Fairfax Morocco Barb, Buckingham Turk, Helmsley Turk, probably Curwen's Grey Morocco Barb, possibly Whiteshirt gr c 1665c. Sire Line Fairfax Morocco Barb.

Some of the following equine genealogy incorporates the original research of Highflyer.

Thomas Fairfax ("Black Tom") (1612-1671), Parliamentarian Commander, later 3rd Baron Fairfax, laid siege to Helmsley Castle in 1644. For a wound suffered there he was granted Helmsley Castle in 1651. In addition to the Helmsley estate he probably acquired the existing stock.

Some of that stock may have descended from that of Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, one of the wealthiest landowners of his day who numbered among his estates Helmsley, Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. The Manners family was one of the earlier recorded breeders of racing horses, noted for their "Belvoir Castle running strains" [Robertson:32]. In 1620 Lady Katherine Manners, only daughter of the 6th Earl, and over his objections, married George Villiers (1592-1628), Master of the Horse to King James I, who was created Duke of Buckingham in 1623. To her marriage she brought Helmsley and possibly the breeding stock located there.

The breeding stock at Helmsley is often thought to be native bred, however, imported oriental stock has been documented as early as the twelfth century. The Earl of Rutland himself recorded a desire to acquire a Barb from Italy in 1609, about the same time that Lord Cranbourne purchased one in Marseilles, whilst staying with the Duc de Guise [Early Records:79]. The General Stud Book in its chronological list of Arabians, Barbs and Turks presents Guise, the Duke of Rutland's Barb, before the Fairfax Morocco Barb [GSB1:388] although there is no supporting evidence to connect the event with the horse. However, the notion that imported oriental stock was already being crossed with native stock at Helmsley prior to 1620 seems plausible.

Buckingham, favourite of King James I, imported many horses, both for himself and on behalf of the King. In June of 1623, Buckingham, in the fortuitous position of being both Master of the Horse and Lord High Admiral of the Navy, directed the Commissioner of the Navy to send to Madrid a ship with a capacity to transport as many as thirty-five horses which had been presented by the Spanish Court to the Prince of Wales, later King Charles I. Buckingham and the Prince had been to Spain to expedite the marriage of Charles to the Spanish Infanta, which failed to materialize. Later in August William Young recorded in his diary that "six horses and mares which the Marquis of Buckingham sent for into Barbary" made their way through Exeter [History of Newmarket1:307].

Buckingham maintained his own Highe Wair stud and racing stable. In 1622 at Newmarket the Marquis of Buckingham's horse is said to have lost a £100 stake to a horse belonging to William Cecil (1591-1668), 2nd Earl of Salisbury (formerly Lord Cranbourne, above, who had acquired a Barb in Marseilles). In 1623 Highe Wair was home to twenty-two mares, five of which were Spanish and three of which were Barbary, along with stallions which were Barbaries, Rennetts and a courser [The History of Horse Racing:43].

As Mr. Prior notes, Buckingham had access to many more imported horses than would have been needed for the royal studs or his own use and some of them were probably sent to Helmsley [Royal Studs:107].

After Buckingham's asssassination in 1628, his son George Villiers (1628-1687), who had been born at Wallingford House, Whitehall, and only a year old at the time, was raised and educated along with the children of the king. In 1635 his mother, the Dowager Duchess of Buckingham, married Randal MacDonnell (1609-1682), 2nd Earl and Marquess of Antrim, and presumably left Helmsley for Ireland where she died in 1649.

Thomas, Lord Fairfax, acquired Helmsley in 1651 as a "salve for a bad wound" he suffered at the seige of the castle in 1644 [Royal Studs:107]. Since there is no record of importation for the Fairfax Morocco Barb (gr c 1655c) it seems possible that he descended from the earlier Buckingham imports, perhaps crossed with original Helmsley stock. His famous mate, Old Bald Peg (f 1665c), may have also descended from the same stock.

There is no evidence that Fairfax himself ever lived at Helmsley, as it was at Nun Appleton that his daughter Mary was tutored by the poet Andrew Marvell, and had in fact left it indefensible and considerably damaged from the seige. While Fairfax had an interest in breeding war horses, (he had written a treatise on the subject), and had presented a horse of his breeding to King Charles II to ride to his coronation, no horses appear to have raced in his name and he is given credit for having bred only the Old Morocco Mare (f 1670c), suggesting that he probably retained some nominal share in the Helmsley horses until his death in 1671.

