Sorting the Mullaghabane Sproules

Sorting the early Mullaghabane Sproules is tricky! I'm still not happy with it. This table will give you an idea of some of the complications. Here are all of the births from Mullaghabane in the 1830s and 1940s recorded in the Dromore Church Records: [1]

Baptism Date	Birth Date
24 April 1838	7 April 1838	James	James Sproul and Mary Jane Sproule	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
18 Dec 1838	18 Nov 1838	Sarah	James Sproule and Ann Blayney	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
27 Mar 1840	24 Mar 1840	Elizabeth	James Sproull Senior and Ann Blayney	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
13 Sep 1840	15 Aug 1840	Elizabeth	James Sproull & Marianne Sproull	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
5 July 1842	12 July 1842	Charles	James Sproull & Ann Blayney	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
19 Feb 1843	16 Jan 1843	John	James Sproull & Mary Sproull	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
14 May 1845	6 May 1845	William	James Sproule & Mary Sproule	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore

 There is a superfluity of ‘James Sproules’ there! There are also a lot wives named Mary, just to make life a tad more complicated.

Looking to the land doesn’t really help, at the moment anyway. In the Tithe Applotment of 1834, the same time period as the births above, we find only two families of Sproules in Mullaghabane.[2]

Mullaghabane Tithe Applotment 1834
James Sproule	Mullaghabane	9 acres
Sarah Sproule	Mullaghabane	11 acres

Who is Sarah??? And there is only one James there, where are all my other James’ and the wife Marys? 

This Tithe does show, however, just how small the plots of land that the Mullaghabane Sproules are living on at this time - just 9 acres and 11 acres. It is possible that when John Sproule of Grennan was alive, they may have possessed more land in Mullagabane, they may have had a bigger area. John Sproule leased quite a bit, but he was constantly mortgaging it out, so he may have lost it.

James Sproule and Ann Blayney

Right, let's begin. We can identify James Sproule and Ann Blayney straight away. On the 2nd February 1838 we have the wedding of James and Ann in Dromore Church;

“James Sproule son of Armour Sproule and Ann Sproule alias Given and Anne Blaney daughter of Ambrose Blaney and Elizabeth Blaney alias Smith of Dullaghan,  Parish of Dromore, Witnesses William Smith and Alexander Anthony” [3]

So this James is the son of Armour Sproule and Ann Given. Ann Blayney is the daughter of Ambrose Blayney of Dullagahan and his wife Elizabeth Smith. Ambrose was the son of Chadwallader Blayney and Mary Sproule of Grennan, daughter of John Sproule. We know from the Marriage Settlement deed of this couple that Chadwallader’s father was also called Ambrose Blayney and that he lived in Oughterard, Dromore. 

We can actually go further back with this Blayney family of Oughterard, thanks again to Jamie Reid. Jamie found a deed for the marriage of John Blayney, the brother of this Ambrose, to Mary Osborne. The marriage took place in 1757 and in the marriage settlement we learn that Ambrose’s father was, yes, you’ve guessed it, Chadwallader Blayney.[5] So right back to the early 1700s, this Blayney family were living there in Oughterard, Dromore, and those two names, Ambrose and Chadwallader, alternated with each generation.

So that is one of our James Sproules of Mullaghabane identified, he is the son of Armour and Ann Given - we will call him James1. 

James1 Sproule and Ann Blayney had two daughters and a son recorded in those Dromore Church Records;

18 Dec 1838	18 Nov 1838	Sarah	James Sproule and Ann Blayney	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
27 Mar 1840	24 Mar 1840	Elizabeth	James Sproull Senior and Ann Blayney	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
5 July 1842	12 July 1842	Charles	James Sproull & Ann Blayney	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore

No more children after 1842, which makes sense. Remember that Armour Sproule has gone to Canada in 1816, so James1, his son, is working his land. John Sproule, Armour’s eldest child, has also gone to Canada and he is living in Prescott, Ontario with his wife Mary Ann Barton.

Therefore James1 is the James Sproule in the Tithe Applotment of 1834, living on 9 acres. James1 must also be the one who died in 1842 – a will for a James Sproule of Mullaghabane recorded in Prerogative Wills. So this 9 acre plot that James1 is occupying used to be Armour Sproule’s land.

Who, then, is the other James Sproule living in Mullaghabane in the Dromore birth records? Well, we learn more about him from the wedding of the daughter of Armour Sproule, she was Mary Jane Sproule.  

