Buccleuch and the History of the Labrador Retriever

By Jack Vanderwyk

Fisherman's and whalers sailed the so called "new world" as early as the fifteenth century. In 1494 Newfoundland was "discovered" by traders from Bristol, and in 1504 the Bristol Company established its first settlement.

Newfoundland's fishing industry grew and prospered, while fleets of fishing boats from England and other European countries fished the cold waters.

In 1662, W.E. Cormack, a native of St. John's, Newfoundland, travelled on foot across the country. In the account of his journey he wrote that he saw small water dogs, which he described as "admirably trained as retrievers in fowling and are otherwise useful - - the smooth or shorthaired dog is preferred, because in frosty weather, the long haired kind become incumbered with ice on coming out off the water."
The "shorthaired dog" was the one we came to know as the Labrador retriever, whereas the "long haired kind" was the Newfoundlander. They were not interbred.

The dogs which evolved into retrievers were called St. Huberts Hounds. They were used to help bring in the catch for the fishermen. Later on the St. Huberts Hound became known as the Lesser Newfoundland, or more commonly the St. Johns Water Dog, and eventually the Labrador Retriever.

The fishermen's dogs not only had to help haul in the catch and retrieve the fish that got out of the net, but they also had to be able to retrieve upland birds and waterfowl on hunting exertions inland.

In 1830 Colonel Hawker referred to the St. Johns Water Dogs as, "by far the best for any kind of shooting he is generally black and no bigger than a pointer, very fine in legs with short smooth hair and does not carry his tail so much curled; is extremely quick retrieving, swimming and fighting."
It didn't take long before the fishermen started bringing back not only the fish caught off the grand banks of Newfoundland, but also some of the best retrievers, to be sold on the market. The main port of import for the "St. Johns Water Dogs" was the port of Poole, and in the 1830s these valuable dogs went into selective breeding programs in England and Scotland.

But while the breeding in Britain continued, heavy dog taxes in Canada, as well as an English quarantine law, spelled the end for the original breeding stock in Newfoundland.

Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott (1806-1884), the 5th Duke of Buccleuch and 7th Duke of Queensberry, succeeded his father to the Dukedom of Buccleuch in 1819. The 5th Duke was also one of the first to import Labrador dogs from Newfoundland in the 1830s, just as his brother, Lord John Scott, the  10th Earl of Home, and the 2nd Earl of Malmesbury.
In his stud books we find the dogs that belong to the very first recorded Labrador retrievers: Lord Malmesbury's Sweep (1877) and Lord Malmesbury's Juno (1878). They produced Buccleuch Ned (1882). In a letter dated 1887, written to the 6th Duke of Buccleuch, the 3rd Earl of Malmesbury first called the dogs "Labrador Dogs." "We always call mine Labrador dogs and I have kept the breed as pure as I could from the first I had -- the real breed may be known by their having a close coat which turns water off like oil, and, about all, a tail like an otter."
 
 

First page of Stud Book Of The Duke of Buccleuch's Labrador Retrievers  
 
 

When organized shooting of pheasant, grouse and partridges became popular among the landed gentry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Labrador retriever became popular, and more and more pointers and setters were replaced with retrievers.

On July 7, 1903 the Labrador Retriever was first recognized as a special breed by the Kennel Club, at which time it was decided to give classes at the Kennel Club Show for Labradors as a separate breed. On November 3, 1903, the Labrador retriever was definitely recognized as a separate breed, and on January 3, 1905, the breed was separately classified as a sub-variety of retrievers.
 

The present Duke of Buccleuch is patron of the Labrador Club of Scotland, established in 1941.
 

Further reading: The Buccleuch Labrador .