In May 1624, it is recorded that of the 7,300 colonists in total who had sailed from the first boats in 1606, 6,040 had died either at the Colony or in transit, meaning Richard was among a small group of surviving and able men in those first 18 years of English America, a good number of whom were gentlemen like he rather than skilled tradesmen.

[1] Lambert appears to have been a common given first name in both the English and American sides of the family, which is sound evidence that Richard Tree and his US descendants are in all likelihood a branch of the Rudge and Beckington 'Trees' who were among the landed gentry of Somerset.

Ministers to Russia: after his presentation of credentials on January 4, 1889, he left post on February 2, 1889, not long before the inauguration of President Cleveland's successor, Benjamin Harrison, a Republican.

In 1834, Magie's groceries and dry goods store was one of only 350 businesses in the Chicago directory and in 1837, he had acquired 80 acres of land in the then small settlement for $1.25/acre.

The Trees would go on to build their city centre mansion on Magie land around what is now Ohio, State and Ontario Streets along Wabash Avenue.

The building is a finely executed house of the late-Victorian period, finished in sandstone and survives in an institutional use, though the Tree connection is affirmed by the family crest over the main entrance porch and Arthur's initials (AMT) over the stable yard portico.

He self identified as a horse breeder and farmer, though he was a gentleman of some leisure by all accounts and possessed an ocean going motor yacht of grand proportions.

Josephine in fact died on a liner during passage between Southampton and new York in 1903 and Lambert spent a good part of his final years in England with his son and grandchildren.

Tree was also responsible for the gift to the city of A Signal of Peace, an equestrian bronze by Cyrus Edwin Dallin which he had created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and also erected in the Park along the lakeshore.

Lambert Tree built his own family house at 94 Cass Street, (now Wabash but since demolished) to a design by the eminent Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the greatest of American architects in the latter half of the 19th C. Lambert also commissioned the Tree Studio Building and Annexes, a surviving example of the work of Parfitt Brothers architects and now on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Arthur also lived for a time at his now Grade II* London house in 7E Collingham Gardens designed by the significant Victorian architects of Sir Ernest George and Peto.

Following his father and grandfather, Ronald was the owner at various times of two of England's finest historic country houses, Ditchley Park and Kelmarsh Hall.

With a foot in England and one across the Atlantic, it is not surprising that he enjoyed the warmer climes and relaxed colonial ambience of Barbados - not least escaping post-War austerity - where he founded and built the Sandy Lane resort and hotel towards the end of his life.

In 1887, Judge Lambert Tree and Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison put up the funding for civilian awards given annually to an individual member of the Police and Fire Departments who demonstrate outstanding bravery in the line of duty.