I was putting together the Key Points from Robert Sproule the Nabob’s Will when a huge penny went ‘clang’ as it dropped. It was so obvious too… right in front of my eyes!
Robert Sproule, the
Nabob died in 1807. In his Will, he leaves money to his sister Rebecca Sproule
and to her sons. We know that his sister Rebecca had married another Sproule, Robert
Sproule of Grennan, son of the man who Jack Elder had called ‘Charles Sproule of Upper
Grennan’. That marriage would have taken place some time in 1770s.
We know lots about the Grennan Sproules, but nothing at all about this family. Robert is the eldest son, according to Elder, and he should have inherrited a part of Grennan. Yet there is no trace of Robert Sproule of Upper Grennan and of his wife Rebecca Sproule in the records of Grennan. There is no trace of his 4 sons. Where did they go? And then 'clang'!
In his Will of 1805, the Nabob names the
sons of Rebecca and Robert Sproule of Grennan;
Robert
John
Samuel
Charles
Jack Elder gives us a tree of ‘Upper Grennan’ based on the work of John Inch in the early 1800s.
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| Jack Elder's tree of Upper Grennan Sproules |
Elder tells us that Robert Sproule, eldest son of Charles Sproule of Upper Grennan, married Rebecca Sproule and had the following children;
Robert
John
Charles
Samuel
Jenny
Bessie
Both of these two
sources, Elder and the Nabob, are in agreement that the sons of this
family are called, Robert, John, Charles and Samuel.
So these boys left
Grennan – they disappeared, as did their father.
Now we are going to look at a family who are in a place that it is perfectly logical to find Sproules of Upper Grennan!
Charles of Upper
Grennan was involved in leases in Drumkeeran, County Fermanagh in 1778. They are for Crillan,
Feddans East, and Rabbet Island.
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Reports from theCommissioners of the Board of Education Volume 5 1809-1812 p.302 |
We know for certain that George Sproule, the lessee in Crillan, is definitely the son of Charles of Upper Grennan. We can see on this record of the lease that it was taken out by Charles and Samuel. The Charles mentioned there is Charles of Upper Grennan, I thought that Samuel must be a brother of Charles. I assumed that Robert, named as the lessee in the Feddans lease, must be also be a brother of Charles of Upper Grennan. I wasn't right - let's look at this Robert again.
The one line that we have on this lease tells us that Robert Sproule is in Feddans
East, and his sons are Robert and Charles. I didn't find this lease, but there is a lovely reference to it in one of the deeds of Robert Sproule the Nabob. In a deed in
1790 The Nabob is lending money to the very same Robert Sproule
of East Feddans. The money is mortgaged on 67 acres of land in East Feddans.
This deed quotes the original deed in which Robert Sproule leased the land and
it gives the date as 20 Jan 1778. It
also tells us that the 'lives' on the deed are:
“The said Robert Sproule (of
Feddans) the life of Robert Sproule the Younger, his eldest son then aged 7
years, and Charles Sproule, his second son then aged 5 years.” (438 449 285213 Registry of Deeds)
So we know that in 1778, this
Robert Sproule of Feddans has an oldest son, Robert, born in 1770, and a son Charles
born 1773.
Now, why would Robert
Sproule the Nabob be lending money to Robert Sproule of Feddans? The Nabob was
affluent, and he did lend money. But the only deeds I have found with him
lending money, are to his family members. That should have been a clue when I first saw this!
We have more information on the Feddans family in the Freehold list of 1796. Buying a small piece of land freehold was a way of people buying the right to vote as, at that time, only people owning freehold land could vote.
So in Feddans we now have 3 names of people who can vote. We have Robert and Charles, who we had before, and now we have John Sproule. John Sproule was also named in the Tithe Applotment book of 1832, with 66 acres in Feddans. Now we are just missing a Samuel.
And here he is.
In the births recorded in Tubrid Church, Kesh, Co Fermanagh, we find a baby born to Samuel Sproule of Feddans and his wife Margaret. The baby was born on 11 Nov 1819. But we actually also have a birth record for this Samuel Sproule of Feddans. (Igp Archives)
Just to put the final cap on it, we find the Bratton family also in Feddans. Elder tells us that Jennie Sproule, daughter of Robert Sproule of Upper Grennan married Wallace Bratton. She did indeed, and they had a son Robert Bratton who married Anne Sproule of Coole on 10 Mar 1848.(Irishgenealogy.ie) And where were this Bratton family living? Yes, you've guessed it, in Feddans. This suggests that Jennie Sproule, daughter of Robert Sproule of Upper Grennan was also living in Feddans.
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| From Irishgenealogy.ie |
So the Feddans
connection is tight as a drum, except for one tiny thing that I won’t go into
now.
But we have proved
conclusively that Robert Sproule of Upper Grennan married Rebecca Sproule of
Golan, and went to live in Feddans in 1778. Their family of 4 boys and 2 girls, mentioned
in the Will of Robert Sproule the Nabob and in Tree of Jack Elder are all found in
Feddans, and at least two of them were born there.
They were:
- Robert Sproule b. 1778 in Upper Grennan
- Charles Sproule b. 1773 in Upper Grennan
- John Sproule - in Tithe Applotment on same 67 acres of East Feddans
- Jennie Sproule m. Wallace Bratton
- Elizabeth Sproule b. 11 Nov 1778 in Feddans
- Samuel Sproule b. 2 Jul 1781 Feddans
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