The romantic story behind the Clumber's origin is that the French Duc de Noailles shipped his entire kennel of spaniels to the Duke of Newcastle in England to save his prized dogs during the French Revolution.

Little evidence has been found to support this story, however, and a 1788 painting of the Duke of Newcastle--a year before the French Revolution--depicts him with several white and lemon dogs who clearly have the look of today's Clumber. And the spaniels take their name from the Duke's estate, Clumber Park, in Nottingham. However they got there, the Duke's gamekeeper, William Mansell, is credited with shaping the breed as we know it today.

The Clumber Park Spaniel was quite popular with noble hunters in the mid-19th century. They even had a royal fan in Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), who kept them at his Sandringham House estate.

The first Clumber Spaniel was imported into North America in 1844 by a British officer, Lieutenant Venables, who was stationed in Nova Scotia, Canada. The first American Kennel Club registration of a Clumber Spaniel, Bustler, was in 1878, but the Clumber Spaniel Club of America wasn't founded until 1972. The Clumber is a rare breed, ranking 121st among the 155 breeds and varieties recognized by the AKC.

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