The Clondermot Sproules – New Threads

 It was at a Sproule Gathering organised by Joe Sprowl of the Sproule DNA Project, and held in Castlederg a few years ago, that I first met an Evish Sproule. He was a lovely gentleman, we’ll him call Jim, and he had details of his family going back to the early 1800s . During the chat he told me that the family tradition was that the Evish Sproules had originally come from Gortin. Evish is near Strabane, and I was thrilled, thinking it was Gortin in Termonamongan. Jim himself thought it was Gortin in Plumbridge.

The DNA sample that Jim gave that day proved us both wrong. It was a very different Gortin altogether, a Gortin that was not even in Tyrone. It was Gortin in Clondermot, the heartland of the early Sproules in this part of the world. The Evish family may have left Clondermot any time in the 1600s or 1700s, but they had kept the knowledge of Gortin in their lore.

Clondermot Sproules

Now we have another Clondermot thread, the Carnatreantagh Sproules of Donegal. They too are Clondermot Sproules that have been identified by Y-DNA, thanks again to our DNA Sproule Project Member.

They join the gentleman who surely must be the one who gave his name to the townland of Clady Sproul, Gabriel Sproule. We first see a Gabriel Sproul in Clady Sproul in 1747 in a deed where he sold half his land.  A Gabriel Sproule died there in Clady Sproule in 1761. Another Gabriel was named in the Flaxgrowers and Spinning wheel lists of 1796. Gabriel is not a name of the Donegal/Tyrone Sproules. Gabriel is a Clondermot name. (Clady Sproul is also called Liscreevaghan)

One of the traditions of the Tyrone / Donegal Sproules is that one of the sons of Robert Sproule of Lisleen went to live in Brockagh, in Donegal. Brockagh is in an area called Glenfin, a wild, hilly part of Donegal.

Jack Elder drew a tree of ‘The Broomfield Sproules’, with an Andrew Sproule on it marrying a Jane Sproule of Tullymoan. Elder did not state where these 'Broomfield Sproules' came from, but he definitely knew who they were.  Tullymoan is my own family, and from a letter that mentions the marriage of Andrew Sproule and Jane Sproule in 1827, we learn that that Andrew Sproule of Broomfield was a Glenfin Sproule.

Letter dated 28 Mar 1827 from Samuel Sproule of Bridgehill to his uncle, Robert Sproule of Ohio

If Elder is correct, we have the names of the Glenfin Sproules two generations before that, and they are David, Gabriel and Robert. Robert is a common Sproule name. But Gabriel and David are definitely not. The only Gabriels we have in the 1700s is in Clady Sproul, Glenfin – and in Clondermot. The only David we have is in Glenfin – and in Clondermot. 

The early Clondermot Sproules have very distinctive names, and thankfully, very distinctive Y-DNA. It tells us that they are not the same family as the Cowden Sproules, our Tyrone / Donegal Sproules, and that they carry a very distinctive mutation. We know that they also originated in Scotland, but as yet we know not where.

Their early history in Ireland is nonetheless interesting.

 

References:

• Gabriel Sproule of Liscreevaghan selling half of his farm to James Pollock of Stonypath 21 Jul 1747, 152 301 101836 Registry of Deeds Familysearch.org
• Will of Gabriel Sproul 1761 in Ireland, Diocesan and Prerogative Wills & Administrations Indexes, 1595-1858 Familysearch.org
•  Spinning Wheel Bounty 1796 Ardstraw

 

Elder's Tree - Sproules of Magheracriggan and Carrickamulkin

Jack Elder's first page of the County Tyrone Sproule family tree produced in 1890 contains Sproules from Carrickamulkin, Clover Hill, Crillen, Burrelsfolly, Magheracriggan, Aughee, Dromore and Castlederg.

Part 1 of this Page

Part 2 of this page - appears to the right of the one above

Caution for researchers:

Jack Elder collected a lot of information, however he was not always accurate. For example, Jack Elder had the original settler as Robert Spreul of Castlederg. We now know that Robert was not the original settler. See:Three Scottish Brothers Moving East

For more information:

• For information on the Source of this Family Tree see: John Inch and Jack Elder - Early Sproule Family Historians
• For more of Elder's family trees see the posts immediately before and after this post

John Inch and Jack Elder - Early Sproule Family Historians

Jack Elder worked on the history of the Sproule Family in County Tyrone  and he recorded a series of notes and family trees. Between 1880 and 1930, Jack Elder investigated the family himself, and he also gathered a great deal of information from earlier researchers. Elder also had the help of 40 pages of information left by John Inch, who had died in 1877.

