The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

by John Hankins Wallace

Again, in his great quarto work, issued 1809, Mr. Lawrence reiterates his belief that Sampson was not thoroughbred. He says:

“I am by no means disposed to retract my opinion concerning Robinson’s Sampson. Not only did the account of the groom appear to me to be entitled to credit, but the internal evidence of the horse’s having had in him a cross of common blood is sufficiently strong by the appearance both of the horse himself and of his stock; an idea in which every sportsman, I believe, who remembers Engineer, Mambrino and others will agree with me.”

Here then, we have the answer to the whole inquiry reduced to its simplest form. The groom who coupled the mare with Blaze from which came Sampson says the mare was called a Hip mare, but that her pedigree was really unknown. For the intelligence and honesty of this groom Mr. Lawrence does not hesitate to vouch, and he adds the common belief of all the Yorkshire sportsmen of that day, who knew the mare, that she was of unknown breeding. This evidence is further supplemented by the family characteristics of the stock descended from Sampson, to say nothing of the great lack of “blood” in the appearance of Sampson himself. As against this we have the dry, unsupported assertion of Mr. Weatherby, forty years after the event, and probably copied from an advertisement of the horse. In view of all this we must tabulate the pedigree of Sampson as follows:

Sampson (1745).	{ Blaze	{ Childers	{ Darley Arabian.
			{ Betty Leeds.
		{ Confederate Filly	{ Grey Grantham.
			{ D. of Black Barb.
	{ Called a Hip Mare (Unknown).

Engineer, son of Sampson, was a brown horse, foaled 1755, and was out of Miner’s dam, by Young Greyhound; grandam by Curwen’s Bay Barb, and the next dam unknown. This is all the pedigree that has ever been even claimed for this horse, and it falls far short of the rank of thoroughbred. That the eye may take it all in at a glance we will here put it into tabular form. There is a discrepancy of one year between Weatherby and Pick in the age of the horse, and we find Pick is right in giving his date as 1755.

Engineer (1755).	{ Sampson	{ Blaze	{ Childers.
			{ Confederate Filly.
		{ Unknown.
	{ Miner’s dam	{ Young Greyhound	{ Greyhound.
			{ Pet mare.
		{ D. of Bay Barb	{
			{ Unknown.

Notwithstanding the absence of Eastern blood, Engineer was a race horse of above average ability, although not so good as another son of Sampson called Bay Malton. A few of his sons aside from Mambrino ran respectably, and his daughters were, at one time, highly prized as brood mares.

Mambrino, the son of Engineer, was a great strong-boned grey horse, bred by John Atkinson near Leeds in Yorkshire, and was foaled 1768. His dam was by Cade, son of the Godolphin Arabian; g. d. by Bolton Little John; g. g. d. Favorite by a son of Bald Galloway, etc. The Cade mare produced Dulcine, a noted performer, and the mare Favorite was a distinguished performer herself. The poverty of this pedigree is all on the side of the sire, as will be seen by a brief tabulation.