| Notes |
- Difficult to pin down the correct father for William Creelman. Early Canadian Creelmans are tied to the well documented Samuel Creelman of Cholchester County, NS. However, there is no mention of this William. More likely would be this Matthew Creelman, possible brother of Samuel, who shows up in the Kings county deeds in 1774. Here is the story of Samuel and Matthew from David Creelman, a descendent: Short history of Samuel Creelman born about 1728 derived from information compiled by Carol Campbell and "History and Genealogical Record of the First Settlers of Colchester County" by Thomas Miller. He lived in Northern Ireland, probably in or near Coleraine, County Londonderry, and whose ancesters came from Scotland. The story prevails that a man whose surname was Ashmore received a contract to transport food to a camp of prisoners. He did this by horse on which were fitted "creels" or saddle baskets. Apparently he developed the reputation as being the "creel-man" and some of his descendents assumed this surname. When this happened we do not know but there are records of numerous Creelmans in Scotland, principally in Lanark County. Sam was married and had four children when he arrived in Halifax, NS in 1761. He probably arrived on the ship Hopewell with 350 passengers. He spent a difficult winter in Lunenburg before moving to Amherst, NS where he received a land grant of 500 acres. A person named Matthew Creelman also had a land grant in Amherst. We can speculate that it was Samuel's younger brother but we know little except that he disposed of his property and apparently moved away.
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- From "The Irishman in Canada" by Nicholas Flood Davin, 1877
In 1756, three brothers, Samuel, Matthew, and Francis Creelman, emigrated from Ireland to Nova Scotia. Samuel settled in Upper Steviack, County of Colchester; the other two elsewhere; and all grew prosperous. One of the sons of Samuel was called after himself. He had six sons, the second of whom, William Creelman, was the father of the Hon. Samuel Creelman, and the fourth, the grandfather of one of the law firm of Macarthy, Hoskin, Plumb, & Creelman, Toronto. William Creelman was a delegate in 1832, from Upper Steviack, asking the county sessions from the County of Colchester, not to grant a license to any person to sell spirituous liquors. When the petitions were read, there was a majority of the justices in favour of not granting licenses. But the presiding judge was dissatisfied with the opinion expressed by the justices.
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