John Inch was born on June 29^th 1795, the son of Leonard Inch and Ann Sproule.¹ Leonard and Ann Inch had lived first in Strabane but soon after their marriage they moved to a place that Inch called “Corough-a-Mulkin” in the parish of Lower Langfield in County Tyrone. Their son, John Inch, emigrated to New Brunswick in Canada in 1820, taking with him his Sproule stories and family histories. 

Jack Elder also lived in New Brunswick, he went there in 1886. A few years later he heard of John Inch and his notes on the Sproule Family of Tyrone. He contacted the nephew of John Inch, and managed to acquire a copy of the 40 precious hand written pages. Elder used the notes to help compile a series of Sproule family trees which were produced in 1890. I will include these in the next few posts.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to establish if John Inch’s original notes still exist. However, in one of his letters dated 1928, Elder gives us a flavour of the John Inch Sproule Family History: 

In his history he ‘nothing extenuates’.   The

Sproules were not all saints: there was occasionally no

marriage tie when there should have been, etc. 

He tells of the number of acres of land that various Sproules owned,

the number of milch cows they had etc.  Of his granduncle

Joseph Sproule of Alta-moo-land (as he spells it), brother

of Martha (who married James Mathewson) he says:

“This man had a son, if not other children, whom he disinherited for

marrying the servant girl, and in his old age sold his farm

at £1,350.” Of his Uncle Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill,

he says:

“This man married Rebecca Porter of Castletown,

near Strabane, and with her received £500 fortune” (This

Rebecca was a first cousin of Jane Porter, novelist). 

He gives even the nicknames of our ancestors.  Andy Sproule

of Grennan was nicknamed ‘Andy Bacach’ (-bacach being Irish

for ‘a lame person’), "and the whole family was designated

sometimes by those few who had an outfall with any of them

‘The Bacach Sproules.’ 

Andy's son Joseph, of Carrickamulkin, “was nicknamed ‘Joseph

Nablugh,’  an Irish word for 'sour milk.'  This arose, it

was said, from his sending milk, at the request of a number

of poor families, into the village of Dromore for sale;

therefore, the whole family was called, when spoken of in

derision by some, and by others in sport, the ‘Buttermilk

Sproules’  But I have said enough about the Sproules for

the present.

Jack Elder calls my line of the Sproule family ‘The Nabob Sproules’ and later posts will explain why!

References:

¹ The Inch Family of Ulster and New Brunswick Canada by Inch, James Robert, b. 1835 Familysearch.org
Extract of Letter from Jack Elder, Ont., Canada to J.F. Caldwell, Belfast.; PRONI T1264/3; CMSIED 9804826 Sunday, April 1, 1928

Sproule in the Civil Survey 1654

Archibald Sproule in 1654

The Civil Survey took place in 1654-1656 in 27 counties in Ireland. Not all of the surveys survived, but fortunately the book for Donegal is available.

In this Archibald Sproule is recorded as a British Protestant living on Church Land in the Parish of Rapho. He had four hundred and fifty three acres in the townlands of Stranelachan and Boggach.

Entry in the Civil Survey 1665 - Irish Manuscript Commission

Robert Sproule's Purchase 1634

A Footnote to the above folio reads:

“Mr. Archibald Sproule holdeth the pmisees by purchase from his brother Mr. Robt. Sproule & Alexr. Innes, wch they held by deed of Indenture now in being from Dr. Jon. Lesly then Bp. of Rapho for ye space of sixty yeares comencing 14th July 1634 at ye yearely rent of 20li. 13s 4d.

It is bounded on the south with Burnedale, and on ye west with ye Qrs. Of Beltany & Culladerry, on the north with Machrechan, & on ye east with Agery.”

For More Information:

• The Original Version of the Tyrone Sproules
• James of Cowden and sons in Ireland
• Three Scottish Brothers Moving East to Tyrone

Sproules in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1665

The Hearth Money Rolls of 1665 gives us a fairly good picture of the Sproules present in Ulster at that time. The Hearth Money Rolls was a tax raised to compensate those cavaliers who had lost their estates fighting for Charles I in the Civil War. It was levied at two shillings per year for each fireplace in the household. The names gathered on this tax gives us a fairly good record, therefore, of households in Ulster.

There were 7 or 8 original Sproule families who settled in different parts of Ulster in the early 1600s.

Sproules in the Ulster Hearth Money Rolls of 1665

Location of the Sproule Family Groups in Ulster 1665

The Hearth Roll List was compiled from:

• Bill Macafee, Family and Local History Website
• Donegal Genealogy Resources
• Tyrone Genealogical Research