James Sproule and Mary Jane Sproule

Mary Jane married on 1 June 1837 to James Sproule of Mullaghabane;

“Married James Sproule son of James Sproule and Fanny, alias Harper, of Mullabane Parish of Dromore to Mary Jane Daughter of Armor Sproul and Nancy alias Given of Mullabane Parish of Dromore. Witnesses John Allen and Matthew Guy” [3]

 This is a Mullaghbane Sproule – Mullaghbane Sproule marriage! We have the second James Sproule of Mullaghabane marrying the daughter of Armour Sproule. This James Sproule, who we will call James3,  is the son of another James Sproule of Mullaghbane, James2, and his wife Fanny Harper.  Are you with me so far?

So James2 of Mullaghbane and Armour Sproule are in the same generation, and they had been living side-by-side in Mullaghbane. This would suggest that they were, in fact, brothers – possibly both sons of John Sproule of Grennan. We have no proof of this, however.

So James2 Sproule of Mullaghabane is married to Fanny Harper. We only know of one child of this couple so far, and that is James3 Sproule who married Mary Jane, the daughter of Armour Sproule. Again, we can see the children of James3 and Mary Jane in the Dromore Church Records;

24 April 1838	7 April 1838	James	James Sproul and Mary Jane Sproule	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
13 Sep 1840	15 Aug 1840	Elizabeth	James Sproull & Marianne Sproull	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
19 Feb 1843	16 Jan 1843	John	James Sproull & Mary Sproull	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore
14 May 1845	6 May 1845	William	James Sproule & Mary Sproule	Mullaghbane, Parish of Dromore

Despite the slight variations in the wife’s name there, and I take full responsibility as the one who transcribed these, they are definitely the children of James3 and Mary Jane Sproule. The family moved to Darlington, Durham West, Ontario, Canada, and we can see them listed in the 1861 Census of Darlington – the names match perfectly.

1861 Census of Canada, Durham, Canada West, Ancestry.com

You can see at the bottom, by the way, a 75 year old, lady called Ann Sproule. This has to be Mary Jane’s mother, Ann Given again. She was 'a visitor' with her son John in the 1851 census.

We have sorted the two James Sproules in the Dromore Church Records, and added a third, the James Sproule who married Fanny Harper. That is all very tidy. Now it starts to get messy!

Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane

If you look at the Tithe Applotment above, we have a Sarah Sproule, and she is on the land that is not Armour Sproule land. This is the land of James2 and Fanny Harper – and their son James3 who later married Mary Jane Sproule. Where did the Sarah come from?

We have one more document to help, a bit anyway! In about 1835 there was a Presbyterian Census, and we have the record from this for the Dromore Presbyterian Church – thanks again to Jamie Reid. 

In Mullaghabane in the 1835 Census we have;

1. James Sproule of Mullaghbane (Dromore), Presbyterian. Sister: Anne Sproule; Brother: William Sproule 
2. Sarah Sproule of Mullaghbane (Dromore), Presbyterian.  Sister-in-law: Nancy Sproule; daughter-in-law: Mary Jane Sproule

 I have actually tied myself in knots trying to sort this out, very many times. Apart from anything else, the dates just don't match up! Let's look at the year 1835 which is about the year when the Census was taken.

In 1835 we know that;

✔ Armour and his son John are gone off to Canada with their families
✔ James3 and Mary Jane Sproule are not yet married, they married in 1837. Therefore, the ‘daughter-in-law’ Mary Jane Sproule in the census, should not be her. 
✔ James1 and Ann Blayney are also not yet married, they married in 1838. 

Mullaghabane House 1

So in House 1 we have a James Sproule in the Census, and he must be the unmarried James1 Sproule,the son of Armour Sproule, who later married Ann Blayney. He’s the one who died in 1842. He is in House 1. He is with living there with his brother William and his sister Ann. We now have two more children of Armour Sproule. All good here.

Mullaghabane House 2

This one is the puzzle. In the this home we should have James Sproule and Fanny Harper, or we should have some of their children. We actually have a Sarah Sproule, with her sister-in-law, and her daughter-in-law – no men.

