The General Stud Book says that he was "also called Sedbury Turk, was the sire of Old Hautboy, Grey Royal, Cannon, etc." The D'Arcy White Turk was said to come from Aleppo, Syria, and his barn name was allegedly "Snowball."
He is often confused with and sometimes presumed to be the same as Place's White Turk, but this is incorrect. Rowland Place's stallion was imported in 1657, and since the D'Arcy White Turk was known to be covering mares at James D'Arcy's (the younger) Sedbury Stud, Yorkshire c.1690, this cannot be the same horse. Along with Place's White Turk, the D'Arcy White Turk is one of several grey stallions imported in this early period, and his success is partly responsible for the early proliferation of grey horses in the foundations of the breed.
His most important offspring was (Old) Hautboy, a grey colt produced from a Royal Mare, the founder of Bruce Lowe's family #11. Hautboy proved an extremely influential stallion. His male line lived on for several more generations, through his son Grey Hautboy (dam unknown). Grey Hautboy's best son, the great runner and sire Bay Bolton, sired Old Starling, Looby, Patriot, Whitefoot, Syphax, Camilla, and Sloven, besides the dams of Young Belgrade, Jew Trump, Rainbow, and the granddam of Marske. Old Starling carried the line forward another generation, as sire of Ancaster Starling and Skim. Grey Hautboy also sired Lamprie (sire of Young Lamprie), and Grey Ramsden.
Hautboy's other important sons were Clumsey, (Old) Wyndham, and an unnamed son. Clumsey was the sire of Fox (sire of the dam of Snap) and Fox Cub, both foaled in 1714. Although the GSB credits (Old) Hautboy as the sire of Windham (Wyndham), a grey colt foaled in 1719, it is more probable that he sired (Old) Wyndham, who ran at Newmarket in 1710, and who was probably the sire of the 1719 Windham (Wyndham). Both (Old) Wyndham and Windham/Wyndham had a moderate influence on the stud book. A "son of Hautboy" was the sire of the mare Darcy's Queen.
Among Hautboy's daughters were the important brood mares Grey Wilkes (family #11), from whom such horses as Venison and St. Simon descent; the dam of (Lister's) Snake, and important early sire, and Mr. Brewster's famous (unnamed) mare (the dam of the racehorses and sires Almanzor, Graham's Champion, Terror, and Aleppo).
The D'Arcy White Turk almost certainly also sired (Croft's) Commoner, ancestor of Miss/Mother Neasham, although the GSB credits Place's White Turk as his sire. He also sired Darcy's Luggs, a colt out of "a foreign mare" (actually, a Neopolitan mare), who shows up in the roots of family #19, and as the granddam of Thunderbolt and his sister. The D'Arcy White Turk also sired the good runner Cannon.
The most important daughter of the Darcy White Turk was Grey Royal, foaled from a mare by Darcy's Yellow Turk out of Royal Mare (Family #13). Grey Royal was the dam of Christopher (Kitt) Darcy's Royal Mare (by Blunderbuss), who sent this family line forward.
--Anne Peters
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