Jonas Webb was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

 and stock breeder

Breeder

A breeder is a person who practices the vocation of mating carefully selected specimens of the same breed to reproduce specific, consistently replicable qualities and characteristics....

 who was responsible for developing the Southdown

Southdown (sheep)

The Southdown is a small, dual purpose British sheep but is raised primarily for meat. The Southdown breed was originally bred by John Ellman of Glynde, near Lewes, East Sussex about 200 years ago. His work was continued by Jonas Webb of Babraham in Cambridgeshire who developed the larger animal...

 breed

Breed

A breed is a group of domestic animals or plants with a homogeneous appearance, behavior, and other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals or plants of the same species. Despite the centrality of the idea of "breeds" to animal husbandry, there is no scientifically accepted...

 of sheep

Domestic sheep

Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...

 into its modern form.

Webb was born in Great Thurlow

Great Thurlow

Great Thurlow is a village and civil parish in the St Edmundsbury district of Suffolk in eastern England. Situated around three miles north of Haverhill, in 2005 its population was 980....

 in Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

 but began farming in Babraham

Babraham

Babraham is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about six miles south-east of Cambridge on the A1307 road....

, Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

 in 1822. He acquired a flock of the then rare Southdowns from John Ellman

John Ellman

John Ellman was an English farmer and stock breeder who developed the Southdown breed of sheep.Ellman was born in Hartfield, Sussex, but moved with his family to Place Farm in Glynde in 1761...

 of Glynde

Glynde

Glynde is a village in the Lewes District of East Sussex, United Kingdom. It is located two miles east of Lewes.-Estate:The estate at Glynde has belonged to four interlinked families: the Waleys , Morleys, Trevors, and Brands...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

 and bred them to produce a strain of larger size, earlier maturity and improved fleece

Wool

Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....

 quality.

By the 1830s he had become the leading breeder of Southdowns and in the 1840s and 1850s won prizes at virtually every annual Royal Agricultural Society

Royal Agricultural Society

The Royal Agricultural Society of England was established in the United Kingdom in 1838 with the motto "Practice with Science". The RASE aim is to promote the scientific development of agriculture. The society received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria in 1840.From its early days the society...

 exhibition, until in 1860 he won all six prizes offered by the society for rams. He achieved international recognition in 1855 at the Paris Universal Exhibition

Exposition Universelle (1855)

The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Elysées in Paris from May 15 to November 15, 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855.The exposition was a major...

, winning a gold medal

Gold medal

A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...

. Emperor Napoleon III admired his exhibits and was presented with Webb's prize ram in return.

Webb was also a noted breeder of cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

; his shorthorn

Shorthorn

The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late 18th century. The breed was developed as dual purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however there were always certain blood lines within the breed which emphasised one quality or the other...

 herd was praised by contemporaries and won him several prizes.

Webb died in 1862, shortly after breaking up his flocks and retiring. His sheep were exported all over the world, to countries including France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. He was commemorated with a statue

Statue

A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...

 at the Cambridge Corn Exchange

Cambridge Corn Exchange

The Cambridge Corn Exchange is a concert venue in Cambridge, England. It is also used as an examination hall for students at Cambridge University.-Building the venue:...

; it is now located in his home village of Babraham.