Robert Colling

After receiving "an ordinary education", he was apprenticed to a grocer in Shields; but "not having his health" he came home to his father's farm and commenced an agricultural career.

A "shyness" sprang up between the brothers, which became accentuated in March 1793; and the Barmpton and Ketton herds for some time lived apart, though later more amicable relations were restored.

A famous white heifer (daughter of the bull Favourite), which weighed 1,820 pounds (830 kg) at the age of four, was painted by Thomas Weaver, and an engraving of the picture was made by William Ward, and published on 13 December 1811, with a dedication to Robert Colling.

The heifer was purchased by two butchers, and exhibited at Christmas 1811 at the stables of the Three Kings, Piccadilly, as "the greatest wonder of the world of the kind", and then weighed 2,448 pounds (1,110 kg).

[1] He died unmarried at Barmpton on 7 March 1820, leaving his property to his brother Charles, a final sale being held on 3 October 1820.