The first Labrador Retrievers
The key to the beginnings of the Labrador breed was the work of two English Aristocrats: the 2nd Earl of Malmesbury, and the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. And the key to the establishment and survival of the breed was their two sons.
James Harris was the 2nd Earl of Malmesbury, in addition to his life as a member of parliament, the young James devoted his life to sport. Specifically to shooting.
Malmesbury imported some St John’s dogs in the early 1800s and began breeding them for the purpose of working as shooting companions.
Buccleuch Avon born 1885 sired "Liver color pups"
Just a few years later, a Walter Scott, the 5th Duke of Buccleuch established a similar kennels breeding from imported St John’s dogs in Scotland
But it wasn’t to be until a chance meeting between the sons of these two men, that Labrador Retriever breeding became truly established in the UK.
Without that chance meeting between the sons of these two aristocrats – the two isolated kennels and their individual breeding programmes, may not have survived.
According to the records of the Buccleuch Estate, the 6th Duke of Buccleuch and the 3rd Earl of Malmesbury met whilst shooting in the late 1880s.
Malmesbury made a gift of two male retrievers to the Duke, who mated them to the bitches that descended from those imported by his father.
And the puppies that resulted are the ancestors of the Labrador breed we know and love today. The Buccleuch Kennels still exists today and is still producing top quality Field Trial winning Labradors.