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 

The First Sproules in Ulster

Was Robert Spreull, who was buried in the Castlederg Cemetery in 1689, the first Sproule settler in Ireland? This was certainly the belief of some early family historians. They said that Robert came from Renfrewshire in Scotland in the 1650s with his wife and sons, he settled in Tyrone and the Sproules spread from there.  These Sproule family historians were, coincidentally, all from Tyrone themselves, so they were understandably a little biased!

Now, thanks to the great work of transcribers and the wonders of the internet, we have much more data available. We can see clearly that Robert was far from the first, and that there were many more families of Sproule settlers than any of these early family historians had imagined.

The Earliest Sproule Records

The earliest records of Sproules in Ireland are in the Muster Rolls of 1630. The Muster Roll was a list of all able bodied men who were fit to fight in a war.  There was one Sproule in the Muster of Donegal in 1630:

·    James Spreull in the Barony of Raphoe on the land of  “The Lord Duke of Lynox”. James had one sword.

Raphoe parish is very near to County Tyrone. However, there was another Sproule recorded in a quite different part of Ulster:

·    Claudius Sprowell in The Barony of Keenaght on the land of Thomas Phillips, of Limavady

Twelve years later in 1642, there was another Muster in Donegal, and now we have two Sproules there. They were both in the same parish of Raphoe:

·     In Sir Robert Stewart's Company mustered at Raphoe is Private Robert Sprowle.

·     In James Hamilton's Company also mustered at Raphoe, Private James Sprule.

The Sproules in the Hearth Money Rolls

The Hearth Money Rolls was a tax in 1665  based on the number of hearths in a household. It gives us a much better picture than the Muster Rolls and it reveals a very surprising pattern of Sproules in Ulster!

In 1665 there were already at least 15 households of Sproules, and they are spread across the northern counties of Ulster in the following clusters:

Sproule Family Groups in Ulster 1665

1.     Clondermot Parish in the townland of Gortin, four households. The Sproules have obviously been here for some time.  This is the New Buildings area of County Derry / Londonderry. 

2.     The Town of Belfast, four households, again a well established group

3.     Ballymoney Parish in Antrim, the townland of Bravallen – there are two households

4.     Raphoe Parish – two households. Archibold  in Lismontigly  and John Sproul in Stranorlughan

5.     Mevagh Parish, this is round the town of Carrigart in the north of Donegal. John Spruel of Glanree and Jennett Spruel, widow, of Glanree

6.     Kirkinriola Parish in Antrim, on the Ballymena Estate, one household

7.     Ardstraw Parish in Tyrone, in the townland of Lissaleen, now Lisleen, we have one household, that of one Robert Spreull.

Non-paying Sproules

Even this is not a complete picture, as many folk were successful in avoiding paying the Hearth tax. A good example of this is when we look at Limavady, where there was a Sproule in the first Muster of 1630. This Sproule family does not appear on the Hearth tax, and yet there is good evidence that they were still there.  There was a will recorded in 1705 for a Margaret Sproull, from Rafad in the Parish of Aghanloe. Aghanloe is a townland on the outskirts of Limavady.

Conclusion - The Early Sproules

What we can definitely say is that there were at least seven separate families of Sproule settlers who established themselves in the early 1600s. They were spread across the northern counties of Ulster and they were a much more diverse group that was previously thought. They were not just leasing or owning land, they were also moving into towns.

In Tyrone, where my family originated, the first Sproule who appeared on record was indeed Robert Spreull in 1665. Robert lived at that time in Lissaleen, now Lisleen, in the parish of Ardstraw. 

Where did Robert of Lisleen come from? Was it directly from Scotland or was it possible that he came from one of the more established Ulster family groups? Was he the only Tyrone Sproule in 1665 or were there others who did not appear on the Hearth Tax?  Robert was certainly my ancestor, on one side of my family. On the other side are the Tullymoan Sproules, when did they arrive? These are some of the questions which I will explore in the next posts.

Thanks to:

• County Tyrone Genealogy
• The wonderful website of of Bill Macfee, Family and Local History Website
• Ulster Ancestry
• Donegal Genealogy Resources