It isn't a case of all the men being off working somewhere. In the Tithe Applotment of 1834, this Sarah Sproule is the person named on this land, she has the lease. Since she has a daughter-in-law we can assume that Sarah was not a Sproule. Sarah Sproule is a widow. Who's widow is she? This census is taken in 1835 so I don't believe that Sarah is the widow of a son of James2 and Fanny Harper - and Sarah also has a daughter-in-law. So Sarah is most likely to be the 2nd wife of James2 Sproule who married Fanny Harper - I think. 

But that is where we have problems. Mary Jane Sproule, the daughter-in-law should, then, be the wife of James3, the son of James2 and Fanny Harper. A second wife, like Sarah, would still refer to her as the 'daughter-in-law'. This would mean that her husband, James3, is off working somewhere. That fits well enough.

But, you see, that doesn't make any sense, as James3 Sproule and Mary Jane Sproule are not married yet - they did not get married until 1 June 1837! So was this part of the Census done later? I don't know. The date of 1835 looks right in other families. 

But I must stop going round in circles and leave it there - any suggestions most welcome!

 So that's the James Sproules of Mullaghbane mostly sorted, though puzzles still remain. 

References;

[1] From Dromore Church Records in PRONI, transcribed by Kate Tammemagi

[2] Tithe Applotment Book for Dromore PRONI FIN/5/A/114B

[3] Dromore Church Record from Jo McCoy - thank Jo.

[4] Marriage Settlement Chadwallader Blayney and Mary Sproule 478 553 311812 Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org, transcribed by Kate Tammemagi

[5] 220 356 145078 Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org, Osburn to Blayney (Oughterard) Dated 6 Jul 1757 From Jamie Reid

Other Posts in this Series;

1. Armour Curry Lowery Sproule

2. Armar Lowry-Corry and the Mullaghabane Sproule  

3.  John Sproule of Grennan and the Mullaghabane Sproule

4. How did Armour Curry Lowery Sproule get his Name? 

5. The Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane

6. Ann Given, wife of Armour Sproule of Mullaghabane

Ann Given, wife of Armour Sproule of Mullaghabane

We have not yet established who exactly Armour Sproule was, but, thanks to the 1900 letter, we know quite a bit about his wife, Ann Given.  Ann was a well connected lady and there is a bit of a story here.

The 1900 letter that had been sent to her granddaughter, Mrs Hugh Keys, formerly Sarah Sproule, had opened the door to the family history of Ann Given. The letter had been sent by Charles Cooper, Sarah Sproule's brother-in-law, and it had family history from Rev. Edward Edwards. The letter told us;

 “Sarah Sproul her father’s mother was Ann Givan, daughter of Mary Jane Stuart, who was a sister of Sir George Stuart. He was the landlord of the parish of Straws and inherited a good many other properties. They were first cousins of the Countess Ross of Castle Gore. The Reverend Edwards said that they were the nearest relations of King James Stuart and any of the Stuart.”

The Rev Edward Edwards had died some 20 years before this letter was written, and so it would be understandable that some of the details may have been embellished in the intervening years. However,  this part of the letter seems to have been very accurate, though I didn't look into the ‘nearest relations to King James Stuart’ part!

The letter had told us where exactly  to go to find the family history of Ann Given. We must go to the Edwards Family Tree. (Note – the name ‘Stuart’ is also spelt ‘Stewart’, and I‘m going to stick with Stewart spelling here.)

We are looking for Mary Jane Stewart, who is connected to Olivia Edwards, the Countess of Rosse, who was the heir to the Castle Gore estates and to the Manor of Hastings. The Edwards Family Tree is vast, but I knew exactly where to go immediately, as I had come across this Stewart-Edwards marriage when I was researching the Golan Sproules. The Stewart marriage was situated very close on the Edwards tree to the marriage of Martha Edwards of Kilcroagh to Robert Sproule of Golan in the early 1700s.

Martha Edwards was the daughter of Robert Edwards of Kilcroagh and Martha La Vie, and she was born some time around 1700. And, yes, right next to that Golan Sproule marriage on the Edwards Tree is the marriage of Mary Edwards of Kilcroagh, sister of my Martha, to Robert Stewart, and it even tells us that this marriage took place on 9 Sep 1726.

From "A Table of some Descendangs of  Hugh Edwards, who died A.D. 1672"

The letter was fairly accurate on the Edwards relationship, when it said “They were first cousins of the Countess Ross of Castle Gore”, for Mary Edwards is the 1^st cousin 1x removed of Olivia Edwards, the Countess of Rosse.

