1852: Letter from Thomas Jefferson Cree to Joseph H Cree

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Wheelock, March 22d, 1852

J.H.Cree Esq.

Dear Sir,

Yours of the 21st Feb last has been received and my only apology for not answering sooner is the fact that my father lives some 30 miles distant and I wished to see him before answering you. I will now give you some account of myself and ancestry. I am American born 46 years of age next October, am married and have two children a son and a daughter. My father's name is Moses Cree, was born in Boxford, Massachusetts, was the son of Samuel Cree and Mary Fisk his wife. Grandfather Samuel Cree was born in Topsfield Mass, was of English origin and a shoemaker by trade. He had two brothers named John and Richard but little is known of them by my father. My father had 3 brothers viz. Samuel, Joseph, & Loammi, all of which are dead. My father holds that we are of Scotch descent that the "Mc" was once a prefix to our name. The Crees are rather a scarce article in this County, you being the first of that name that I have learned of except what originates from the aforesaid Samuel Cree my grandfather.

This branch of the Cree family have not been very prolific. Two of my uncles before named, Joseph and Samuel, lived and died old bachelors. Uncle Loammi has had but two sons. They have but few children and do not know as any sons. My father has 3 sons, myself included. Two are married. One now lives single. My married brother has no children nor will he be likely to have. So you see that the only prospect of propagating the name and race rests almost exclusively with me and my son as relates to this branch of the family. It has often been a query why there were so few of the name but it is not at all surprising to me when I look back on the facts just related.

The Crees are long livers and not predisposed to consumption or chronic disease. They are rather above the mediocrity for Education, are a stirring sett, full of business and energy, full of fun and frolic, not miserly but willing to live and let live.

You mention in your letter that there is a family of Crees in Elizabethtown N.J. I should like to know something of them if you are in possession of any facts relating to them.

I am politically a democrat. My Father and brothers are Whig. My present business and profession and business is the Law and farming with a little mechanical business "Yankee like" determined to obtain a good living some way and honestly too.

I do not see by what you wrote of your ancestry or what I have written of mine that we are very near relations but it is not at all improbable but what we sprang from the same common ancestor some generations further back than we know of and that to[o] in merry Scotland, the land of Wallace and Bruce.

I hope sir to be favoured with a further correspondence from you giving such additional information about the Crees or McCrees as is now or may come to your possession.

Respectfully Yours,

T. Jefferson Cree

Joseph H Cree emigrated from Derbyshire, England to New York State, USA, in 1843 with his wife and six children.

Thomas Jefferson Cree was writing from Wheelock, Vermont, USA. It is clear from the letter and other knowledge we have of this Cree line that he was a great-grandson of Nicholas Cree and Kezia Dwinell/Dunnell, founders of the Topsfield Cree line of Topsfield and Boxford, Essex County, Massachusetts. However his letter only mentions his immediate relations including his grandparents Samuel Cree and Mary Fisk. Ellen Lawson noted that the paper had the watermark of Congress in the upper lefthand corner, and we have since verified that Thomas Jefferson Cree represented Wheelock in both Houses of Congress.

Thomas Jefferson Cree
Thomas Jefferson Cree. Courtesy Rachel Cree Sherman through the Vermont Historical Society

In view of the absence of any evidence of the origin of Nicholas Cree, Thomas J Cree's comment about his grandfather Samuel Cree being "of English origin" is of particular interest. Since he has said in the same breath that Samuel was born in Topsfield Massachusetts, he must mean that Samuel was of English ancestry. One might assume this ancestry was not too far back, and that it was likely that his father was from England, especially since no trace of Nicholas Cree has been found in America before his marriage in 1723.

It is of interest too that Joseph H Cree was aware of the Cree family in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

The speculation that the surname was once McCree is a common one based only on the existence of that surname. We have seen no evidence that it is true. It does however lend support, albeit slender support, to the speculation that T J Cree's great-grandfather originated from the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man is one of only two locations (the other is Bolsover, Derbyshire) where there is firm evidence that the name Cree originated as a variant of a Mac name. In this case the evidence is strong that Crye was originally McCray, having evolve through the intermediate variants Cray and Cry. See Cry(e) in the Isle of Man.

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