Richard Llewellin Purcell Llewellin, over a period of years and extensive breeding experiments, produced a strain of setters from the Duke-Rhoebe progeny bred to the Laverack setter. In 1901, the result of this cross was recognized by the Field Dog Stud Book (FDSB) of Chicago as the ‘Llewellin Setter’. The Llewellin’s sheer beauty, utility and type had never previously been remotely approached. The Llewellin setters were the first truly good field dogs.

Upon Mr. Llewellins death in 1925, William Humphrey, of Shropshire, England, purchased a dozen of Llewellins dogs and added them to the 14 Llewellins he already owned. Over the years and until his death in 1963, Mr. Humphrey imported between thirty and forty Llewellin setters from America and added Laverack blood from Mr. Law Turner and Mr. H. C. Hartley.

Mr. Humphrey retained the following families:

For over forty years, William Humphrey produced the highest-class setter stock, unmatched in superiority.

History shows us that inbreeding caused the setback of the American Llewellin Setter in the early 1900’s. The first Llewellin only field trial began some 10 years ago and has afforded Llewellin breeders the opportunity to see the top males and females first hand in competition. In that short period of time some outstanding field trial performances have surfaced against all breed competition. The breeding philosophy of some Llewellin breeders has now evolved into breeding the top performing Llewellins, the best to the best, regardless of their pedigree.

I believe that this breeding philosophy will result in producing the occasional outstanding horseback dog that will ultimately improve the breed and also produce a better quality-hunting dog and improve the overall health of the Llewellin Setter.