English references to the surname Cree (and variants) before 1537.

The Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, marks the English Reformation. It made Henry VIII the head of the church, abolishing papal authority in England. In 1538 Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's Vicar General, ordered that each parish priest must keep a book, and that the Parson, in the presence of the wardens, must enter all the baptisms, marriages and burials of the previous week. The book was to be kept in a "sure coffer" with two locks (one key for the vicar, the other for the wardens).

References to the surname Cree before 1537 are listed in the left-hand menu in no particular order. They are few and far between, suggesting that the name was not a firmly established surname. It is suggested that the instances that we have unearthed fall into two categories: strays from Scotland and variants of other surnames, such as Creed or Cray