Francis Cupiss born London 1798, Educated at Huntingdon Grammar School, Apprenticed to a Chemist and Druggist in London, Attended The London Veterinary College becoming a Member of The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons on May 11^th, 1822. After Teaching on the staff for a short while, love of the country brought him to Diss where he could combine the Business of a Chemist with that of a Veterinary Surgeon with a practice of some 10 to 15 miles radius of Diss, forming the company in 1830. In 1838 he wrote a thesis on the "The Liver of Horses" for which he was awarded a Silver Medal from the Royal Veterinary Society. In 1874 his wife and he visited a disused Private School in its own grounds formerly the Dunlop Academy to which Mrs.Cupiss exclaimed on first sight of the overgrown property "what a wilderness" however they decided to purchase the property and moved the business lock stock and barrel to this new address and renamed the site "The Wilderness" which is where the company has remained to this day.

Francis Cupiss Manufactured his "Constitution Balls" (which are still produced today to his original formulae) together with "Grease Balls", "Constitution powder, "Tonic powder and "Diuretic powder all used in his own Practice dispatching by post and rail to various chemists throughout the land and members of the armed forces both home and abroad and it was through this means that an Export Market was established and local agents appointed. A company trademark was drawn up depicting a horse "out of sorts" above a horse "all right" and this remains to this day unchanged as the company logo.

Francis Cupiss died in 1888 aged 89, fortunately having passed on his secret formulae to members of his staff and in 1904 the company became a Limited Company under the guidance of Mr. Aubrey Cupiss nephew of the founder.

The sales of the "Cupiss" products continued with Trade Stands being taken to all the major Agricultural Shows in the United Kingdom and to Dublin. Following this "Cupiss Constitution Balls" were produced under license in Dublin by May Roberts Ltd." with staff from Francis Cupiss Ltd. making regular trips over to Dublin to assist with this. Orders continued to be sent all over the UK to Top Show Jumpers and the Major Racing Stables with until the early 1970's large orders being sent to Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Ceylon with lesser size orders going to other countries, the dock strikes of the early 1970's resulted in orders becoming delayed, lost or spoilt and the increasing amount of paperwork involved moved the management at the time to discontinue the large scale export of the products in favour of concentrating on the UK Market, sales remained constant though the company did not advertise preferring to allow "word of mouth" to promote the products. With the popularity of herbal remedies increasing over the last few years a company decision was made that maybe use of modern methods of advertising would get the product noticed by potential customers who would not have heard of Francis Cupiss and his Herbal Remedies.

Throughout this time the formulae continued to be passed down from generation to generation with the "Clarke" family taking over the management of the company in 1950 with Francis Cupiss' Great Niece retaining a share in the company until her death in 1979. The company now has the Grandson of the first member of the Clarke family as managing director and the Granddaughter and Great Grandson as fellow directors.