The Story of Robert Sproule the Nabob 1

There are three of us bringing you the story of Robert Sproule the Nabob who died in Exeter, England in 1807, aged 61 years.

Firstly, we have John Gamble, a cousin of his and a contemporary, who had many discussions with him on his past history. 

John Gamble wrote down the whole fascinating  story of Robert Sproule and his work as a surgeon in Bombay and he recorded this in his book ‘Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth Century Ireland’ written in 1818. 

A modern historian, Breandán Mac Suibhne, is our second story-teller. Breandán  republished this Gamble book in 2011 and he added his own amazing research, filling a multitude of details of the background. 

I, Kate Tammemagi, am the third person on this story and I bring the family history of this Sproule family. For I too am closely related to Robert the Nabob, as his sister Martha Sproule is my 3^rd great grandmother. (A Sproule-Sproule marriage). 

Gamble begins the story in about 1766 with the young Robert Sproule working as an apprentice to his uncle, the eminent John Sproull the Apocethary, in his shop in Strabane. In those days medics could train at university, and they were then referred to as ‘doctors’.  The other route was the apprenticeship route, and the student then became a ‘surgeon’.

An apothecary and his apprentice working in the laboratory.
 Engraving by J.G. Murray, after W.H. Hunt, 1842

The young apprentice Robert became enamoured of one of John Sproull the Apocethary’s three daughters, not with the youngest, Gamble tells us, as is customary in story books, but with the oldest of them, Miss Jane Sproule;

“The attachment was a mutual one, and when he was leaving home to seek elsewhere his fortune, the fond couple betrothed themselves to each other, with many a solemn protestation and vow. A foolish kind of engagement in general it is, but in this instance it proved otherwise, for the lover was constant, and the lady was true. Besides, he had the prospect of a speedy return, for he had got an appointment at Bombay, and India was then an unwrought mine, where gold was to be had almost for the digging.” P.554 Society and Manners

In 1768 Robert Sproule left Strabane and set off to go Bombay. The first stage of this fateful journey was from Newry to Liverpool.

On this first leg, disaster struck and, somewhere off the coast of Cheshire, the ship was wrecked. Our young Robert Sproule survived, but lost all of his clothes. Good friends got him ‘a second outfitting’ and he was able to go on with his journey to Bombay.

Route from London to Bombay

However, the next stage was no better, for the ship to India again was wrecked. There were deaths among both passengers and crew this time, but our resilient Robert  Sproule managed to save not only himself, but several others. Among these was a young man from London, who John Gamble does not name, but Breandán Mac Suibhne discoverd  was  a man called Joseph Alderson. Joseph Alderson was to become a life-long friend.

A West Indiaman - the ships that sailed to India

Another ship picked the survivors up, and they eventually made their way to Bombay. Here Robert Sproule joined the Army as a surgeon, and the young adventurer, Joseph Alderson, went off to seek his fortune.

Over the next few years, Robert was constantly in the field with his Regiment as they waged battles with local leaders throughout India.

"He was present at the taking of many rich places, his share of the spoil of which was considerable”. p.555 Society and Manners

So Robert had a share of  'riches' taken. However, there was more riches to be had that he did not share in. Military in the East India Company raided local places for rich plunder, and all levels made a great deal of money in this way. The term 'Nabob' was a name given to those who became rich in this unsavoury fashion, and was actually a derogatory term. However, Gamble is anxious to stress that Robert did not himself partake of the seizing of these rich goods;

“Immediately on the occupation of some town, he took possession of a pagoda or mosque as an hospital; and barely glancing his eyes round to see that it would answer, he left a few of his followers, and ran out to superintend the bringing in of the sick and wounded. In the interval, it was visited by a party that were more observant, and who rummaged every hole and corner, until they found, under a heap of rubbish, treasure sufficient to have made them all happy, could riches make men so. But they cannot, and least of all, riches got in such a manner.”

Over the years Robert accumulated quite a bit of money, but alas, he didn't manage to hold on to it! John Gamble tells us that part of the story involved Robert Sproule helping out an ‘intimate acquaintace’ by covering his debts with a money lender – to the tune of £11,000! That was an enormous sum of money in those days, and it was almost all of the money that Robert had saved. Even Gamble doesn’t go in to details on how exactly the money was lost, but basically his friend died, and this money was never returned to Robert. 

At this point, Robert Sproule had been in India for 12 years, and was now penniless. He had actually just written to Jane Sproule, his beloved in Strabane, saying that he would return very soon, but now  he felt that he could not do that.

So Robert remained in India, as Gamble puts it;

 "My friend wasted in India a few more of the blissful years of his youth, and irretrievably injured his constitution, not from his own cupidity, but by the advantage taken of his good nature by another."

Society and Manners in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland, by John Gamble — edited and introduced by Breandán Mac Suibhne, published by Field Day Press 1911