Early Hereford cattle history gives 

 only limited information concerning 

 those animals that had an important 

 influence on the breed. The Tomkins 

 family in Herefordshire is generally 

 recognized to be the most important 

 factor in the early improvement of the 

 breed. This began with Richard Tom- 

 kins, who died in 1723; was continued 

 by his son Ben Tomkins, known as the 

 elder, born in 1714 and died in 1789, and 

 concluded with Ben Tomkins, the 

 younger, the greatest breeder of the 

 three, son of the first Ben, born in 1745 

 and died in 1814. Tomkins the younger 

 had two bulls — "Wellington (4) and Silver 

 Bull (41). These are, so far as we know, 

 the real great early improvers of the 

 breed, yet we know comparatively little 

 of their life history. 



Following soon after the time of the 

 two bulls named came Sovereign (404). 

 He was calved at Purslow, Shropshire, 

 in 1820, and was bred by John Hewer. 

 Following Tomkins, no family had a 

 more impoitant influence in the develop- 

 ment of the Hereford than that of 

 Hewer. William was the father and 

 John, the son, the breeder of Sovereign, 

 was born in 1787 and died in 1873. The 

 importance of these two persons is in- 

 dicated by MacDonald and Sinclair in 

 their history of Heretord cattle, in which 

 they state that "the student of the Herd 

 Book will find that nearly every valu- 

 able strain of Herefords at the present 

 day is full of Hewer blood." 



Sovereign, also known as Old Sover- 

 eign, was sired by Favorite (442) and 

 was out of a cow named Countess. Both 

 his sire and dam were from the same 

 parents — viz.. Young Wellington (505) 

 and Cherry, by Wellington (507). Con- 

 sequently Sovereign was the result of 

 the union of own brother and sister, the 

 very closest of in-breeding known. 



Just what the personal characteristics 

 of Sovereign were we can only con- 

 jecture in part, for little description is 

 left of him. In those days Herefords 

 were variable in color, and so late as 

 1846, when volume 1 of the English Here- 

 ford Herd Book appeared, the breed as 

 based on color was placed in four groups 



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