CREE / CRAY / CREIGH
My 7th great grandfather, Nicholas Cree, is a mystery. I don’t know his birth or death, but only that he married Keziah Dwinell of Topsfield and had six children born there. His marriage record says he was “Of Marblehead”. This brickwall ancestor has many researchers searching for his origins, probably in Scotland.
Not much is known of his son, Richard Cree (1727 – 1769), my
6th great grandfather. I have
his vital records, and his death record states he was “a middle aged man who
was drownded”. I descend from his eldest
son, Stephen Cree (1760 - 1821), who
married his bride, Hannah Smith, in the town of Holden, Massachusetts, many
miles from Topsfield. The interesting
thing is that I was married in the town of Holden, too, about 200 years after
the marriage of Stephen and Hannah Cree.
Hannah’s origins are unknown, but I found her birth record in Worcester
in 1763, to her father, Joseph Smith.
Perhaps he is related to the Smith family of Topsfield? Another mystery.
My 4th great grandmother, Sarah Cree (1792 –
1835) married first at age 16 to John W. Ham in 1808 and had one child. Then she remarried to James Phillips in Topsfield
in 1815. They had two children and he
died young in 1820. Sarah never
remarried and died young herself in 1835.
Her daughter, my 3rd great grandmother, Hannah Phillips
(about 1821 – 1851) also died young after having three children born in Salem.
The Cree surname is considered to be Scots, a derivation of
the same CREIGH or CRAY. There are
several DNA studies ongoing to find the origins of Nicholas Cree, the immigrant
ancestor in New England.
Some CREE resources:
The CREE One-Name Study
http://www.cree.name/usa/topsfield.htm
The Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical
Society (some volumes available online at Archive.org, including Volumes nine
and ten with the Topsfield marriage records)
The True Genealogy of the Dunnel and Dwinnell Family of New England,
by Henry Gale Dunnel, 1862.
My CREE genealogy:
Generation 1: Nicolas
Cree married on 7 October 1723 in Topsfield, Massachusetts to Keziah Dwinel,
daughter of John Dwinell and Mary Read.
She was born 14 December 1703 in Topsfield. Six children born in Topsfield.
Generation 2: Richard
Cree, born 13 August 1727 in Topsfield, died 15 April 1769 in Topsfield; married
on 5 February 1756 in Topsfield to Ruth Johnson, daughter of Stephen Johnson
and Rebecca Towne. She was born 30
August 1731 in Topsfield and died 29 June 1800 in Topsfield. Five children.
Generation 3: Stephen
Cree, was born 30 October 1760 in Topsfield, died 15 October 1821 in Topsfield;
married on 27 February 1787 in Holden, Massachusetts to Hannah Smith, daughter
of Joseph Smith of Worcester. She was
born 22 May 1763 in Worcester, and died 19 October 1839 in Topsfield. Five children.
Generation 4: Sarah
Cree, born 30 September 1792 in Topsfield, died 3 May 1835 in Topsfield;
married 6 August 1820 in Topsfield to James Phillips. He was born about 1792 probably in Rowley,
and died 5 April 1820 in Topsfield. Two
children.
Generation 5: Hannah Phillips
m. Thomas Russell Lewis
Generation 6: Hannah
Eliza Lewis m. Abijah Franklin Hitchings
Generation 7: Arthur
Treadwell Hitchings m. Florence Etta Hoogerzeil
Generation 8:
Gertrude Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)
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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ CREE of
Topsfield, Massachusetts”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 27, 2018, (
Have you traced your Wilkinson history? My gr-grandmother was a Wilkinson, born in the Finger Lakes region of NY.
ReplyDeleteBill, Yes, my WILKINSON lineage goes back to about 1700 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1715 Thomas Wilkinson "of London" married Elizabeth Caverly in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. You can read that blog post here: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/surname-saturday-wilkinson.html
DeleteAlso, I have done a study of all the known descendants of Thomas Wilkinson. You can click on that link at the top of the blog page under the photograph of the Morrison House Museum. His probable kinsman was Samuel Wilkinson, and I have traced most of his known descendants, too, at the next tab.