To all and Singular To whome these presents shall come I Sir Wm Hawkins Ulster King of Arms of all Ireland and Knight attendand on the Most illustrious order of St Patrick sendeth greeting. Be it known unto all Men that by the power and authority granted unto me by his present Majesty King George III under the Great Seal of this Kingdom of Ireland I do authorise & impower John Cree late of Calcutta in the East Indies & now of the parish of St Mary La Bone in the County of Middlesex Esqr to take & bear the Arms above depicted & I do give & grant unto the said John Cree Esqr & his heirs lawfully begotten the above Arms Viz He beareth Argt 3 Olive Branches Slipd proper on a Chief Gu: a Ship in full Sail proper between 2 Besants; Crest of Dexter Hand holding a Civick Crown proper. Motto the reward of Integrity. In testimony whereof I have hereunto Subscribed my name & title & affixed the Seal of Office at Dublin 6th April 1786 W. H. U(lster) King of Arms of all Ireland.
The arms shown above are those on an official copy of the 1786 grant to John Cree by the Ulster King of Arms of All Ireland. That copy is in the possession of Martin Cree of Owermoigne. The text below it is a transcription from a different copy of the 1786 grant of arms. This appears to be a photocopy of the original 1786 record in the Office of the Ulster King of Arms.
A letter sent in 1981 by of the College of Arms to Mrs S M Cree of Soberton, Hampshire, referring to John Cree who died 1795, stated that, "His estate was inherited by his nephew James [in error for John] McMahon of Thornhill (son of his brother Terence McMahon) born in 1780 who by Royal License bearing date 1 June 1815 he and his issue were authorised to assume the surname of Cree only and to bear the Arms of Cree pursuant to a clause in the last will and testament of his uncle John Cree abovementioned." (We are grateful to Mrs S M Cree for sight of that letter. It turned out to be a blind alley for her as she is descended from the Scottish Provosts line via their Sprotbrough, Yorkshire, branch.)
One aspect of the coat of arms that is interesting and perhaps significant is its similarity to those of several Creagh families in Counties Clare and Cork.
Arms of Creagh of
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On the Creagh shield the branches are of laurel whereas John Cree has olive branches; Creagh has a red chevron between the branches which Cree doesn't have; Creagh has a blue chief (the top third of the shield) with three bezants on it where John Cree's shield has two bezants with a ship in full sail between them on the red chief. In spite of these differences the similarity is remarkable and cannot be accidental. Was John Cree wishing to pay homage to his Creagh ancestors? The family tradition of John's heirs says that the ship represents the East Indiaman the Carnatic.
So here we have a further clause of the 1794 will, of which we have no other record, being actioned. John McMahon the nephew did indeed inherit the Thornhill estate, change his surname and those of his children to Cree, and was granted the arms of Cree as originally registered by his uncle John Cree in 1786.
The letter to Mrs S M Cree also referred to an 1815 manuscript pedigree of John Cree (College of Arms MS 10D14/209). This recorded that "John MacMahon, otherwise Cree, of Thornhill in the parish of Stallbridge [sic]..." was "the son of James MacMahon of Ennis, Co. Clare (died 1783) by his wife Ellen, daughter of John Cree of Ennis." See The McMahon-Cree Pedigree of 1815.
When a re-grant of the arms was made in 1815 to the nephew John McMahon a subtle difference is wording was used. Purporting to recite the 1786 grant it says:
To all and Singular whom it may concern, these are to certify and declare that the Armorial Ensigns above depicted were on the 6th April 1786 granted by Sir William Hawkins Ulster King of Arms unto John Cree, late of Calcutta in the East Indies but then of St Mary La Bonne in the County of Middlesex Esqre. and also of the County of Clare in the Kingdom of Ireland and that the same appear registered.
On reading this I asked myslf, "Who added the words that I have shown in bold type?" They are the only reference we have to John Cree being of County Clare, or even of Ireland (although the 1815 pedigree at the College of Arms states that his maternal grandfather was John Cree of Ennis, Co. Clare). How much can we rely on a document published 29 years after the original grant? At present it is the only suggestion we have of John Cree's birth place, although there is circumstantial evidence of him being Irish." Had they simply been omitted by Rouge Croix Pursuivant in his 1981 letter to Mrs S M Cree?
When we examined documents at Moigne Court in the custody of Martin Cree, the current representative of the Thornhill Cree line, I found that the words supposedly added to the description of John Cree at the time of the second grant of arms in 1815, were also present in an official copy of the earlier 1786 grant. This copy, with the arms hand-painted at its head (as shown at the top of this page) purports to be a true copy of the 1786 original record in the Office of Ulster King of Arms.*
In contrast however, another official copy, which appears to be a photocopy of the original 1786 record in the Office of the Ulster King of Arms, and thus even closer to that original, omits any mention of the County of Clare. This is the version which is transcribed at the head of this page.
However official the 1815 copy of the 1786 record is, it is still a copy made in 1815. So we still do not have documentary evidence from a date earlier than 1815 that John Cree was from Ireland.
*From the "'Grants & Confirmations of Arms A.' now remaining of Record in the Office of Ulster King of Arms of all Ireland Witness my hand at the said Office this 25th Day of May 1815. [Signature] Dy. Ulster King of Arms of All Ireland."