They passed down The ancient history of the British Shorthair breed through legend and mystery. It is one of the most ancient breeds known today. The breed started when invading Romans left domestic cats in Britain when the Romans left in the 5th century, and then the cats intermingled. Some of these would have been Egyptian cats, the breed of the first domesticated cat. The Egyptian cats probably interbred with the local European Wildcat, known as the “Scottish Wildcat” or “European Wildcat.”
The offspring would have been domestic shorthaired cats with wild cats’ physical features, similar to British shorthair cats. During the Middle Ages, cats came to Britain for their rat-catching ability and cats to interbreed, so it is probable that further interbreeding with imported cats occurred. The outcome of generations’ worth of interbreeding would have been a domestic cat with the solid physical attributes and kind yet independent nature of its European wildcat ancestor.
The Romans had brought cats into their ships to keep the rats out of their food supplies. When Barbarians invaded Rome, they released many cats to eliminate rats that sprung up once food supplies were left to rot. The presence of domestic cats when the Romans left in the 5th century would have added to the already thriving population of cats in Britain, a product of intermingling between imported cats and the descendants of Egyptian cats. The cats that the Romans left would have helped contribute to the interbreeding that was to occur between their descendants and the European Wildcat.
During the 1st century through to the 15th centuries, several different breeds of cats were brought to Britain. In 1066, they brought over cats with the Normans. In later centuries, sailors imported cats worldwide to serve as mousers on their ships. Like the Roman cats, these cats would intermingle and interbreed with those already in Britain. The cats imported by the Normans would have bred with the then descendants of the European wildcat/Egyptian cat cross to produce domestic shorthaired cats, which bear a similarity to the Chartreux, which is one of the breeds thought to be an ancestor of the British Shorthair. The descendants of these cats would have been selected for their rat-catching ability to rid England of the Great Plague, as seen in the Old Style Siamese Rat Catcher’s adage.
Ancient roots in Britain
Around 2000 years ago, the Roman Empire also invaded Britain, starting with Julius Caesar in 55 BC. The Roman Empire ruled over Britain for nearly 400 years, almost 100 years after the collapse of the Roman Empire beginning in 410 AD. At this time, the Romans successfully invaded Britain with cats to control the growing rat population.
There are different species of cats in Britain now; however, the British Shorthair is from the cats that the Romans brought to Britain in the first century AD. The Romans’ main cat they got to Britain was the Egyptian domestic cat Fir. It was this cat that mated with the wildcats to produce a breed with the monopoly on a thick, short, water-resistant coat, which led to the evolution of the British Shorthair as a breed, with its old, less refined British cousin, the long-haired cat, almost dying out after nearly becoming extinct in the 20th century.
Influence of Roman cats
In 43 AD, when Roman armadas established the invasion of Britain, they formally introduced a new feline species to the British Isles, field cats with short hair that control rodent populations on ships. Upon invasion of the island, the Romans found the British climate too cold for the latitudinal accustomed long-haired Persian cat. Because of this, the Romans then occupied Britain for the next ten years, and upon return to Rome, they abandoned the cats in Britain.
These shorthaired Roman cats then intermixed with the local cats over the next several centuries. From a feline standpoint, the result of the Roman occupation has notably impacted the development of several modern British feline breeds, particularly the British Shorthair. According to an early British cat book written in 1874 by Harrison Weir, Roman cats “May have been distinct from the common cat of other countries” and “Were probably then, the first origin of the true British breed of shorthaired cats, which are found only in Britain.” He references the physical similarity of the modern British Shorthair to cats depicted in illustrations of the 1800’s. Summarized, the Roman cats were likely the ancestors of the contemporary British Shorthair breed.
Development of the breed in the 19th century
The increased popularity and preference for Persian cats in the late 19th century was a turning point, similar to the British Shorthair. After the first cat show in 1871, the Persian cat and other long-haired breeds became more popular than the British Shorthair, and by the end of the century, the breed was extinct. Breeders crossed the breed with the Persian cat to maintain the British Shorthair’s existence. They hoped crossing the two breeds would create a more robust version of the Persian cat.
The initial crossing with the Persian cat gave the Shorthair a more rounded head, a cobby body, and a much thicker coat. Unfortunately, these features were so strikingly similar to the Persian cat that the British Shorthair was likely to lose its distinct identity. During this period of crossbreeding, the Russian Blue also had an impact on the British Shorthair.
Blue and other solid-colored foreign breeds gained popularity in British cat shows. It implemented A breeding program to separate the British Shorthair from the Persian and other breeds to regain the breed’s identity and maintain its existence. Would do this by reintroducing new blood to the breed in hopes of changing its outward appearance by crossing the British Shorthair with the British Blue, a variant of the wild European blue cat, to revert the breed to its original form.
