Who is Robert Sproule of Innisfil? The Lennox Connection 2

 I had made a link between the family of John Lennox in Innisfil, Simcoe, Ontario and Noble Sproule. Both had lived near the small town of Kilrea in Londonderry, and both families had gone to Innisfil, Simcoe, Ontario at about the same time. But there the similarity ended.

When I looked at the children of Noble Sproule that we know of, the name 'Noble' appears everywhere – in the families of the children of Noble Sproule and it continues in the families of the grandchildren. The name Noble is nowhere in the family of Robert Sproule of Innisfil who married Jane Lenox, nor is it anywhere in the family of Margaret Sproule who married John Lennox.

Equally, the death certificate of Robert Sproule is very definite, his mother’s name was Rebecca Scott. The wife of Noble Sproule was a lady called Isabella McIlroy and she was there with him in Canada.  Robert and Margaret Sproule are not the children of Noble Sproule.

Back to the drawing board, what other clues do we have? Well, Robert called his first son John – that could well be a clue. Robert married Jane Lennox, daughter of John Lennox and Margaret Humphries Galloway. We know that there were other members of this Lennox family who married Sproules, so I went looking for them to see if we could find more clues.  

One that appears in the family trees is a William from Tecumseth. Tecumseth is in Simcoe, but it’s quite a way from Innisfil. William married a lady called Margaret Ann Lennox, and she is also the daughter of John Lennox and Margaret Humphries Galloway. William Sproule had only one child, for William died the year after the child’s birth. The child was called John Calvin Sproule. Another John as a first son– that’s 2 now, we have the eldest sons of Robert Sproule and William Sproule.

I looked in the 1861 census for any other Sproules of the right age. Noble Sproule himself is there in Innisfil, and he is 80 years old. Other Sproules there are a William in Innisfil who is an Innkeeper, but he is not married to a Lennox. The only other male Sproule in Innisfil is Thomas Sproule. Thomas married Mary Ann Lennox – we have the 4^th Lennox/Sproule marriage.

Thomas Sproule’s eldest son is called John William Sproule! Three John Sproules as eldest children of Robert, William and Thomas Sproule.

Three Sproule boys, all married to Lennoxs, all with their eldest child called John. You might say, could the eldest child not be called after the mother’s father, who was called John Lennox? That might happen once, for a special reason. It would not happen 3 times! These 3 Sproule boys are almost certainly the sons of a man named John Sproule.

If Robert’s death cert is correct, the wife of this John Sproule is Rebecca Scott.

I was still focussed on the Kilrea connection. To me it was too much of a coincidence. Kilrea is such a small place, and somehow it seemed logical that folks from the same small town would stick together when in Canada, so far from home. I decided to look again at Kilrea. Could there be Scott families there who would fit the bill for Rebecca Scott, mother of our Robert Sproule?

Well, that didn’t really help. Scott is a very common name, and there are loads of them all over the county of Londonderry in the 1831 census, and plenty near to Kilrea – they are all over Tyrone too. But there was something else there in that Londonderry census of 1831 that I had missed the first time, something I had overlooked in my excitement over Noble Sproule. There was another Sproule in Kilrea! 

There was a Jonathon Sproule, in Claragh, Kilrea. Claragh is on the edge of the town of Kilrea. Jonathon is there in 1831, but Jonathon Sproule is not there in Griffiths Valuation. There are 7 people in his family in 1831.

Townland of Claragh on the edge of the town of Kilrea

Now we have 3 Sproule males in Innisfil all married to children of John Lennox and Margaret Humphries Galloway who came from ‘near the little town of Kilrea’, Londonderry. All  of these three males, William, Robert and Thomas Sproule, called their first son John. A John Sproule is almost certainly the father of all three of these Sproule boys. A Jonathon Sproule lived in Claragh, on the edge of the little town of Kilrea, Londonderry. Jonathon Sproule is gone from Kilrea by the mid 1850s.Is he in Innisfil with his sons Robert, William and Thomas Sproule? He might be.

Is this definitive proof – definitely not. But it is very firm ground for further research. Over to you, Canadian Sproules.

 Our Family History by Donald Dean Parker, Sr, published by the author, the Lennox information.

1831 Census of Londonderry, Bill Macafee site

Who is Robert Sproule of Innisfil? The Lennox Connection.