a record of the Tomkins-Price stock; but 

 this manifestly would not have been a Herd 

 Book of Hereford cattle, and the plan was so 

 changed that all the varieties should be admit- 

 ted. A Hereford Herd Book without the rec- 

 ords of the Hewer cattle would certainly have 

 been a curious production, comparable only to 

 the performance of the play of "Hamlet" with 

 the leading character omitted. This was evi- 

 dently appreciated by Mr. Eyton, and so in 

 Vol. 1, 90, bulls bred by William and John 

 Hewer were entered; but Mr. Eyton was either 

 unable to collect much information about the 

 Hewer family and their herds, or he did not 

 greatly trouble himself about the subject. All 

 that he has to say regarding them is that Mr. 

 John Hewer informed him "that the breed he 



now possesses has been in his family for many 

 years. A great number of the principal breed- 

 ers have had bulls from him. He at present 

 possesses more bulls, most of which are let, than 

 any other breeder in the county." Then if the 

 pedigrees are closely examined, it will be found 

 that so far as they are registered the Hewer cat- 

 tle trace back to a bull called Silver (540) 358, 

 as to whom the only facts vouchsafed are, that 

 he was white-faced, was calved in 1797, and 

 was bred by Mr. William Hewer, of Hardwick. 



Obviously there was not within the covers 

 of the Herd Book an adequate account of the 

 Hewers and their cattle, nor had former writers 

 on Herefords added any trustworthy informa- 

 tion to these scanty details. An effort was there- 

 fore made to find whether all the records had 

 perished, and if it were really impossible to get 

 some light thrown on this branch of the his- 

 tory of the breed. Although Mr. -John L. 

 Hewer, Aston Ingham, Ross, has most cordially 

 seconded our efforts, we regret that owing to 

 papers having been mislaid and to the habit of 

 the old breeders to look upon the sources and 

 management of their herds as trade secrets, 

 which must on no account be disclosed, we have 

 not succeeded quite so well as could have been 

 wished. Still, it is possible to remove much 

 of the uncertainty and misapprehension in 

 which the subject has been enveloped. The 

 account of the Hewer family that follows is 

 chiefly taken from communications furnished 

 by Mr. John L. Hewer. 



William Hewer, the father of John Hewer, 

 was a native of Gloucestershire, being one of 

 the Hewers of Northleach and was descended 

 from William Hewer, so frequently mentioned 

 in Pepy's Diary. He was born in 1757 and 

 married a Monmouthshire lady Miss Hughs, 

 of Court Morgan, near Abergavenny, about the 

 year 1787. In order to be near his wife's fam- 

 ily, he went to live at the great Hardwick and 

 Dobson's farms, remaining there for 28 years, 