The Edwards Tree tells us that the father of Robert Stewart was George "Roe" Stewart of Termon, in County Donegal. Robert Stewart, husband of Mary Edwards, was a minister at the church in Carland, County Tyrone, and he preached in Irish. That is quite significant, as the Plantation folk generally shunned the Irish language and it was spoken only by the native Irish. 

The Edwards Tree also confirms what the letter says, that Robert Stewart inherited land in Straw or Strews in Londonderry;

“Inherited Strews, part of the grant to Robert, father of William Stewart (who married Mary O'Neill, gd dau of the Earl of Tyrone) and 5th s/o Andrew, 2nd Lord Ochiltree, buried in Newmills churchyard”

It looks as if Rev. Robert Stewart who married Mary Edwards, was indeed descended from the Lords of Ochiltree, a Scottish title created in 1543 for an Andrew Stewart. There was a long line of Andrew Stewarts holding this Lord Ochiltree title until the last Andrew Stewart sold it off in the early 1600s. Our Robert Stewart is descended from this last one.

From A Pedigree of the family of Stewart, of Castlestewart, Vol 2 1892 John O' Hart

But that’s not the interesting part of this story.  Rev. Robert Stewart and Mary Edwards had 10 children, the 9^th child being Mary Jane Stewart, born about 1744, who was to become the mother of our Ann Given. However, Rev. Robert Stewart died just 2 years after her birth, on 12 April 1746 and I believe that his wife Mary died round the same time, although I can’t find a record of her death.  The children were now orphans. 

Their daughter, Mary Jane Stewart, the Edwards Tree tells us, was taken in by her cousin, Olivia Edwards, the Countess of Rosse and she lived at Castle Gore. At some stage the bold Mary Jane Stewart eloped with a gentleman named James Given of Langfield!

From A Pedigree of the family of Stewart, 
of Castlestewart, Vol 2 1892 John O' Hart

Unfortunately, the Edwards tree does not tell us why they eloped, but it can’t have been that the Given family was an ‘unsuitable’ family. Martha Edwards, a first cousin of Mary Jane Stewart also married into this Given family of Langfield. She married a man named George Semple of Mullaghabane, who’s mother was Sarah Given. This Sarah Given was the sister of James Given that Mary Jane Stewart had married. So there’s kind of a Mullaghabane / Given link there too. 

So James Given and Mary Jane Stewart eloped and lived in the Parish of Langfield, where, no doubt, their daughter Ann Given was born.

We can locate James Given of Langfield from his death date written on the Edwards Tree – 1792. From this we find him in the Index to Wills in 1792. 

 Ireland, Indexes to Wills, 1384-1858, Ancestry.com

James Given is living in Unshinagh, in Langfield Upper, now Longfield East. George Given, the son of James Given and Mary Jane Stewart, is there in Unshinagh in the Tithe Applotment, and he has 46 acres. His holding has grown to 115 acres by the mid 1850s.

Meanwhile our Ann Given has married Armour Sproule of Mullaghabane. If we leave out the 'elope' bit, this would be quite a 'good' marriage for a small farmer in Mullaghabane, even one connected to the Grennan Sproules. Does this hint at Armour having friends in high places? 

Maybe, or maybe not!

Other Posts in this Series;

1. Armour Curry Lowery Sproule

2. Armar Lowry-Corry and the Mullaghabane Sproule  

3.  John Sproule of Grennan and the Mullaghabane Sproule

4. How did Armour Curry Lowery Sproule get his Name? 

5. The Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane

The Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane

This is the document that David Walter sent to me in 2017, containing the family history of Sarah Sproule, then Mrs Hugh Keys, granddaughter of Armour Sproule and Ann Given. As you can see it is a typewritten transcript of a letter, supposedly sent to Mrs Hugh Keys in her home in Australia in about 1900. There is no provenance for this 1900 letter, we don't know where it came from. However, I knew immediately that the information it contained had indeed been sent to Sarah Sproule, and that she had definitely recieved it. The reason was that the information contained in the 1900 letter was largely the same information that had appeared in her newspaper obituary when she died in 1919.  The obituary authenticated the 1900 letter.  

