92 THE MORGAN HORSE 



and was kept there for breeding purposes". The adver- 



tisement, which Judge McCurdy found in the Watkinson library, at 

 Hartford, in the "New London Gazette" of May 7, 1773, is here 

 given in full : 



"To Cover this Season The bay horse, Young Wildaire, the 

 property of Mr. John McCurdy, of Lyme, at nine shillings a leap and 

 twenty shillings for the season. This horse is new broke, and like 

 all the old Wildaire's colts, proves to be a horse of great strength, 

 speed and activity, and as likely to alter our breed for the better as 

 any horse that ever appeared in this colony. His brother at Hartford 

 was sold last fall for eighty pounds lawful money, though but two 

 years old, and is gone out of this government, and the sire of him 

 and Young Wildair, which was the famed Wildair belonging to James 

 DeLancey, Esq., of New York, is gone back to England again, where 

 he has two brothers that cover mares at twenty-five guineas ; and so 

 greatly was this horse esteemed in England that he has been pur- 

 chased and sent to England at a prodigious price and charge, though 

 nineteen years old, so that there is none of the brand left in this part 

 of the country but Young Wildair. Therefore those that have good 

 mares will not miss this opportunity if they choose the best breed 

 ever in America or England. The owner purchased this horse for 

 breed, not for profit, otherwise he should not have gone to a mare 

 under six pounds at least. Those who choose to leave their mares 

 may depend on it that the servant that attends the horse will take 

 good care of the mares, etc." 



We have not been able to find in history any corroboration of 

 Judge McCurdy's statement that Col. James DeLancey himself was 

 captured, and we think he may have been mistaken on that point. 

 It appears by Lossing that he was in command of his battalion as 

 late as 1780; and, if it is true that he was captured, it would seem 

 that he soon found his way back to his old position, either by ex- 

 change or escape. 



Mr. Linsley's conclusion was, as we have seen, that Justin Mor- 

 gan was got by True Briton, son of Traveler. As to the dam, he 

 thought the evidence tended to show that she was of Wildair blood, 

 and that such was probably the fact. And here the matter rested 

 for many years. Mr. Linsley's conclusions were generally accepted 

 as being sound and as being probably all that would ever be learned 

 of the origin of the Morgan horse. 



But since Mr. Linsley's work was published, additional advertise- 

 ments of True Briton and also advertisements of Figure, afterwards 

 known as the Morgan horse, have been discovered, as well as other 



