Another Son of Joseph Sproule of Curraghamulkin?

 Jamie Reid had sent me this 1742 deed, which he had transcribed – thank you Jaime. (See below for the transcribed deed)  It  is the first one in which we  find Joseph Sproule of Curraghamulkin after he took possession of the Curraghamulkin land in 1731. 

It is dated 13 Feb 1746 and it is  between Joseph Sproule of Curraghamulkin and a lady called Ann Godfrey of Castletown in Co. Tyrone.  Joseph is leasing land from Ann Godfrey in a place called Dunwest, County Tyrone. Now I know that Joseph had sons so it was possible that he was buying land for one of the sons in this Dunwest place, so it was worth chasing.

But first I had to find it, and I no idea where Dunwest was.

The first place to look for anything of this kind is our County Tyrone genealogy sites – two excellent sites full of all sorts of information. A search for Dunwest on the cotyrone.com site revealed one page with two different entries for Dunwest. It was a page giving information on Langfield or Longfield.

One entry was from the 1840 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis, where he is describing Longfield West or Lower Langfield. The section on Dunwest says:

“In Dunwest are extensive beds of coal in 3 strata, all easy of access but though at every flood, large masses are detached by the river Poe and carried down the stream, no attempt has yet been made to work them; coal of very good quality is also found in other parts of the parish.”

This confirms that Dunwest is in West Longfield, but the description meant nothing to me. 

I looked up Dunwest in the Tithe Applotment Book for West Longfield, and there was indeed a ‘Dunwaist’ in this book, a townland of 1096 acres. That townland did not exist later in Griffiths Valuation, it’s not there. So it must have had a name change or have been integrated into another townland.

I couldn’t find the river Poe from that Topogrphical Dictionary entry at all. I contacted one of my good friends in that area, family historian Sheena McClure, and she had great insight into where this place could be from that description. She told me that the river Poe is now called Fairy Water and;

“The most westerly part of the Fairy Water but still in West Langfield is Drumgallan and on the old 1830s map shows quite a few buildings and wooded areas at the western part of this townland, but no label of Dunwest that I can see.”

Drumgallan, that was great news! Joseph Sproule of Curraghamulkin was leasing land in Drumgallan in 1742, and I had two unidentified Sproule records for Drumgallan!

One was the record of a death in Prerogative Wills & Administrations Indexes. It records a Thomas Sproule, Drumgallan, who died in 1808. According to Inch/Elder, Joseph of Curraghamulkin did indeed have a son called Thomas.

We have a second record of Drumgallan, another Thomas Sproule. This time Thomas appears in a list of subs for the Topographical Dictionary for 1837, and he is ‘Thomas Sproule esq. Drumgallan, Castlederg, Co. Tyrone. This is obviously a son of Thomas Sproule of Drumgallan who died in 1808. We also know that he is an ‘esq.’ telling us he is from an affluent family which again would fit with our Joseph of Curraghamulkin. Have we located the son of Joseph Sproule of Curraghamulkin, namely Thomas Sproule of Drumgallan?

Now life got a bit complicated when I saw the second description of ‘Dunwest’ on the very the same page in the cotyrone.com site which describes a completely different location! It is an advertisement for the sale of land in Dunwest which was placed in 1809, and it describes the location of this piece of Dunwest land quite precisely;

 “The lands are situated within 1 mile of Drumquin, 6 of Omagh, 7 of Newtown-Stewart, 9 Fintona, 6 of Dromore, and 8 of Lowtherstown.”

This is definitely nowhere near Drumgallan!  Two different locations, both in Longfield – where was my Dunwest?

After spending a lot of time trying to figure this out and going demented, I went to my friends on County Tyrone Ireland Genealogy group on Facebook and they came to the rescue!  I explained the evidence of Dunwest being in two different places both in Longfield. None of them knew or had heard of Dunwest. We discussed things, explored various possibilities, but I wasn’t happy that we had solved this. Then a short time later one of the group involved in the discussion,  Marie Maguire,  added another comment to my post;

‘Kate as I was driving along the Drumlegagh Road just outside of Omagh today I saw a minor road to the left called Dunwish Road. Could Dunwish townland be what you're looking for?’