 Robyn Ritchie had sent me a copy of this lovely obituary of Mrs Hugh Keys from Trove a couple of years earlier - thanks Robyn.(See below) However, I very much doubted the family background in the obituary, especially this section begins,

"Mrs. Hugh Keys, was a native of Drumbulkin, County Fermanagh"

 To be honest I didn't look much further, as Sarah Sproule was definitely was not a native of Drumbulcan. How could her family not know that? Sarah Sproule was born on 18 Nov 1838, in Mullaghabane, Dromore, County Tyrone, the daughter of James Sproule of Mullaghabane and Ann Blayney. (Dromore Church record) I assumed that the rest of the newspaper obituary was also fantasy.

And then I got the 1900 letter, with the family history that had been written by Rev Edwards and Charles Cooper. This not only validated the letter, but the letter also validated the obituary! And the 1900 letter also explained why her family thought she was from Drumbulcan when they had written her obituary. In the 1900 letter there is a title which begins her family history and this title is,

"The Genealogy of Mrs Hugh Keys of Drumbulkin, County Fermanagh, Ireland."

She was indeed 'Mrs Hugh Keys of  Drumbulkin' as she had married Hugh Keys, a farmer from Drumbulcan, Derryvullan, Fermanagh. (1831-1893) That was her last home in Ireland. However, she was originally Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane. The confusion was explained.

Now this letter also heads the reader in the right direction for the family of Ann Given and Ann Blayney, but the detail of those families is not actually accurate. We will look at those in the next posts.

The Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia

The 1900 Letter to Mrs Hugh Keys, Sarah Sproule of Mullaghabane.

The Obituary of Mrs Hugh Keys

 Sarah Keys died on 27 May 1919 and her Obituary appeard the following day in the Bundaberg Mail. I have given just the lovely beginning here, transcribed by Robyn Ritchie, well worth a read! The rest of the obit gives the family history and it contains some incorrect information, so I won't include it here.

Bundaberg Mail,

28 May 1919, p.4

"A veritable pioneer passed away at an early hour yesterday morning in the person of Mrs. Hugh Keys, senr., the venerable mother of several of Bundaberg and district best known residents and who had resided here for about thirty-five years, having seen the place grow from a village to a new city of great importance.

Mrs. Keys was a fine old soul, possessed of the stamina that was so directly a feature of the pioneers that paved the way for the present day generation, and to who’s sterling qualities a wilderness was transformed into a land of rich productiveness. The deceased lady had been ailing for several weeks and had taken up her residence with her second eldest daughter, Mrs. Erikson, of East Bundaberg. But until then, despite her upwards of four score years, she had resided in her own little home in West Bundaberg, enjoying good health and activity. 

Other Posts in this Series;

1. Armour Curry Lowery Sproule

2. Armar Lowry-Corry and the Mullaghabane Sproule  

3.  John Sproule of Grennan and the Mullaghabane Sproule

4. How did Armour Curry Lowery Sproule get his Name? 

How did Armour Curry Lowery Sproule get his Name?

Where did it come from? How did Armour Curry Lowery Sproule get a name that was almost identical to that of Armar Lowry-Corry, Lord Belmore? We have looked at one possibility in an earlier post. This time we will look at a few more. Now I am a facts and figures type of person, and a post based entirely on speculation is very rare for me, but I have to emphasise that this one definitely is. My motivation is to encourage a male Sproule descendant of the Mullaghabane Sproules to come forward for Y-DNA, to help us to get closer to the truth. So, here we go...

Are John Sproule of Grennan and Lord Belmore somehow linked?

Firstly we'll ask the question, could John Sproule have named his child after someone that he knew personally? Were they friends, or relatives, or had some kind of personal relationship? The short answer to this is no, I can find no connection between these two at all. They definitely were not related. They are roughly the same age, Armar Lowry was born in 1740 and John Sproule in 1744, but they grew up on opposite sides of County Tyrone, very far apart. Armar Lowry was raised in Aghenis, in the parish of Aghaloo, in the far east of Tyrone, and John Sproule was in Grennan, parish of Dromore, in the far west.

