The New York herald., 1921-12-25
QUARTER RACING
4 IN OLD VIRGINIA.
Court Held 1t Was Exclusively
! Gentlemen's Sport When
q Taylor Butted In.
18TH CENTURY TURFMEN
Randolphs, Blands, Harrisons
T. and Jeffersons Figure in
Disputed Contests.
18TH CENTURY TURFMEN
BY GURNEY c. CUE.

One of the earliest records extant
Of horseracing in Virginia gives an in
teresting insight into both social and
sporting conditions there in the days
when It's. laws were made and its Gov
ernors appointed in England. 1t is an
order of court made in the County OF
York on September 10. 1874. and 1t
recites that
"James Bullocke. a Taylor. having
made a race for his mare to rum with
q horse belonging to Mr.. Mathew Slader
for two thousand pounds Of tobacco and
caske. It being contrary to Law for a
labourer to make a race, being sport
only for Gentlemen, is fined for the
Same one hundred pounds of tobacco
and caske. Whereas Mr.. Mathew Slader
and James Bullocke by condition under
the hand and scale of the said Slader,
that his horse should rum out Of the
ways that Bullocke's mare might win,
which is an apparent cheate. is ordered
to be putt in the stocks and there sett
the space of one houre."
AS an example OF class legislation.
or 'one law for the rich and another
for the poor" this case would be hard
70 beat. but the even handed justice
OF the court, which, while 1t fined the
tailor. put the gentleman" in the stocks
for his written agreement to defraud
those who might bet on his horse, COM
pels applause.
!, Quarter Horses Supreme.
Though no other details of the bogus
match are disclosed 1t was plainly one
OF those quarter races which seem to
have monopolized the attention Of Vir-
ginia turfmen until we'll along toward
the middle of the eighteenth century.
The court records of the colony, par
ticularly In the lowland counties along
the James River, are dotted with such
cases, in some OF which men Of promi-
nence were involved as principals or
witnesses, showing that quarter racing
was not then confined to the outlaws Of
the horse world.
At April court in Henrico county in
1887, "Richard Bland. aged about 81
years, deposeth that in the race run
between Mr.. John Broadnax and Capt
William Soane. now in tryall. the horse
belonging to Henry Randolph, on which
Capt Soane layed, came, after the start.
drst between the poles agreed on for
their coming in" The deponent was of
that distinguished family from which
came Col Theodorick Bland and his
son. Col. Theodorick Bland, Jr., and
Richard Bland. all Of them patriots and
leaders in peace and war. besides be-
ing breeders and turfmen The owner
OF the winnep of the race was one of
the seven sons of Col. William Randolph
of Yorkshire. England, who migrated to
Virginia and settled at Turkey Island
!, in bend of the James. about fifteen
miles below Richmond, where he died
In I'LL.
William Randolph. another Of the
sons of the immigrant. was a witness
the next year in a suit growing out
OF quarter race at Malvern Hill.
where he offlciated as starter. His de-
position in the case is unusually inter-
esting as showing tho peculiar condi-
tfons which governed quarter races In
those ancient days. He said leach horse
was to keep his path. they not being to
crosse unless Stephen Cooke could gett
tho other Riders Path at ye start at
two or three jumps. and also that they
were not to touch neither man or horse.
Mr.. Cooke endeavored to gett the
other riders path as aforesaid according
30 ye agreement, but to ye best of
this deponents Judgment he did not
gett 1t at two or three jumps nor many
more. upon which they Josselled upon
Mr.. Epes horses path all most part Of
the race"
Race at Malvern Hill.
The scene OF this race was also the
Gene Of the great battle Of Malvern
Hill in the civil war. almost two CEN
turtles later. 1t Is the highest ground
anywhere about. and from the site of
the ancient Malvern house. built of brick
imported from England, but now a
crumbled ruin, one may look off to the
4 east and south over the serpentine
course Of the James halfway down to
Jamestown. where the first permanent
English settlement In America was made
IN 1907. Scarcely two miles away and
seemingly almost beneath the precipitous
slope toward the river Is Turkey Island,
which adjoins that other historic estate,
Curles, where c. X. G. Billings estab-
lished stud farm for his trotting horses
q few years ago.
On visit to Curles In the days when
The Harvester, 2 :01 Lou Dillon, 2 :01,
and Uhlan, 1858, were there, Ed A.
Upton, c. ]. Fitzgerald and the writer
I'm looking over the 5000 acre farm
came upon the old family burying
ground of the Randolphs. 1t was in
great cornfield, near to the yellow
James, but far from any habitation.
Save the solitary mansions OF the dead
not vestige remained OF the splendor
which made Turkey Island famous
among the baronial estates OF Virginia
when these early Randolphs lived and
dispensed hospitality in style not in
ferior to the barons OF England.
Mansions of the Dead.
As We stood on the wall which en-
closes the cemetery and looked down
upon tho graves within. all save two
were SO matted over with creeping vines
that the inscriptions on the large granite
slabs which lay level with the earth
could not be seen. The two marked the
sresting places OF Isham Randolph and
his wife Elizabeth, who have slept ther,
beside the immigrant since 1742. They
were the wealthy father and the mother
OF Jane Randolph. who at II welded o
young surveyor and farmer without for
tune. named Peter Jefferson, and rode
away with him-perhaps from hereto
his backwoods home I'm a clearing at the
foothills of the Blue Ridge range, to
become the mother of Thomas Jeffer-
son, third President OF the United States.
Shadwell. hamlet In what is now Albe.
marie county. preserves the name RiveI
TO their rudo abode In her honor Ighan,