Sire Line

Oxford Dun Arabian

A high quality Arabian imported from Aleppo in 1715, he was owned by Robert Harley, the first Earl of Oxford. Nathaniel Harley, a merchant in Turkey from 1686 until his death in 1720, had purchased the horse and shipped him to his nephew Edward, Lord Harley.

Nathaniel Harley spoke of the difficulties he faced: "Three Expresses have been sent after him, and all the passes of the Mountains between this and Scanderone ordered to be watched, and ye marine strictly guarded to prevent his being shipp'd off ... I believe few such Horses have ever come to England ... I've had so much trouble, Expence and difficulty at first to procure, afterwards to keep and now to send him away, that I think him above any price that can be offered, and am so little of a Merchant that I would not have sold him even tho' a Thousand Pounds should be bid for him."

The following year Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, wrote to Nathaniel Harley: "The fine Dun Horse which you sent over and came safe about a year & half ago is under my care & is very well, and is thought by all that have seen him to be the finest that ever came over" [Early Records:141]. The General Stud Book of those days, without a word to describe buckskins, called them "duns".

Edward Harley married Henrietta, the only daughter and heir of John Holles, the first Duke of Newcastle, and lived at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

There stood the Oxford Dun Arabian, who sired the unnamed mare (f 1717c) from whom most of Family 7 descends. The Oxford Dun Arabian Mare produced Miss Slamerkin (f 1729), the dam of the three good stallions and full brothers, Bustard (gr c 1741), Oroonoko (bl c 1745) and Portmore's Othello (bl c 1743). She also produced three good mares, Duchess (b f 1748 Whitenose), and two unnamed sisters to Othello, (gr f 1749) and (gr f 1750). Fenwick's Duchess won eleven races, seven of them King's Plates. Among her offspring were the three sires Chymist (b c 1765), Dux (b c 1761) and Le Sang (b c 1759). Sister to Othello was the 3rd dam of Mufti* (b c 1783). The second Sister to Othello was the 3rd dam of the Derby winner Saltram* (br c 1780).