Migrants of the Bolsover Cree lineJohn Cree of Bolsover was a member of the first Cree family of the Bolsover, one of three brothers who were born around 1690. He was the frist to move away from his home parish. In 1733 he migrated to Mansfield eight miles away, though in the next county. The parish authorities there insisted he bring a Settlement Certificate for himself, his wife Martha and his son John, who was just fours years old. Twenty-six years later the son came back to Bolsover, but only to claim his own "Settlement" and a Certificate for himself, that is "John Cree, Dorothy his wfe and James their son.". It is relevant to note that James Cree, who was in his turn now five years old, was to spend most of his life in Mansfield as a framework knitter, but returned to Bolsover in his seventies in 1827 to farm within a kilometre (half a mile) of his grandfather's birthplace, now held by his Cree second cousin. James Cree came to describe himself as a yeoman. His uncle also James Cree was a carpenter in Mansfield but moved on his marriage to Pinxton, Derbyshire, in 1776. But he died in debt and his children and grandchildren fell n hard times too as the country suffered bad harvests and economic depression. In 1843 his grandson Joseph Cree took his wife and children to America where they setled in Upper New York State. It was Joseph’s children who made the next step “out west” to their own farms. Joseph only made the trip in his last months, taking the oak chest that he had brought from Swanwick and, fortunately for us, his letters, to join his daughter Mary and to die in Clarkesville, Iowa in 1870. Another wave of Cree migration to Mansfield came in the 1830s when John and Jane tree settled there after periods as textile workers in Worksop and Southwell. The census records show many of their descendants living in the crowded terraces and both men and women working in the cotton mills. In 1861 their granddaughter Jane Cree aged 15 was a “winder of cops” and a lodger in her aunt’s house. Another lodger in the house was James Brown aged 32 an American “Visitor”, whose occupation was “Preacher (Saints)“. In 1864 we find immigration records in New York of Jane and her mother, and there are later adult christening and marriage records for Jane Cree in Salt Lake City, while her father seems to have died in Philadelphia on the journey. It seems clear that James Brown was a Mormon missionary and that it was his influence that inspired this Cree migration. The other two brothers of the original Bolsover family stayed there, but in succeeding generations they were to spread widely. Their descendants can be traced in:
|
An article in the Journal of One-Name Studies Motives for Migration by Mike Spathaky looks at the subject of migration generally, using the Cree One-Name Study to provide many examples of where and how people moved away from friends and families. (Journal of One-Name Studies Vol. 6 no. 4., October 1997.) This is a 2.5 MB download.
|