God bless you Marie Maguire, Mary McCollum and the other folk on there who worked on this, problem solved! No, Dunwish was not the place I was looking for, but it eliminated the second place, the place in the advertisement  that described Dunwest as 1 mile from Drumquin. That wasn’t Dunwest, that was Dunwish.

So the Dunwest of the deed must be the one that has been integrated into Drumgallan, the ‘Dunwaist’ of the Tithe Applotment.

So now we have placed another person on our tree. Joseph Sproule of Curraghamukin leased land in Dunwest, which was in or near Drumgallan. Joseph had a son Thomas Sproule of Drumgallan who died in 1808. Thomas had a son also called Thomas Sproule of Drumgallan. What happened to him? Another question to be answered.

 

1746 Deed Joseph Sproull of Curraghamulkin leasing land in Dunwest,

149  134 99169 1746 Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org Transcribed by Jaime Reid

Godfrey to Spruell, red’d 13^th June 1751

Indenture of lease 13^th Feb. 1746 between Ann Godfrey of Castletown in Co. Tyrone widow on the 1^st part, and Joseph Sproull of Carrickamulkan in the said co. gent. on the other part. Whereby Ann Godfrey did demise grant let to farm let unto Joseph Sproull all that town or peell [?] of land commonly called Dunwest situate in co. Tyrone with all houses buildings and improvements erected and made thereon together with all woods and underwoods growing lying or being thereon with a liberty for the sd Joseph Sproull his heirs ex admons & assigns (during the sd term) to cut down fellraise sell and dispose of the same and every part thereof without impeachment of waste (all other royalties excepted) to hold unto the sd Joseph Sproull his h e a & a the sd demised premises from the 1^st day of November then last past for and during the term of twenty one years at the yearly rent of forty-seven pounds for the first ten years and for the remaining eleven years the yearly rent of forty-nine pounds with sixpence a pound receivers fees in case sd yearly rent should not be pd before the end of three calendar months after the days appointed in the said indenture for payment of the sd rents.

Executed in presence of Rev. Wm Hamilton of Strabane in co. Tyrone and Simon Rousse of Strabane afsd gent, and this mem duly executed by sd Joseph Sproull in presence of sd Simon Rousse and of Edward Morris of Strabane afsd, 27^th May 1751. Signed, Joseph Spruell.

This deed on Familysearch.org

Dunwest in County Tyrone Genealogy

Subs for A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837 

Tithe Applotment Book for West Longfield 1826, PRONI Fin_5_A_204A/B

Diocesan and Prerogative Wills & Administrations Indexes, 1595-1858 in Familysearch.org

Who is Joseph Sproule of Castletown?

I have been intrigued by Joseph Sproule of Castletown for a long time. It's not just that he is one of those isolated Sproules that you can't fit in - there are loads of those. It's because he is obviously connected to a Sproule family that he can't really belong to. I'll explain.

I have just two pieces of information on this Joseph Sproule. One is a nice record of his death in the Strabane Morning Post in 1832:

“After a lingering illness, on Thursday last, Mr Joseph Sproule, of Castletown, deservedly regretted by his numerous acquaintance.”

May 15, 1832 p. 291 Strabane Morning Post

A newspaper entry at that time tells us that Joseph is a man of some means. I know the townland of Castletown, it is on the outskirts of Strabane, and there were a few Sproules living there at one time or another in the 1700s and early 1800s. For example, Jane, the widow of Robert Sproule the Nabob, lived there until her death in 1828. She was the daughter of John Sproull the Apothecary, and a couple of his other daughters also lived in Castletown at different times. But there was no Joseph Sproule in that family. 

Castletown, Co. Tyrone, from Townlands.ie

It is the second record for this Joseph of Castletown that is quite strange. It is from a newspaper of June 16, 1829 where Freeholders are listed, and there is our Joseph Sproull of Castletown, and he is registering a freehold in ‘Grannan’.

