It was in the 1780s that Joseph Sproule of Upper Grennan and Feddans arrived in Rutland, in the Rosses. Joseph would have been encouraged to come here by the advertisements that Burton Conyngham, the landowner in West Donegal, placed widely to entice people to his new Fishing Station development in the Rosses. [1] Conyngham was offering perpetual leases and fifty percent grants on all improvements.
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| Rutland Island |
Joseph Sproule, the ship broker,was living in Rutland, but
we also know that he had an office in Ballyshannon that we learnt about in the 1795 deed.[3] This makes sense since Rutland did not
have official port status, which meant that it had no customs offices. People
had to go the 40 miles south from Rutland to Ballyshannon with all of their customs
documents. They had to get customs stamps on documents to enable them to draw down the bonus
payments on boats and fishing catches, so an office in Ballyshannon would have been
an asset.
But, in fact, in this deed dated 7 May 1795, Joseph Sproule of Rutland is selling his lease, he is closing down this Ballyshannon office. This was a difficult tim for him, as it was for all involved in the Rutland Fishery project, for it was about this time, in the mid 1790s that the whole project was being wound up. There were many contributory factors for the failure of this very ambitious project, such as decline in fishing stock, failure to attract the right people into the region, and above all, the fateful positioning of a Fishing Station on an island that had a sand bar on its seaward side - the sand blew over to entirely cover many of the new buildings. I don't know how the local inhabitants of this area fared during this time, but the people involved in the project, such as Joseph Sproule of Rutland, were left financially challenged.
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| From a 1788 map with the plans for Rutland Island, from Patrick Boner |
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| Aerial pic of Inniscoo House 1959, there is the boatyard to the left The house to the right accross the creek is Eddernish. Pic from Patrick Boner |
The details of his expenditure in Inniscoo were included in a letter dated 27 May 1819 from Joseph Sproule of Inniscoo to Nassau Foster, the agent of the Conyngham Rosses estate. In this we get a real picture of the state of play of Joseph Sproule at that time. A researcher from a completely different family, David Slattery, copied this letter from the Conyngham papers in the National Library of Ireland, and kindly forwarded it to Patrick Boner of Burtonport. Joseph’s writing is not great and it is very tricky to decipher - David Slattery also heroically transcribed it!
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| Joseph Sproule's letter to Nassau Foster 1819 |
At the time of this letter in 1819, Joseph Sproule, now of Inniscoo, has fallen a great deal behind in paying his rent, and he begins the letter;
“Sir,
I received yours last night pressing me for rent I am sorry it is not in my power for some time to give you any, but hopefully in the course of a few weeks this I will be able to make money of some cattle I have in kind for the purpose of paying you – which I hope will answer.”
He goes on to give his reasons for this lack of payment;
“When I took Inniscoo at such a high rent it was from the hopes of a fishery or other business in this place all of which has totally failed, that would enable me to pay the rent but as all these matters have totally failed, I have every hope his Lordship will consider it & make me such abatement in the rent for some years back as his Lordship will justly think me entitled to”
But Joseph Sproule was not only the tenant of the Conyngham Estate, he, in turn, was landlord to his subtenants on Inniscoo – and our Joseph had no sympathy at all for the poor folk living on the island;
“You are well acquainted with the my situation with regard to the tenants this place on this island when I took it, & which tenants I could never since get clear off, & who are now due me of rent & owing 261.7.8 about 190 of which is due by these tenants left on the island by his Lordship when I got it, about £90 of this sum is not now worth 50 shillings.”
We don't know the outcome of this appeal to the Conyngham Estate, but we do know that Joseph Sproule managed to remain in Inniscoo House, and to pass it on to his daughter Mary Ann. We can see Joseph there in the Tithe Applotment of 1828;
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| Tithe Applotment Templecrone, 1828, Familysearch.org |
The last reference to Joseph Sproule that I know of appears in a document dated 2 November 1835. An enquiry was held into the state of Irish Fisheries, and the section on the Rutland Island carries a small reference to Joseph;
“On Inniscoo, which is about half a mile by a quarter, a building yard was constructed. A boatbuilding shed and loft, with other works, are still in order.
On the small isle of Eddernish, a salt work was begun but never completed. There is a good quay and safe creek on the south end. Mr. Sproule, a ship-broker, lives here at present.”
You will see from this that Joseph is living now on Edernish in 1835, in a much smaller house. The reason for this is that Mary Ann Sproule, daughter of Joseph Sproule and Mary Ann Boggs is now living in Inniscoo House with her new family.
Other Posts in this Series;
References:
[1] “William Burton Conyngham and the North-West Fishery of the Eighteenth Century.” p.80 by Jame Kelly, .The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 115, 1985, pp. 64–85. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25508881. Accessed 9 Sep. 2022.
[2] RoyalCommission of Inquiry into the State of the Irish Fisheries : first report, Dublin Castle, 2nd November, 1835. PRINTED BY ALEXANDER THOM, North Earl St, Dublin
[3] Deed dated 2 May 1795 between Joseph Sproule of Rutland in the County Donegal and John Feeley of Ballyshannon, 485 479 314823, Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org
[4] Letter dated 27 May 1819, Ref; Ms 35,392 Conyngham Papers, National Library of Ireland, from Joseph Sproule to Nassau Forster, agent to the Conyngham Rosses estate, thanks to Patrick Boner and David Slater
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