The Sons of Cornet Andrew – their Ages from the Deeds

 What do We Know?

What do we know for certain about the sons of Cornet Andrew Spruell? What are the actual facts that we learn in the 1719 deed and the two deeds in Nov 1731? (See below for Deeds)

From the 1719 Deed, we learnt:

1.       Cornet Andrew Spruell has 7 sons.

2.       These sons are all alive in 1719. Can we be certain that they are all alive? Yes, fairly certain. If we think of a conversation, Cornet Andrew may refer to his 5^th, 6^th and 7^th sons even if one of the seven has previously died. But this is a legal document. If one of the sons were dead at the time, then at a later stage a usurper could come and claim to be a missing son based on this deed. Legally, Cornet Andrew would have left himself exposed. The sons must all have been alive. But they don’t all have to have been in Ireland, of course.

3.       We learn the names of the 3 youngest sons and the 1719 deed gives us their order. Joseph is the 5^th son. Charles is the 6^th son and Oliver is the youngest, he is the 7^th son.

 

From the 1731 Deeds we learnt quite a lot about the ages of these sons:

Andrew, James, Joseph and Charles Sproule were all born before 1710. The two 1731 deeds are in the names of 4 of the sons, that is 4 of the sons are named as parties to one or other of the deeds. These are Andrew, James, Joseph and Charles. It is these four sons who legally now take over these lands in these leases. That tells us that in 1731 these four sons have all reached the age of majority, they are all over 21 years old.

Oliver, the youngest son, is only named as a ‘life’ on one lease, he is not a party to these leases. This suggests that in 1731, Oliver Sproule may not have reached his majority. Oliver is named as a life with Joseph Sproule who took over the Curraghamulkin Lands, which might mean that it was intended that Oliver would take over some of the Curraghamulkin lands when he is older – this bit is speculation.

We know that this is the order of the boys, Andrew, James, Joseph, Charles and Oliver. Andrew is the oldest boy named in these deeds.

The Missing Sons are also born before 1710 We know from the 1719 deed that the 2 missing sons are older than Joseph. (Joseph was named as the 5^th son).

So we know for sure that the 2 missing sons were also born before 1710. Cornet Andrew had 6 sons before 1710. This would suggest that the older boy / boys could well have been born before  1700.

We do not know where the missing boys fit in the first 4 sons, whether they are first, second etc.

We do know that the likelihood is that they were all alive in 1719, but the missing sons are not referred to in any way in the 1731 deeds. We don’t know where they are, or whether they are alive or not.

They could be somewhere else in Ireland, they may have died or they may be overseas.

There are possibilities – but nothing definite - to follow on this.

 

References:

• 1719 Deed - 41 289 25944 Registryof Deeds, Familysearch.org
• 1731 Deed 1 - 99 81 68007 Registryof Deeds, Familysearch.org
• 1731 Deed 2 - 94 533 67557 Registry ofDeeds Familysearch.org