From Strabane Morning Post June 16, 1829

Now this is odd for two reasons. Firstly, we know the 'Grennan' Sproules very well, thanks to John Inch and Jack Elder. There is no Joseph anywhere in the Grennan Sproule families - none that we know of anyway.

Secondly, the Grennan land was leased, not freehold. It was leased by Cornet Andrew Spreull, and he left his Grennan land to his three sons, Andrew, James and Charles. Prior to 1853, there was very little freehold land in Grennan.

So this unknown Joseph Sproule of Castletown does not appear to be a Grennan Sproule, and yet he owns one of the only two pieces of freehold land in Grennan in 1829. Who is he?

Maybe we can get a clue by looking at that Grennan freehold land. Usually, this works well – follow the land.  In 1829 we see that one piece of freehold is owned by Charles Sproule of Grennan. Now if we look in Griffiths Valuation, we find that Charles of Grennan still owns that freehold land and it is 54 acres.   This helps us locate the only other bit of freehold land prior to 1853. It is a small 12 acre plot within that family of Grennan Sproules that Jack Elder in his family trees called ‘Another Grennan’ family. We  have pretty good records of this family in the late 1700s early 1800s – and there is no Joseph here.

I tried several times over the years to trace this Joseph Sproule of Castletown, without any luck.  But then in my recent trawl through the Sproule Deeds there was the answer, and, as is so often the case, the answer lay in the land. It was not the Grennan land that revealed the answer, it was the Castletown land.

It was in a deed dated 11 Oct 1832.  One Robert Sproule of Clover Hill, farmer, was selling the lease of a farm and land in Castletown in the parish of Urney, consisting of 70 acres. The deed tells us that this Castletown land was lately in the possession of Joseph Sproule, now deceased. Now we know a Joseph Sproule who was recently deceased in 1832,  it is our Joseph Sproule of Castletown who died in 10 May1832.

So now Robert Sproule of Clover Hill is selling the Castletown land that was formerly Joseph Sproule’s land, and now Joseph Sproule is dead.  Robert Sproule of Clover Hill is the eldest son of Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill, who is the eldest son of John ‘Jack Roe’ of Curraghamulkin. There is only one Joseph Sproule in the family of Robert of Clover Hill that this could possibly be. Robert Sproule is selling his father’s land in Castletown, the land of Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill, a Curraghamulkin Sproule. So now we know, Joseph Sproule of Castletown and Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill are one and the same.

This was quite normal in those days. It was the custom within these Plantation families that the father retires at some point, and he moves to a retirement house. A lot of these Sproule families did this. So Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill retired to Castletown. He would not have been farming the land, I’m sure. A sub-tenant would do that, or perhaps a family member.  Joseph was living out his retirement whilst his son Robert of Clover Hill, who later became Robert Sproule of Kirlish, took over his inheritance.

Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill was our Joseph Sproule who died on 10 May 1832,  

“After a lingering illness,…deservedly regretted by his numerous acquaintance.”

And why did Joseph Sproule, a Curraghamulkin Sproule, own that wee bit of Grennan freehold? Well we know, of course, that Cornet Andrew Spreull, who acquired the Grennan land, was the great grandfather of this Joseph of Clover Hill. However, Cornet Andrew left Grennan to other sons, not this family. Why did Joseph of Clover Hill own Grennan land, and why is it freehold? Actually, I have no idea. 

Deed where the Castletown land is sold 

11 Oct 1832 between Robert Sproule of Clover Hill farmer on the one part and Major John Semple of Strabane on the other part whereby Robert Sproule for the consideration there mentioned did make over to John Semple the farm land in Castletown lately in the possession of Joseph Sproule deceased containing 70 acres of land in the parish of Urney during the residue and remainder of the 21 years remaining on the lease witnessed by Samuel Colhoun of Strabane and Robert Mease of Strabane

Deed no. 888 424 587924 Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org, Transcribed by Kate Tammemagi