Part 1 - The Intriguing Carncorran Sproules and their Y-DNA

I had been fascinated by the Carncorran Sproule family ever since I first learnt about them from Heather Arnott. We had something in common straight away. Her Carncorran Sproule line had folk who went from County Tyrone to Ohio, and more than that, there was a series of letters between the Ohio folk and their home in Carncorran. This was in the 1800s. I had the same in my line of Sproules, with the Bridgehill Sproules and Robert Sproule of Ohio.

The letters also fascinated me. Sproules in Ireland tended to fall loosely into two groups. There were the educated Sproules, who had children who were farmers, lawyers and doctors. Then there were the craftsmen and  ‘Labourer’ Sproules. These tended to be less well educated, and often could not read or write.

The Carncorran Sproules were definitely in the ‘educated’ group, based on these letters that were written in a time period from the 1840s. Because of this, I believed they ought to belong to one of the families that I was very familiar with in that area – the Grennan Sproules, the Curraghamulkin Sproules or the Golan Sproules. If they were, there ought to be some references in the letters that I would recognise, talk of relatives that I knew well.

Heather was stuck at Robert Sproule of Carncorran, who was born in 1782, and I poured over these Carncorran letters from the 1840s looking for something that would help her.  I was also looking for any mention of other Sproule families that I would recognise.  There were none. Nobody from any of the known families was mentioned as being a relative in any of the letters.

Now, was it possible that this family had originated from a known family, but further back than mid 1700s? According to Heather, the Carncorran Sproules seem to be related to the Castlebane Sproules, and probably to the Carrickadartans Sproules. These townlands are all grouped together in Ardstraw, with Golan Sproul to the west and Drumnabey to the north – this is Golan Sproule country!

Thomas Spreull of Golan lived in Golan Sproul in the first half of the 1700s, and he had land in Drumnabey, part of which eventually became Spamount. I am very familiar with the Golan Sproul/Spamount family line and I know for certain that the Carncorrans are definitely not related to them in the late 1700s or early 1800s. But there must have been other members of this family that we don’t know anything about. What of Thomas Spreull’s brothers? What happened to them?

As a Golan Sproule descendant myself, this piqued my interest in a big way. Could the Carncorran / Castlebane Sproules be descendants of the brothers of Thomas of Golan?

There are no records in existence that will link these families.  I knew this because the link, if it existed at all, would be way back in the early 1700s or before. There was really only one way to find out, and that was by Y-DNA.

Fate, in the form of Joe Sprowl and his Sproule DNA project, stepped in to help.

Note:

The Carncorran Sproules written by Heather Arnott 

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

Elder's Tree of the Family of 'The Nabob'

This is Jack Elder's tree of the family of  Robert Sproule, known as 'The Nabob'. I am descended from a sister of the Nabob, who Elder calls Matilda. In fact, her name was Martha Sproule, and she married Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan, who was son of William Sproule of Tullymoan.

The 'James' who is brother of the Nabob, was in fact Thomas Sproule who was father of Samuel Sproule of Bridgehill. See later posts for more details on this family.

Little Richard and the Reason for it All!

Like most people who become obsessed with researching their family history, I sometimes stop and ask myself, “Why am I doing this? What is it all for?”  I know that I get great personal enjoyment from the chase, from the detective work and the wealth of knowledge that I am building up.  But does it have a real purpose, or is it just satisfying a personal addiction?  

Last week, something very special happened, and I was reminded of the real reason why I do this.

The Precious Photograph

A Sproule cousin, who I have never met, contacted me. His grandfather and my grandfather were brothers and they both lived on the Sproule farm in Tullymoan, Urney, County Tyrone. My Sproule cousin was kind enough to send me a photograph taken in 1938 at the wedding of his grandfather, Thomas Sproule.

This was the first picture I had ever seen of my Uncle Tommy and my father was right, he was a very tall man! My Grandfather is also in the picture. I have only two other photographs of him and I was delighted to add this one to my meagre collection. My father was best man at the wedding, and he is there standing beside Thomas Sproule. His brother and sister are also there. It is a very precious photograph indeed, and I am so grateful.

Standing, Grandfather Robert 2nd from left, Uncle Thomas 4th from right

The Family Story

More importantly, my Sproule cousin told me a family story. He said that his grandfather, Thomas, had talked often about a young child in the family, a little brother called Richard. I know this family very well, from family stories and from researching the documents. There was no Richard Sproule! But my Sproule cousin was adamant. His grandfather had talked a lot of his little brother and he had said that Richard had died very young.

And then I searched. Richard is an unusual Sproule name, and it took me only a few minutes to find him. 

Richard Sproule

Richard Sproule was born in 1881 and he died in 1882. Little Richard was the youngest child of Mary and James Sproule of Tullymoan. He was remembered fondly by his loving brother Thomas Sproule and this memory was passed on to Thomas’s children and to his grandchildren. Richard Sproule will now be recorded in his family tree with the other members of his Tullymoan family. He is back where he belongs.

And that is why I do this.

P.S. Rest easy, Uncle Tommy. We have him.

The Family of James Sproule of Tullymoan