Monday, August 17, 2015

Sheep Brands

     When I think of livestock marking, I usually think of branding cattle in the old west.  I wrote about some family brands in the west a short while ago.  Cattle Brands  But I was quite surprised when I found a much earlier record about branding.
     Although the record that I uncovered was only about three hundred years old, it turns out that branding started much earlier. Almost 5000 years ago in Egypt1.
     Around 1700, as the population of Hampton, New Hampshire increased, the town found it necessary to require registration of ear marks on the residents'  sheep2.
     Richard Sanborne [Sanborn] and James Philbrick who lived in Hampton at this time, are both 7xGreat-Grandfathers of Jayme through Olivia Mead McKie.  I don't know for certain if the Richard Sanborne mentioned in this history is Jayme's Richard but most likely the Philbrick and Sanborne mentioned here are related in some way. 

1.  "Decoding the Range: The Secret Language of Cattle Branding." 2014. 15 Aug. 2015 <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/decoding-the-range-the-secret-language-of-cattle-branding-45246620/>
2. Dow, Joseph, History of the Town of Hampton New Hampshire From Its Settlement in 1638 to the Autumn of 1892, Salem Press Publishing and Printing Co., 1893

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