Thursday, October 13, 2011

Heinemann and Russell

Some people assert their dogs are "descended directly from the reverend John Russell's Trump through Arthur Heinemann."

In fact, this is simply not possible as Heinemann and Russell never met. Russell did not own dogs continuously (he went broke at least twice), and he was, in the words of Dan Russell, his biographer, "a dog dealer" who would "buy or scrounge any terrier that he thought looked like work, make it, and sell it on."

In fact, Arthur Heinemann and the Rev. John Russell generally hunted different quarry. Heinemann was mainly interested in badger, and Russell was mainly interested in fox.

Heinemann, like Russell before him, moved a lot of dogs through his kennels. Dan Russell, who knew Heinemann very well says "he sold a hell of a lot [of dogs], they all went to work, many going overseas to all parts of the world." A fact most people do not know is that Heinemann was born in America and was, as his name would suggest, Jewish.

A few key dates in the lives of Russell and Heinemann:

1795: John Russell is born in Devon, England on December 21st.

1819, May: Russell buys a bitch by the name of "Trump" from a milk man that traveled the route between Oxford and Marston. Russell bought the dog without seeing it work, and judged it solely on looks.

1819: John Russell was ordained a Deacon. His yearly pay was 60 Pounds.

1826, May 30: John Russell marries Penelope Incledon Bury and they move to Iddelsleigh. They have 2 sons, the first dies at birth. The second son (Bury Russell by name) had financial problems for a greater part of his early life but eventually becomes the bank manager of Swymbridge.

1827-1832: Russell finds that before he can fox hunt around Iddelsleigh he first has to teach the locals not to kill all the fox. Fox are rare on the ground due to trapping and poisoning, and so Russell is forced to mostly hunt hare.

1832: Russell moves his family to Swymbridge, near Barnstaple.

1835: Russell is invested as Provincial Grand Chaplain of Freemasons.

1845: Russell and other "Masters of Hounds" found a fox hunting club at South Molton.

1871: Arthur Heinemann is born in Essex, England. This same year, John Russell -- very low on money, and now 76 years old -- gives up his hounds for the last time. Poverty had forced him to this point at least once before. Russell's hounds are purchased by Mr. Henry Villebois through whom Russell later meets the Prince of Wales.

1873: Russell becomes one of the founding members of the London Kennel Club. He remains a member until his death and accepts judging appointments but refuses to register his own dogs (he has only a few terriers left) as he believes working dogs should be judged solely by how they work.

1873: Russell meets the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) at the home of Mr. Henry Villebois. The Prince invites the Rev. Russell to a ball at Sandringham House. He dances until 4 am, and is invited back for Christmas Week. He charms Princess Alexandra and dances in the New Year (1874) with her.

1875: Russell's wife, Penelope, dies unexpectedly. It is about this time that the painting of Trump is painted -- a work commissioned by the Prince of Wales as a sign of friendship to the now old Reverend. The picture of Trump still hangs at Sandringham. The artist, of course, never saw Trump who was long dead. In fact, Russell had given up his hounds entirely at least four years before the picture of Trump was painted.

1879: The Prince of Wales (Edward VII) and Russell go stag hunting, with 2,000 riders and 9,000 foot followers. The Prince wades into a bog to cut the exhausted deer's throat. This same year Russell, in dire financial straights on an income of just 220 Pounds a year, takes a post at Black Torrington and leaves Swymbridge for the last time. He is 84 years old.

1883, April 24: John Russell dies at the age of 88. More than a thousand people attend his funeral. After his funeral, the few remaining dogs with him at Black Torrington (four very old terriers by the name of "Rags", "Sly", "Fuss" and "Tinker") are given away. On the day of his funeral his old sermons and other papers are found blowing around in the farm yard. Little or no written record of Rev. John Russell survives to the present day.  His obituary does not mention his terriers at all.

1902: Arthur Heinemann founds the Devon and Summerset Badger Club and buys the Cheriton Otterhounds. He claims the pedigrees of his dogs can be traced back to 1890.

1905: Heinemann sells off the Cheriton Otterhounds .

1930: Arthur Heinemann dies at the age of 60 after catching pneumonia while out coursing his dogs on a cold and miserable January day. Almost all of his kennel records and pedigrees are lost.

This is a repost from this blog, circa December 2004.
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