Reuben (the first) Greentree

  General Notes:

& source: Keith Shrimpton where it is noted:
REUBEN GREENTREE AND ANN FARLOW.
Reuben Greentree was born in the Parish of Warblington Hampshire in 1803, and baptised at St. Thomas' Church on 30th November 1803. He came to Wilberforce with his family between 1816 and 1818 and married Ann Farlow at St. Matthews Windsor on 3rd October 1825. John Chave, Richard Dunstan and Barnabas Rix were witnesses to the marriage. Mary Ann, the first of their eight children was born at Wilberforce on 13th January 1827, and baptised at St. Matthews by the Reverend Mears.
By 1828 Reuben was farming on his own account, the Census records that he had twenty-three acres all cleared and cultivated. He also had three horses and twenty one-year old Thomas Rock to help him on the farm. Reuben and Ann's second child Robert was born at Wilberforce on 15th June 1829 and not long after, Reuben petitioned Governor Darling requesting an allotment of land. In his petition he stated that he was supporting his mother who was living with him; he was married to a daughter of Mr Robert Farlow; had two children and was renting forty acres of land. His petition was apparently to no avail a search at the Land Titles Office has failed to find a Crown Grant to a Reuben Greentree. Another daughter, Maria, was born at Freeman's Reach on 14th March 1830. Their remaining children Henry, Ann, Elizabeth Jane, George, and Reuben junior were also born there.
In June 1832 Reuben purchased, from Richard Reynolds, fifteen acres of Reynolds Farm. (His father-in-law Robert Farlow purchased another portion Located at Freeman's Reach, this land had been left to Richard Reynolds by his recently deceased brother Edward. The purchase price was one hundred and fifty Pounds. In 1833 Reuben applied for another convict servant and by 1841, he and his family were

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living in a wooden house and he was employing an assigned labourer, a general labourer and a gardener on his property.
The 1850s were very busy ones in this household, four of Reuben and Ann's children marrying. Mary Ann married David Wenban in 1851, Robert married Hannah Bushell in 1853, Maria married George Turnbull in 1854, and Ann married Richard James Gosper in 1856. All the weddings took place at St Johns, the church at Wilberforce that played such an important part in the lives of all those living in the Wilberforce-Freeman™s Reach, area.
Reuben had prospered sufficiently so that in 1854 he was able to purchase for one thousand eight hundred and fifty Pounds, the historic Reibycroft property at Freemans Reach from John Yeomans, who had in 1844 bought it from Mary Reiby, the widow of the original owner, Thomas Reiby. Unable to raise the full price, Reuben borrowed from his good friend John Dunstan. Reibycroft was one of the great homes of the Windsor region and still stands in much modified form. It was and still is a truly magnificent home. In 1862 Reuben sold Reibycroft to his son Robert, and retired to Wilberforce, living with his son Reuben junior.
That Reuben was some-what of a character is undisputed. He obviously liked to have a drink and a gamble for in 1881, along with John Rutter, Oscar Graham, William Gleeson and George Graham, he was charged with Assisting at a certain cockfight in a certain orchard at Wilberforce highlands. The charge was dismissed because of an error in the date on the charge sheet. On a further charge of cruelly torturing animals, they were found guilty and fined twenty shillings each. Cock fighting died out in the Hawkesbury in about 1890.
Reuben died in his, seventy-eighth years on the 7th December 1881. He was buried in the cemetery of St Johns Church Wilberforce the following day.
Thus ended the life of one of the great Hawkesbury pioneer farmers, one who was held in high esteem by those who knew him. Ann continued to reside with Reuben junior and his wife Isabella Jane until her death on 13th June 1902, at the grand old age of ninety-five. She was buried with Reuben at Wilberforce. Ann was the oldest Hawkesbury native living in the colony at the timeof her death and left sixty grandchildren and one hundred and five great grandchildren to mourn her passing.

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SOURCE. An unpublished manuscript written by Philip Greentree 1991.

  Noted events in his life were:

• source.

• fact.

• connection.

Reuben married Ann Farlow, daughter of Robert (convict) Farlowe and Ann Dyer, in 1825 in St Matthews R C, Windsor, NSW Australia. (Ann Farlow was born on 11 May 1807 in Wilberforce, County of Cumberland, NSW Australia, died on 13 Jun 1902 in Wilberforce, County of Cumberland, NSW Australia and was buried in St Johns, Wilberforce, NSW Australia.)