Tuesday 28 June 2022

John Sproule of Grennan and the Mullaghabane Sproule

The traditional story is that the father of Armour Curry Lowery Sproule of Mullaghabane is John Sproule of Grennan. This John of Grennan lived in the 1700s, so do we know anything about him? Yes we do, but only a little. We knew even less about him until the last few years when Jamie Reid and I did a trawl through the Registry of Deeds on Familysearch.org. The deeds that we found concerning John of Grennan gave us some key information about his family history, and some snippets of interesting insight into his life. I can definitely tell you now that this John Sproule of Grennan seems to have been a bit of a character.

We first see this when we meet John Sproule on Jack Elder’s family tree of the 'Upper Grennan' branch, where Elder asks;

"Is this the John Sproule whom John Inch calls, Long Jack of Dullaghan’, who was a Lieutenant in the Irish volunteers of 1782, and an expert swordsman who fought a duel at Strabane with a military officer and cut off the latter’s right hand? Long Jack had a son Oliver and a daughter?”

No, Jack Elder, you have the wrong one. That John Sproule that you have on that Upper Grennan tree wasn’t Long Jack of Dullaghan’, but we have the right one!  We have the John Sproule who John Inch says was in the 1782 Irish Volunteers, and who cut off the military officer’s right hand in a duel. We are certain that we have the right one because the deeds that we found connect him tightly to Dullaghan, and to being, therefore, the person who warrants the nickname, ‘Long Jack of Dullaghan’. The deeds actually connect  John Sproule to three different townlands, to Grennan, to Dullaghan and to the townland of our current story, to Mullaghabane, where Armour Sproule lived.

Elder did not know where to place John Sproule of Grennan on the family tree, but Jamie Reid came to the rescue only recently. Jamie uncovered a key deed for this Grennan family that actually tells us when John Sproule was born and who his father is. (1747 Deed)

Grennan, Dullaghan and Mullaghabane in the Parish of Dromore

This deed is dated 11 June 1747, and in it, James Sproule of Grennan is leasing a farm in Dullaghan, from an Andrew Crawford. The date of this deed suggests that this James Sproule of Grennan is likely to be James, the son of Cornet Andrew Spreull,although he could also be a grandson.  On the deed, as is usual in those days, James Sproule names two ‘lives’, and these are two of his two sons:*

“Charles Sproul aged then five years and John Sproul aged then three yrs both sons to ye said James Sproul”

 So we know that Charles Sproule, son of James of Grennan, was born in 1742 and that John Sproule of Grennan, son of James, was born in 1744.

What else did we discover in the deeds? Well, another significant one was the marriage Mary Sproule, daughter of John Sproule of Grennan, to Chadwaladar Blayney of Oughterard in 1792, a deed that was also in the Registry of Deeds on Familysearch.org. I found this deed fascinating. It was a marriage settlement deed, a normal procedure at those times. The idea of the settlement was financial, to create a fund, or a trust, in case the husband should die. This, then, would provide for the wife and any children.

Normally it names the couple, like Chadwaladar Blayney and Mary Sproule. It also typically names the father of each of the couple, John Sproule and Ambrose Blayney in this case. Sometimes there are trustees, who will look after the trust for the wife, usually two people, one from each side. This isn’t done this time, the money was small. Then there are witnesses to the settlement, again usually one from each side.  

When I transcribed this marriage settlement, I wrote a note at the bottom,in bold red;

It was very striking. There were 3 witnesses, none of them are Sproules. I have never seen that before or since. Only later did I realise, there were no Blayneys either! There is something very odd going on here. There is no brother of either of the couple standing as a witness, nor anyone else baring either of their names.  Did Mary Sproule, daughter of John Sproule, have no brothers old enough to be witnesses in 1792? What about her father's brothers or other Grennan Sproules– were there no male Sproules there who would be witnesses? There are plenty of Blayneys in the neighbourhood, Chadwaladar Blayney definitely had a brother Ambrose, if not others. But no Blayney witnesses. Odd.

We’ll move on to see what the other deeds reveal about John Sproule of Grennan. I'll give you a very quick summary which I have arranged to give you a timeline. The year of each deed is on the left, and the note on each on the right shows something that stands out a mile!

1744

John Sproule of Grennan is born.

1782

John Sproule is a Lieutenant the Irish Volunteers (From Elder)

1784

John Sproule of Grennan is borrowing money from Oliver Sproule the Apothecary in Omagh. For this he mortgages land in Grennan, Dullaghan and Mullaghbane

1790

John of Grennan is borrowing money from Oliver Sproule the Apothecary mortgaging just the Dullaghan land.

1792

Marriage of Chadwallader Blayney, son of Ambrose Blayney and Mary Sproule, daughter of John Sproule of Grennan

1792

John of Grennan is borrowing money from William Stephenson  - mortgaging the land in Dullaghan.

1798

John is now called John Sproule of Dullaghan. He is borrowing money this time from his son-in-law, Chadwalader Blayney. He is mortgaging land in Mullaghabane and Dullaghan ‘formerly held by James Sproule father of the said John’  

There is a lot of money borrowing going on there! Between the money and the duel we learnt about earlier, this John Sproule comes across as what my mother would call ‘a profligate’. (She loved regency novels!) We will never know why John Sproule borrows money or what he does with his money. What we do know is that this man does need money.

Now, we have looked at Lord Belmore, Armar Lowry-Corry, and we have looked at John Sproule of Grennan. What, if anything, connects the two? Why would this John Sproule of Grennan call one of his sons after one of the highest Lords in Ireland? Why would he call him Armour Curry Lowery Sproule?  


The Deeds

1747 James Sproule of Grennan leases Dullaghan farm from Andrew Crawford, 1 June 1747, 148 198 99167, Registry of Deeds Dublin, Familysearch.org 

1784 John Sproule of Grennan borrowing  from Oliver Sproule the Apothecary in Omagh Grenan, mortgaging Dullaghan and Mullaghbane. 354 540 240500, Registry of DeedsDublin, Familysearch.org

1790 John Sproule of Grennan mortgaging Dullaghan to Oliver Sproule the Apothecary, 1 January 1790, 451 218 289682, Registry of Deeds Dublin, Familysearch.org

1792 Marriage of Chadwallader Blayney, son of Ambrose Blayney and Mary Sproule, daughter of John Sproule of Grennan, 11 Apr 1792, 478 553 311812, Registry of Deeds Dublin, Familysearch.org

1798 John Sproule borrowing from Chadwalader Blayney, his son-in-law.  10 Feb 1798, Registryof Deeds Dublin, Familysearch.org


** The ‘lives’  in a deed provided a measure of time. Some deeds last for a period of years, e.g. 40 years. Other deeds last for the length of time someone lives, a named person on the deed. When that person dies the deed expires. Usually, the names on the deeds were the youngest possible people, for obvious reasons. Two or three names were usually given and the deed expired when the last one died. A third type of deed were ‘perpetual’ deeds. These had named ‘lives’ in the same way, but the names could be replaced. So when the last one dies, 2 or three new names go on to the deed. This can go on forever.

Other Posts in this Series;

2. Armar Lowry-Corry and the Mullaghabane Sproule 


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