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