1861-1943 This 5''x 6.5'' letter is on the Earl's stationary. Top right corner reads Barton House, Morchard, N. Devon. Top left reads Station Morchard Road. Letter has neat content about how he signed the item with his older more vintage signature. Letter reads Dear Mr. Colville. You pay me much too high a compliment in putting me in the top class by asking for my autograph which I applaud with the condition of my old signature, which I and so many seen in the dear old West of which I have many happy memories and where I have many dear friends. Yours Sincerely Portsmouth Devonshire England. Then signed Oliver Henry Wallop- Big Horn_ Wyo. USA. Dated bottom left corner May 27th 1931.The story began in 1883 when Oliver Henry Wallop graduated from Oxford and went to Wyoming. This may strike you as an odd move, but he was the fifth son in a titled line, without much reason to stay home, and he wanted to be a cowboy. So he settled near his Scottish cousins, William and Malcolm Moncreiffe, in Sheridan, Wyoming, raising cattle and horses. The cousins maintained their British ties, supplying horses to the British during the Boer War (1899-1902).
One account notes that the British liked to test the horses by riding the length of a polo field, so the Moncreiffe brothers built one; having the field at hand, they taught their cowhands to play.
In 1906, Oliver Henry Wallop became a U.S. citizen and he eventually was elected to the Wyoming state legislature. But in 1922, when the fourth of his older brothers died without a male heir, Oliver unexpectedly became the Earl of Portsmouth; he was thus obligated to return to his ancestral home in North Devonshire and become the first Wyoming state representative to move over to the House of Lords.
Wallop set up a horse breeding farm and had over 3,000 horses running on an open range of Montana and Wyoming. His guests included Buffalo Bill and Teddy Roosevelt
Price: £45.00
