Tregonwell Frampton

Tregonwell Frampton (1641–1727) was an English racehorse trainer, known as ‘the father of the turf.’

Frampton was born in 1641 at Moreton, Dorset, the fifth son of William Frampton, lord of the manor of Moreton, by his wife, Katharine Tregonwell of Milton Abbas. He is described by William Chafin as being in 1670 the most active pursuer of hawking in the west of England. He was at the same period a regular attendant at race meetings, kept horses in training, and owned a house at Newmarket, though he passed most of the year in Dorset. At Newmarket, he was "keeper of the running horses" to William III, Queen Anne, George I and George II.

At Newmarket he acquired a reputation for successful gambling. Henry Coventry, in a despatch dated March 1675, mentions a horse-racing match ‘wherein Mr. Frampton, a gentleman of some 120l. rent, is engaged 900l. deep.’ Frampton won his money, and in the racing records of the time his name appears more frequently as a winner than a loser, the amounts at stake being higher than was usual. In April 1676, for example, he had two matches in the same week, the one at Newmarket and the other at Salisbury, each for £1,000.

A well-known tradition on Frampton is given by John Hawkesworth in an essay on instances of cruelty to animals; but not from personal knowledge. This story is that Frampton's horse Dragon beat a certain mare, winning a stake of £10,000. On the conclusion of the match the owner of the mare instantly offered to run her on the following day for double the sum against any gelding in the world, and Frampton accepted the challenge. He then castrated Dragon, who was brought out the next day, and again beat the mare, but fell down at the post and died almost immediately. In contradiction, Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway, in a letter dated 7 October 1682, says: ‘His majesty's horse Dragon, which carried seven stone, was beaten yesterday by a little horse called Post Boy, carrying four stone, and the masters of that art conclude this top horse of England is spoiled for ever.’ A letter written by James, Duke of York to the Prince of Orange eighteen months after the date of Frampton's alleged cruelty mentions a forthcoming match between the ‘famous horses Dragon and Why Not.’

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