In 1657 Mary Fairfax, the only living daughter and heir of Lord Fairfax, married George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, whereby Helmsley was restored to him. He seems to have spent little time at Helmsley until after the death of King Charles II in 1685. Helmsley horses who had been confiscated, (1657-8, when Buckingham was detained at Windsor Castle), during Cromwell's tenure were formally returned by a warrant in 1661 from King Charles 2nd which ordered the return of "one Turkish horse, one barbe, and five mares". It is possible that some of these horses were the sires and dams of the Fairfax Morocco Barb and Old Bald Peg.

The General Stud Book credits Buckingham as the breeder of Spanker (b c 1675c Darcy's Yellow Turk), thought the best horse on the turf in the reign of Charles II, from Lord Fairfax's Old Morocco Mare. The Fairfax Morocco Barb probably remained in Buckingham's custody until his death in 1687.

It seems reasonable to suggest that Fairfax Morocco Barb was known by that name between 1665 and 1671, the Buckingham or Helmsley Turk between 1671 and 1687, the Holderness Turk between 1682 and 1689, and finally, Curwen's Grey Morocco Barb (or Whiteshirt) after 1689.

Place's White Turk, Darcy's White Turk, Sedbury Turk gr c 1670c (Helmsley Turk). Sire Line Place's White Turk.
According to tradition Place's White Turk was acquired in Aleppo by the Levant Company at the request of Oliver Cromwell, and arrived at Gravesend via Holland in 1657, on the ship Dartmouth, accompanied by Nicholas Baxter, Cromwell's Gentleman of the Horse. Presumably the Turk would have joined Crowmell's other horses who were said to be at Hampton Court [History of Newmarket2:213]. After Cromwell's death Rowland Place, Cromwell's studmaster, was thought to have removed the Turk to Dinsdale in North Yorkshire where he was thence known as Place's White Turk.

This tradition was based on John Cheny's speculation that identified the horse with Cromwell's import, and is unlikely. Cheny said: "The White Turk that got Wormwood, and also the Great Grand-Dam of Windham, I suppose to be the Turk of Mr. Place's, Stud-Master to the Lord Protector Cromwell; but this I am not absolutely certain of" [Cheny1744:x]. In all pedigrees Place's White Turk appears later than Darcy's Yellow Turk. Offspring of Place's White Turk occupy an approximate time span between 1680 and 1700.

Cheny's remark appears to be the original source for the information that Mr. Place was "Stud-Master" to Cromwell, which has yet to be confirmed by another authority. Mr. Prior found it "remarkable that Rowland Place should have accepted office under Cromwell, as his father was a devoted Royalist, and had to compound for his estate under the Commonwealth" [Early Records:20]. In the genealogical table drawn from Dugdale's Visitation there is no mention of Rowland Place occupying such a prominent position under Cromwell, while there is note that his son Francis Place was a celebrated painter. Author Roy Sherwood* advises that in an article by C.H. Firth on 'Cromwell's View on Sport' in Macmillan's Magazine', October 1894, Firth states that "A modern biographer, Mr Waylen, boldly asserts that 'races continued in Hyde Park during the Protectorate; and Dick Pace, the owner of divers horses who live in racing chronicles, was the Protector's stud-groom'." Firth goes on to say that Waylen "gives no authority for these statements, and neither of them is confirmed by contemporary evidence". The book Firth refers to is The House of Cromwell by James Waylen (1880). Sherwood suggests that perhaps Richard (Dick) Pace might at some point have been confused with R(owland) Place. It is also possible that stud groom and stud master were different occupations. Nevertheless, the possibility remains that Mr. Place's position may have been no more than another speculation.

*Roy Sherwood's books include: The Court of Oliver Cromwell (1st American edition, Rowman & Littlefield, Totowa, NJ, 1977; paperback Willingham Press, Cambridge, UK, 1989); Oliver Cromwell King In All But Name 1653-1658 (St Martin's Press, NY, 1997; Willingham Press, Cambridge, UK, 1999).

Through the years there has been constant and continuing controversy whether Place's White Turk was the same horse as Darcy's White Turk. While no definitive proof is available, it is certain that both Turks were covering during the same time span in the vicinity of Bedale, Yorkshire, that both of them were often bred to daughters or descendants of the Darcy Yellow Turk (also called Dodsworth) and that neither was ever mated with daughters of the other.

In a pedigree for Creeper attested to by James Darcy, he said that "Blunderbush Royall's dam was out of my own Gray Royall, and got by the White Turk". Mr. Prior observed that for horses belonging to himself James Darcy always used the term "my," which suggests that there were two White Turks [Early Records:36]. However, since the White Turk would have first belonged to Mr. Place, Darcy would have been unlikely to call him "my" Turk while he was the property of Mr. Place. There is also the speculation that Darcy called him simply "the" Turk because there was only one of them.

Place's White Turk left a number of daughters who were invaluable to the development of bloodstock breeding as well as two sons, Croft's Commoner and Wormwood.