Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McCombie, William (1805-1880)
McCOMBIE, WILLIAM (1805–1880), cattle-breeder, born at Tillyfour, Aberdeenshire, in 1805, was younger son of Charles McCombie, a large farmer and cattle-dealer. He was educated at the parish school and Aberdeen University, but refused to follow any calling except that of his father. The beginning of railway traffic and the improvement of agricultural methods and stock convinced McCombie that the old method of cattle-dealing needed reform. In 1840 he began to breed black-polled cattle, and founded the herd with which his name is associated. He was the first Scottish exhibitor of fat cattle at Birmingham, and he won in all over five hundred great prizes, including the cup given by Prince Albert for the best animal of the French or foreign classes at Poissy in 1862, and a similar honour at the Paris Exhibition in 1878. In 1867 the queen visited Tillyfour to inspect the famous herd, when McCombie gathered together from his farms four hundred head of black cattle. Besides his cattle-breeding McCombie gave great attention to agriculture, and was one of the largest farmers in Aberdeenshire. In 1868 he was returned as a liberal without opposition to represent the western division of his native county in parliament, and was the first tenant farmer representative from Scotland. In 1874 he was re-elected by a large majority. Failing health compelled him to resign in 1876, and he spent the rest of his life at Tillyfour, which he had purchased in 1875, on the death of his eldest brother. He died unmarried on 1 Feb. 1880.
His work, ‘Cattle and Cattle-breeders,’ first published in 1867, reached a fourth edition in 1886.
Aberdeen Daily Free Press, 3 Feb. 1880.]