The Jacob is a British breed of domestic sheep. It combines two characteristics unusual in sheep: it is piebald—dark-coloured with areas of white wool—and it is often polycerate or multi-horned. It most commonly has four horns. The origin of the breed is not known; broken-coloured polycerate sheep were present in England by the middle of the seventeenth century and were widespread a century later. A breed society was formed in 1969, and a flock book was published in 1972.

The Jacob was kept for centuries as a “park sheep”, to ornament the large estates of landowners. In modern times it is reared mainly for wool, meat and skins.

History

The origins of the Jacob are not known. It has been bred in the British Isles for several hundred years. Sheep of this kind, little different from the modern breed, were shown in paintings from about 1760 at Tabley House in Cheshire, and – by George Stubbs – at Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire.

In the de Tabley family, the tradition was that the piebald sheep had come ashore in Ireland from a wrecked ship of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and been brought to England by Sir John Byrne on his marriage.

Among the many accounts of ancient breeds of piebald sheep is the story of Jacob from the first book of the Hebrew Bible, called by Christians the Old Testament. According to the Book of Genesis (Genesis 30:31–43), Jacob took every speckled and spotted sheep from his father-in-law’s (Laban’s) flock and bred them. Due to the resemblance to the animal described in Genesis, the Jacob sheep was named for the Biblical figure of Jacob sometime in the 20th century.

In 2009, a study that used endogenous retrovirus markers to investigate the history of sheep domestication found the Jacob to be more closely linked to sheep from Africa and South-west Asia than to other British breeds, though all domestic breeds can be traced back to an origin in the Fertile Crescent.

Some believe that the modern breed is the same one mentioned in the Bible (although there is little genetic evidence) having accompanied the westward expansion of human civilisation through Northern Africa, Sicily, Spain and eventually England. Elisha Goodwine, a sheep expert at the Israeli Agriculture Ministry, says that the resemblance of a British breed to the Bible story is a coincidence, that the breed was not indigenous to ancient Israel, and that “Jacob Sheep are related to Jacob the same as the American Indians are related to India”.

The Jacob was referred to as the “Spanish sheep” for much of its early recorded history. It has been bred in England for at least 350 years and spotted sheep were widespread in England by the mid–18th century. The British landed gentry used Jacob as ornamental sheep on their estates and kept importing the sheep which probably kept the breed extant.

A breed society, the Jacob Sheep Society, was formed in July 1969. Mary Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, who had a flock of Jacob sheep at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, was the first president of the society. From 1972 onwards, the society published a flock book.

Jacobs was first exported to North America in the early 20th century. Some individuals acquired them from zoos in the 1960s and 1970s, but the breed remained rare in America until the 1980s; registration began in 1985. The first North American association for the breed, the Jacob Sheep Breeders Association, was established in 1989. The Jacob was introduced to Israel in 2016 when a small flock of about 120 head was shipped there from Canada by a couple who believes the breed is the same one mentioned in Genesis.

Characteristics

The Jacob is a small, multi-horned, piebald sheep that resembles a goat in its conformation. However, it is not the only breed that can produce polycerate or piebald offspring. Other polycerate breeds include the Hebridean, Icelandic, Manx Loaghtan, and the Navajo-Churro, and other piebald breeds include the Finnsheep, Shetland Sheep and the West African Dwarf.

Mature rams (males) weigh about 54 to 82 kg (120 to 180 lb), while ewes (females) weigh about 36 to 54 kg (80 to 120 lb). The body frame is long, with a straight back and a rump that slopes toward the base of the tail. The rams have short scrotums free of wool which hold the testicles closer to the body than those of modern breeds, while the ewes have small udders free of wool that are also held closer to the body than those of modern breeds. The head is slender and triangular and clear of wool forward of the horns and on the cheeks. The tail is long and woolly, extending almost to the hock if it has not been docked. Jacob owners do not usually dock the tail completely, even for market sheep, but instead, leave several inches (several centimetres) to cover the anus and vulva. The legs are medium-length, slender, free of wool below the knees, and preferably white with or without coloured patches. The hooves are black or striped. It is not unusual for Jacobs to be cow-hocked. They provide a lean carcass with little external fat, with a high yield of meat compared to more improved breeds.