Grennan where John Sproule lived, and Aghenis where Armar Lowry was reared

They couldn’t have met at school or in the army. According to Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, his great grandson, Armar Lowry was educated by a tutor at home and he did not graduate from any university. He wasn’t in the army either. [1]

After 1774 Armar Lowry-Corry was the landlord of John Sproule, John was leasing land in 3 townlands that were owned Armar. However, that process would not normally have involved either of them meeting or communicating in any way. Armar Lowry had agents to look after each of his estates. Each of the agents would have had bookkeepers to record all of the due rents and payments. John Sproule would have met the bookkeeper when he was paying his rent. He would probably only have dealt with the agent when there was a lease to renew, a default on payment or some other issue. He would be nowhere near Armar Lowry-Corry. [2]

Under normal circumstances, therefore, I don’t believe these two would ever have met at all, never mind have been friends. And abnormal circumstances? We don't know anything about those, of course! Maybe Armar Lowry-Corry  wanted to improve his swordsmanship and duelling skills from the expert swordsman, John Sproule of Grennan! 

So there doesn’t seem to be any logical reason why John Sproule of Grennan would have chosen this name, Armour Curry Lowery Sproule, for his child.

What if this wasn’t John Sproule’s child?

From my earliest look at Armour Sproule, it did occur to me that there was the possibility that Armour was, in fact, not the child of John Sproule at all. He could be an ‘illegitimate’ child that John Sproule was raising as his own. There are a couple of options to be considered when looking at this possible scenario. The first is that Armour Sproule is the child of Armar Lowry-Corry and a Grennan Sproule female. I actually kept this one alive until fairly recently, even though it really made no sense at all!

I couldn’t make it work in any scenario that I considered. Let’s paint the picture.  The lady in question could be the daughter of John Sproule of Grennan, or maybe it is his sister, and this Sproule lady has got pregnant by Armar Lowry-Corry. Let’s say that John Sproule decides to bring this child into his family and to raise him as his own. 

Now, in this situation is he likely to give this child the name of the man who had disgraced the lady in his family - Armar Lowry-Corry? And even if the child did have that name, and John Sproule accepted that, would John also have given him his own Sproule name? Ah, no, definitely not. I couldn’t see that happening at all. That is broadcasting the scandal to the whole countryside!

But even if we got past the name issue, there were two other big practical problems. First none of the dates added up.  John Sproule’s eldest daughter would have been too young to have a baby round 1780 when Armour was born. His eldest daughter was Mary who married Chadwallade Blayney and she was born round 1768.[3] And any sister of John Sproule would probably be too old for Armar Lowry-Corry.

And the second problem was even bigger, it was back to how could they possibly have met? Grennan was a long way from either Aghenis or Castle Coole - the two places where Armar Lowry had lived. It couldn’t really happen.

But there is a second option to this ‘illegitimate’ child scenario, a different one that I am favouring at the moment. The more I learnt more Armar Lowry-Corry and also, more recently about John Sproule of Grennan, the more likely I think this option becomes.

Did Armour Sproule have any Sproule blood at all?

When we look more closely at Armar Lowry-Corry, Lord Belmore, we can actually get some indication as to how he would treat a child of a lady with whom he had had some dalliance. (I read those regency novels too) To be honest, I was surprised when I saw this.

When Armar’s second wife, the young Lady Henrietta Hobart-Hampden, left him in about 1781 and returned to London, he remained ‘single’ for quite a while.  During this time Armar had liaisons with two ladies who lived on the Castle Coole estate, and Armar had children with both of them.[4] One of these ladies was apparently a Miss Bowen, the coachman’s daughter, and the other a Margaret Begby. If this is true, it must have been public knowledge, made more so by the names that Armar Lowry-Corry gave to these children.

Margaret Begby gave birth to a daughter in 1784, her name was Emily Maria Lowry Corry. In 1787 Margaret Begby had a son, and he was called John Corry. Both children got Corry names, and on Lowry Corry.

In 1793 Miss Bowen, the coachman’s daughter, apparently gave birth to a son and he was named Armar Lowry Corry! If this is true, that this Armar Lowry Corry was the son of Miss Bowen, he still managed to go on and have a very successful career in the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of Admiral. (1793-1855)

I also noticed his name on the bottom of some of the encumbered estates documents in the mid 1850s, and this certainly supports the idea that he is, indeed, the son of Miss Bowen.

Capt. Armar Corry Lowry named Encumbered Estate, Townland of Gortaclare

In very tinly writing at the bottom of that page, it says;

"This lot will be sold primarily subject to £23 8s yearly to be paid thereout on foot of an annuity of £1076 18s to Julianna Countess of Belmore and £40 12s yearly to be paid thereout on foot of an annuity of £184 12s to Captain Armar Lowry Corry R.N...."

