Joseph Haber Cree's ancestry and family

Joseph's grandfather James Cree, in common with all Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Crees and many others around the world, was a descendant of Alexander Mackree and Anna Hancock who had married in Bolsover, Derbyshire, in 1643. See Cree in Bolsover, Derbyshire. It was James's father John Cree who had been the first of his surname to move away from Bolsover.

James Cree was a successful carpenter and joiner who was born and lived most of his life in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. He married Mary Haber daughter of Thomas Haber (or Heber), a farmer in Pinxton, Derbyshire, about eight miles from Mansfield. Her surname would be used as the middle name of her grandson, Joseph Haber Cree, and the first name of her great-grandson, Joseph's only son, Haber Cree. Between 1776 and 1789 James and Mary had six children in Mansfield before moving to Mary's home village of Pinxton. They were Thomas, Mary, Margaret, Sarah, John and William.

Thomas Cree was the eldest of James and Mary's children, born just two months before their marriage. He would have been in his twenties when the family moved to Pinxton. He married Elizebeth Cutts who had been born in the nearby village of Swanwick but who probably lived in Pinxton when they met. They were married in Pinxton in 1804. Their first child, Joseph Haber Cree, was born there on 24 February 1806.

As Joseph grew up he would be part of an always increasing family. His nine siblings were born at fairly regular two-year intervals. They were: Hannah who was to marry Thomas Frisby, but then died at the age of 35; Eliza, who died aged 15; Mary who died at 24; Elizabeth who, after her sister Hannah died, married Hannah's widower Thomas Frisby; Thomas who died an infant; Rebecca who wrote to Joe in America and lived to be 70; Sarah Ann who also died an infant; Thomas about whom little is known; and William, who survived to pass the name Cree to present-day descendants.

Joseph's wider family included his Uncles John and William on his father's side, and Samuel and Benjamin on his mother's side, who are all mentioned in the letters, not all favourably. There seems to have been a rift between brothers Thomas and William Cree.

Joseph would remember his grandfather James, as he was eleven when James died in 1817. In his will James left Thomas (Joseph's father) nothing but forgiveness and release from his debts, although he left Thomas's children five pounds each, "to be paid to their father for their care within twelve months next after my decease." He left his next son, John, a shop and two houses in Mansfield, while the youngest son, William, was made executor and residual legatee. This means he would receive everything else from the estate and was responsible for paying out all the bequests.

At the age of 23, Joseph married Martha Millward who was already pregnant with their first child, Eliza. Over the next few years they had Haber (the only boy), twins Hannah and Sarah, Mary and Elizabeth.

In 1841 Joe and Martha and their family lived at Hill Top in Swanwick, about two miles west of Pinxton. Joe's parents Thomas and Elizebeth Cree had moved from Pinxton to South Normanton a distance of a mile, where Thomas was now a butcher. They still had Rebecca, aged 22, and William, 20, living at home, together with a five-year-old granddaughter Sarah Cree who was an illegitimate daughter of their daughter Martha Cree who had died in 1838.

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Copy of the 1841 Census return showing the Cree family in Swanwick (PRO Ref HO 107/193/2)

All the transcriptions, notes and commentaries on these Letters to an Emigrant web pages are copyright © Mike Spathaky 2009.