THE KENTUCKY IMPORTATION OF 1817. 167 



been bred upon by fresher unquestionable Short-horn blood for more 

 than thirty years, there is but a* fractional part of the 1817 blood to 

 be traced in any living animal claiming descent from it. These 

 descendants stand upon record as having frequently been successful 

 competitors among the prize cattle in the States, where they have 

 been exhibited by the side of those possessing none else than pure 

 Short -horn blood. 



" Since writing the above, I have been favored with a letter from 

 Mr. H. H. Hankins, of Bloomington, Clinton county, Ohio, who was 

 one of the agents sent by the Clinton County Cattle Company to 

 England, for the purchase of Short-horns, in 1854. It is thus : 



* DEAR SIR Yours, asking for information relative to the Sanders 

 cattle importation of 1817, is at hand. I was, when in England, in 

 the immediate neighborbood of the river Tees, where Mr. Etches 

 purchased the cattle, /. ., the Short-horns. Before I left Ohio, I had 

 learned the names of the persons of whom the stock had been bought, 

 and also their locality. I made inquiry of many who are now breed- 

 ing Short-horns on the Tees, respecting the persons of whom the 

 cattle were bought. I found several who knew them from character, 

 but were not personally acquainted with them ; but was recommended 

 to call on an old gentleman, of good character, living near Darling- 

 ton, who had been a breeder of Short-horns at the time Mr. Etches 

 bought them for Col. Sanders. His name is Timothy Lanchester. 

 He told me that he had been an intimate friend of Messrs. Robert 

 and Charles Colling, and most of the other old breeders in Durham. 

 I gave him, the names of the men of whom Mr. Etches bought the 

 cattle for Mr. Sanders. He at once said that he knew them well, 

 and gave me a certificate, a copy of which I send you. I was recom- 

 mended to this old gentleman by the Messrs. Emerson, Harrison, and 

 others, who spoke highly of his integrity and knowledge of the old 

 breeders\in that vicinity. The certificate is as follows : 



1 1, Timothy Lanchester, of Haughton Leskeine, near Darlington, Durham, Eng- 

 land, born in the year 1771, do hereby certify, that I was well acquainted with 

 Matthew Shipman, Clement Winston, Thomas Reed, and Mr. Wilson, who were 

 cattle breeders on the river Tees, and who, it is said, sold some Short-horns to a Mr. 

 Etches, of Liverpool, which were to be shipped to the United States, in the year 1817. 



' They were gentlemen of the highest character, and their fine Short -horns were 

 considered equal to any in the country at that day. The importance of keeping 

 pedigrees was not so much thought of at that day as at the present; since which 

 time there has been a public record of the Short-horns kept in England, by which 

 may be traced, some of them, to the herds of the above-named gentlemen. I was 

 engaged in breeding Short-horns at the date above alluded to, and have been more 