Julianna Countess of Belmore has the large annuity. She is the daughter of Armar Lowry-Corry and Margaret Butler, his first wife. Captain Armar Lowry Corry has an annuity considerably smaller.

So we see a definite pattern of Armar Lowry-Corry giving his children who were born out of wedlock his own name, even his full name. These liaisons took place after the marriage of Armar Lowry-Corry to Henrietta in March of 1780. So let's look at what was going on before this marriage. His first wife had died eight years before in 1772. There is an eight year gap in between  these events in which Armar Lowry-Corry would certainly have had one or more liaisons with local ladies. It is logical also that if the couple had children, he would be likely to have given them some or, indeed, all of his own name too.

 So now we come to the beginning of 1780 and there is a marriage arranged between Armar Lowry-Corry and Henrietta, the daughter of the great and good Duke of Buckinghamshire. This is a huge event. I can readily envisage that Armar Lowry-Corry would be very be anxious to tidy up his affairs before the big day. What to do with his lady or ladies and the child or children? It was often the case that, if necessary, the ladies would be ‘married off’, and the child or children would go with them or, if not, would be adopted to some other good home. The new home would have to be situated some distance away from Castle Coole, just to be safe, and yet still within the area of the Lowry estates. Looking at what little I know of Armar Lowry-Corry, I believe he would have gone to some lengths to make sure that all were in good homes.

How would something like this be done? Again, this would be the role of the agents. There were two agents for Tyrone at this time, as we learnt from Sommerset Lowry-Corry, his great grandson,

“He appointed for his Tyrone estate prior to his mother's death, viz. — Messrs. James and Samuel Galbraith.” [1]

The Galbraith brothers, who were the agents, were the nephews of Armar, so he would be keeping this very much within the family. If it were the marriage situation, their task would be to find a suitable suitable man of reasonable means, who could support this lady and her child or children, and who would be willing to give them a good home. It would, of course, be known who the father of this child was, as he would still carry the name. I don't believe it would have been all that easy to find the right home. A home just for the child without the mother would have been easier. A financial contribution would also have been made of course.

And then we have John Sproule of Grennan, a farmer from a very well respected family, and who seems to be in great need of financial support! Would he marry a woman and take a child who tied him to the great Lord Belmore? Yes, I think this is possible, assuming he had no living wife at the time. Of course we don’t know, but I believe he would, whereas I wouldn’t believe the earlier suggestion. Or what about the second situation, would he take in the child with the Lowry-Corry name, into his own home, for a fee? Yes, I think he would.

How would the rest of the family react? Well, they wouldn’t be witnesses at a wedding of his daughter, that’s for sure!

So my bottom line from this whole story is this. My best guess is that there are two possibilities, and only two, why our Armour Sproule was given the name Armour Curry Lowery Sproule;

1. Either -The Armour Curry Lowery Sproule is a nickname for the boy who was called simply, Armour Sproule 
2. or John Sproule of Grennan took in a child whose parents were Armar Lowry-Curry and some unknown lady. He may or may not have married this lady. There may or may not have been other children, but one of these children was called Armour Curry Lowery Sproule.

Again, both of these could be very far from what was in fact the real truth! I only hope that I live long enough to find out!

References:

[1] The History of the Two Ulster Manors of Finagh, in the County of Tyrone, and Coole, p.41, Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry Earl of Belmore, Longmans, Green & Company, 1881

[2] Some information on this is in The History of the Two Ulster Manors of Finagh above, but most of my knowedge of the agent / landlord relationship comes from the extensive letters in PRONI between the Earl of Abercorn and his agent in Strabane, James Hamilton, also a relative of the Earl. 

[3] Mary Sproule, John's eldest daughter who married Chadwaladar Blayney, ended up in Prescot, Ontario, Canada. She is in the 1851 census there which gives her birth year as 1768. This is, of course, may not be accurate, but it effectively means that the chances of her having a baby before 1780 are slim to none.

[4] This appears in Ulster Archaeological Society Castle Coole,  Derryvullan, Co.Fermanagh, author  Ian Gillespie, in association with the National Trust 2015, where he quotes from the book Belmore : the Lowry Corrys of Castle Coole, 1646-1913, Peter Marson, Belfast : Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007

Other Posts in this Series;

1. Armour Curry Lowery Sproule

2. Armar Lowry-Corry and the Mullaghabane Sproule  

3.  John Sproule of Grennan and the Mullaghabane Sproule