BLACK HAWK 167 



possible, and that statement, " His darn was raised in New Bruns- 

 wick, and is described as a half-blood English mare, a very fine ani- 

 mal, black, and a fast trotter", is set down without qualification by 

 Mr. Linsley, a careful and conscientious compiler. Comparing this 

 with the statements of Shadrack Seavey, who had Black Hawk from 

 the day of his birth till five years old, " Mr. Kelly stated that he had 

 the mare of a man who claimed to have brought her from Nova 

 Scotia, and said she was of English blood " ; of Wingate Twombly, 

 son of Ezekiel, whose property Black Hawk was foaled, " Mr. Kelly 

 claimed he got her of a pedlar who represented that he brought her 

 from Nova Scotia, and stated that her dam was imported " ; of A. R. 

 Mathes, who bought the horse of Seavey, "I always understood 

 she came from Nova Scotia to Durham", and, "The dam was a good- 

 looking, large-sized, black mare, said to have come from Nova Scotia; 

 also said to have been from English stock, and from experience since 

 I should think she was"; and of C. H. Hayes, "The dam of Black 

 Hawk was a black, stripe-faced mare from Nova Scotia. * 

 Her dam was said to have been imported"; and it is seen at once 

 that the evidence of this origin and blood of the dam of Black Hawk 

 is about as strong as tradition can make it, even without the letter of 

 Mr. Bisbee. 



The statements of Robert Burns, quoted in Mr. Bisbee's letter, 

 are very striking. They are the only account we have of the origin 

 of the dam of Black Hawk, purporting to be from personal knowl- 

 edge, and this account, if there is no mistake in the identity of the ani- 

 mal, comes ultimately from the breeder himself. When we received 

 this letter, as its purport seemed to be that Black Hawk was 

 bred by Mr. Jacques, we did not consider it valuable and so did not 

 at that time follow it up. But on reflection we perceived that the 

 main fact, the breeding of the dam of Black Hawk, of w r hich alone 

 Judge Saunders would have personal knowledge, might have been 

 correct, though the statement of transfers after the dentist took her 

 to Rhode Island, being matters of report, might be inaccurate; or, it 

 is possible that the mare passed from the dentist to Mr. Jacques, and, 

 whether mated with Sherman by him or not, from him to the teamster 

 that sold her to Mr. Kelly. Mr. Parlin states that Mr. Bellows' 

 stud-books of Sherman begin with 1831. It is not certain that 

 the horse was not kept the season of 1830 by Mr. Jacques at Charles- 

 town. We have followed Mr. Linsley's statement that he was at 

 Dover, but the advertisement of Woodbury Morgan for 1832, by 

 Jesse Johnson, one of the best-informed horsemen of his day, states 

 that Sherman Morgan "was kept at Charlestown, Massachusetts, the 



