3t)3 THE BASHAWS AND CLAYS. 



■producing a trotter every time he was united with a mare of Messen- 

 ger blood, the case is a very clear one, in view of what we know of 

 the bearings of that blood, that he derived his trotting qualities, which 

 he transmitted to his own descendants, from his Messenger grandam; 

 and that the so-called Bashaw and Clay families are, in reality, a 

 branch of the family of the great and most wonderful Messenger; 

 and that they owe all their celebrity to the Black Coach horse of 

 mixed Lincolnshire and thoroughbred descent, which produced Samp- 

 son, the real founder of our great trotting family. 



Grand Bashaw was about fourteen hands one inch in height — a 

 full sized Barb. His son, Young Bashaw, was about fifteen hands 

 one inch, and was not in any sense a handsome horse. Whatever 

 may have been 'his inheritance from his sire, beauty was no part of it. 

 It is stated that during his first season's service, he got no more than 

 eight foals, and that some of these proved to be trotters, which is 

 •evidence that there was blood somewhere. Of this first season's ser- 

 vice came Andrew Jackson, the best trotting stallion of his day, and 

 the immediate progenitor of the present Clay and Bashaw family. 

 Besides Andrew Jackson, Young Bashaw produced Black Bashaw, 

 Charlotte Temple, Washington, and other animals of note. He died 

 in 1837. He was undoubtedly a horse of great superiority, and would 

 in our day be regarded as a pearl above price. 



ANDREW JACKSON". 



Andrew Jackson was foaled in 1827, and was by Young Bashaw, 

 from a black pacing mare of unknown blood. She was a mare that 

 came in a drove of horses (as was very common in those days, and 

 until the advent of railways) from Ohio to Philadelphia, She Avas 

 most probably a Western bred mare; was regarded as a good one; 

 she both paced and trotted, and was most probably a mare of natural 

 trotting habit, that had been taught to pace under the saddle. From 

 :a personal knowledge of the ways of going in Ohio at a later period, I 

 am able to say, that a natural pacer was hardly ever taught to trot; 

 hnt a natural trotter — by which I mean one of ordinary speed — was 

 ■often, from use under the saddle, taught to pace; and thus both gaits 

 were quite common, much more so than great speed at either way of 

 ^oing. 



The career of Andrew Jackson begaTi with an incident, which, 

 while it might have furnished the name for one liranch of his de- 

 scendants, came near, also, depriving the entire family of a name and 



