Who was Young Samuel?
I was chasing down Samuel
Sproule, who had been Head of the Medical Board in Bombay, when things
got very confusing! In the early 1800s
there was plenty of evidence of Samuel Sproule in Bombay, and there was more of
him in the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s. This was very strange indeed since Samuel
Sproule had died in 1829! There had to be two Samuel Sproules! It was tricky to sort them out because the information was almost identical. Both Samuels were in the East India Company, both were doctors and both were working in Bombay! Two Doctor Samuel Sproules, it was too much of a coincidence!1
They overlapped
slightly. Young Samuel seemed to have arrived just as the first Samuel was
leaving. Who was Young Samuel? Samuel Sproule Senior had only one legitimate
child, a daughter named Ann Jane. Young Samuel could not be a son of Samuel Senior. Was it possible, then, that he had come from
Ireland, and that was he was a nephew or some other relative? I went back to hunt for Young Samuel Sproule
in my trusty list of Sproule births, marriages and deaths of that time. I not only
found him, I found his parents!
DIED Anne Sproule 19 June 1847
On the 12th inst., at Glentimon, Anne, relict of the late Mr. William
Sproule, and mother to Samuel Sproule, Esq., M.D., Surgeon of the Civil
Service, Ahmeibad, Bombay 2
Young Samuel Sproule
had definitely come from County Tyrone, and his parents were William and Anne
Sproule. Now this was exciting! Could it
be that Young Samuel was a nephew of Samuel Sproule of Tullymoan and Bombay? In
that case, Young Samuel’s father, William Sproule, would be another Tullymoan
brother! This would be three brothers, Andrew, William and Samuel.
The Jamaica Connection
At the other side of
the world was a different strand of Sproules with a more tenuous connection to
my family. One of the first pages that I had looked at in the County Tyrone
Genealogy Website concerned a James Sproule of Mellmount. The page contained a
full transcription of his will written in 1840. It made fascinating reading! Mellmount is near Strabane in County
Tyrone, but the will of James Sproule was full of ‘reputed children’ and
plantations in Jamaica!
This rang a bell for
me, as we had a story in our family lore
about Jamaica. It was said that an
Andrew Sproule, an uncle of ours, had gone to Jamaica and that he had made his
fortune there. I thought the Jamaica connection might be worth investigating!
I began to research in
Jamaica. James Sproule was recorded as a landowner from 1817, in a parish called
St Thomas in the East. His property was Rose Mount, and he is recorded there
right up until his death in 1840.
But James was not the
only Sproule landowner in Jamaica, there were two of them. The story
almost mirrors the Bombay situation with the two overlapping Sproules. The
second Sproule here was a Robert Sproule, and he seemed to be younger than
James. Robert was in a different parish of Jamaica, one called St George, and
he had his own plantation there from 1838. Since he was in a different
plantation, I thought it unlikely that this Robert was a son of James of
Mellmount. Could Robert be yet another County Tyrone Sproule, again possibly a
nephew or another relative? 3
Are They the Same Family?
At this point, I began
to believe that all of these adventuring Sproules were from the same family! It
looked to me as if James, William, Samuel and Andrew of Tullymoan could well be
brothers, and that Robert and Young Samuel could be the children of these
brothers. It was an amazing conclusion to reach! Simple farmers in County
Tyrone in the late 1700s, senior medical personnel in Bombay and affluent
plantation owners in Jamaica – all of the same family!
I had no firm proof as yet, but there was one piece of evidence that had led me to this ‘definite maybe’!
It came when I had
learnt the identities of my great, great grandparents, and I cross checked
these with the will of James of Mellmount. In his will, James names his brother
Andrew, Brother Andrew’s wife Rebecca, and their son, James. The first box was
ticked! My great, great grandfather was Andrew, his wife was Rebecca and their
son, my great grandfather, was James!
The second box was
only half ticked! In his will, James of Mellmount tells us that he did indeed have a brother named William. Could
this be the same William Sproule who was the father of Young Samuel? But disappointment
here! In James Sproule’s will, Brother
William’s wife was called Mary, and I knew that Young Samuel’s mother was definitely Anne. On the other hand, James of
Mellmount was in Jamaica, a long way from Ireland. Could he simply have got his
sister-in-law’s name wrong? Or was this a completely different family?
Brothers or not brothers?
That was the question, and it was
driving me crazy!
And then I got the
will of Samuel Sproule, Head of the Medical Board of Bombay. All was revealed!
References:
1 FIBIS, Families in British India Society, Database
2 The Londonderry Sentinel 1829 – 1869
3 Jamaica Family Search, Genealogy Research Library, collection of Almanacs
4 County Tyrone
Genealogy Website The Will of James Sproule of Mellmount
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