It is considered to be the oldest American chicken breed,[8]: 121  and is thought to derive from birds brought to America by colonists from southern England.

Chickens with barred plumage, with either a single or a rose comb, were well known by about 1750, and by the mid-nineteenth century were widely distributed in the eastern United States.

At a poultry show in New York in 1870, the organisers ruled that only rose-combed barred birds could be exhibited as Dominiques; those with single combs were to be entered as Plymouth Rocks.

[2] The head is carried high, and has a rose-comb with a single backwards-pointing spike; the earlobes and wattles are red, and the beak yellow.

[2] The Dominique is a dual-purpose breed, but is kept principally for its brown eggs,[9]: 429  of which hens lay about 200 per year, with an average weight of 58 g.[10]: 33