Showing posts with label James Sproule. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Sproule. Show all posts

Friday, 15 October 2021

1849 The Sproules are Rioting!

 This is another riot, but this time it is the Sproules who are doing the rioting! It appeared in the Tyrone Constitution of Friday 4 May 1849. 

Riot and Assault at Dromore

At the petty sessions held in this town, on Wednesday last, James Sproule, Anne Sproule, William Graham, William Smith, James McAleer, Francis Anthony, Archibald Alexander, George Coulter, Cormack Scallon, John Sproule and Hugh Sproule were called to answer the complaint of Hugh Bradley and Phil McCaghery for a riot and assault at Dromore on 26th April last by  presenting a gun and bayonet at complainants and obstructing them as bailiffs in the discharge of their duty. The three first mentioned parties James Sproule, Anne Sproule, and William Graham were also called on the complaint of Mr John Martin for assault at the same time and place while superintending the execution of a judge’s fiat on the part of Mr John Donnelly merchant of this town.

It appeared from the evidence of several witnesses that Mr Donnelly had some time previously obtained a judge’s fiat for the some of £10 against Mr James Sproule of Dromore and that Mr Martin on the part of Mr Donnelly went to have the fiat executed accompanied by the bailiffs mentioned. Mr Sproule on hearing that the fiat was about to be executed got into a hay loft, the ladder approaching to which was then taken away, and armed himself with several weapons, guns, bayonets, blunderbusses etc to resist any attempt that might be made for his arrest. William Graham, Francis Anthony, Archibald Alexander and some other parties also got into the loft with Sproule to protect him from arrest. Mr Martin and the bailiffs got into the yard through the house but finding the parties so well prepared to resist the seizure and being unwilling to risk the consequences of a conflict with such a number of armed men did not persist in executing the order.

They were given bail to appear for trial in the next session.

British Newspaper Archive, Tyrone Constitution - Friday 04 May 1849

Note:

The Sproule family here are the Grennan family that Jack Elder called 'Another Grennan' Family. The John Sproule mentioned is John (1785- 1858) who married Elizabeth Wallace (1784-1868) He is the father of this family and James and Hugh are his children. 

 Ann Sproule could be either the daughter or daughter-in-law of John. John Sproule had a daughter Ann. In addition, his son James Sproule, mentioned in the riot, was married to Ann Irwin of Magheracross, Fermanagh at this time. James Sproule went to New Zealand after Ann's death in 1852, and he died there in 1884.

The son Hugh Sproule was unmarried at this time. He married Mary Crozier in 1854 and they went to live in Jamberoo, New South Wales, Australia. Hugh died there in 1904.

Wednesday, 13 October 2021

The Burning of the House of Charles Sproule of Grennan 1827

In late 1827, early 1828, an advertisement was placed in the local papers all over the northern part of Ireland, appearing in most of them, and it was repeated at quite some expense. Charles Sproule of Grennan was obviously very upset that the new house that he was having built in Tully for his son, Charles Jun. was burnt down. The people who did this seemed to be a political group, called the Rockites, and we learn that they had also fired shots at Charles Jun when he appeared.  

View over Tully today from the Mid Ulster Mail

Charles of Grennan placed a reward for information, and obviously many of his friends and neighbours contributed to this. The early advertisements contained a list of folks who contributed to that reward.

We know from ‘following the land’ that this gentleman is Charles Sproule of the Holme, and the son is Charles Sproule of Daisy Hill. When Charles of the Holme handed over his lands to his sons in 1836, the Tully property was one of those mentioned in the deed – see below.

 

The NewryCommercial Telegraph

January 1, 1828

                                                             REWARD

  WHEREAS, on Sunday the 12th day of August last, about the hour of Two o'Clock in the afternoon, a Mob of at least Fifty Persons, well supplied with fire-arms, and provided with crow-bars, and such instruments, came to the Townland of TULLY, in the Parish of LANGFIELD, and in the County of TYRONE, and levelled to the ground a Dwelling House thereon, the property of CHAS. SPROULE, sen., of GRANNAN, in the said County, the mason work of which had just been completed, and destroyed all the timber, &c. used in building the same ; and when CHARLES SPROULE, jun. son of the above, for whom the House was intended, appeared, several Shots were fired at him, by individuals of this party, and with difficulty, he succeeded in escaping. Now We, the undersigned, holding in abhorrence such atrocious villainy, and perfectly convinced that if the Perpetrators shall (in this case) be suffered to escape with impunity, there will neither be safety for the Persons or the Property of any Individuals, residing in the exposed situations in this part of the Country, who may happen to become obnoxious to any of the Party (we mean Rockites), of which these ruffians are supposed to be members, do hereby offer a reward of Three Hundred Pounds Sterling, Payable in proportion to the Sums respectively annexed to our Names, to any Person or Persons who shall, within Twelve Calendar Months from the date hereof, give Information against, and afterwards prosecute in Conviction, any considerable number of the Principals or Accessories engaged in this nefarious transaction ; And we also, in like manner, off the Sum of Fifty Pounds Sterling, for such private Information, within the same time, and with strictest secrecy observed, as shall lead to the Conviction of any considerable number as aforesaid.

  Application to be made to JAMES GALBRAITH, of JAMES WILSON, Esqrs. ; or to Chief Constable DUFF, all of Omagh; or to ANDREW SPROULE, of Grannan.

--Dated this 21st day of December, 1827.

  [Here follows the List of Subscribers, with the Sums opposite their respective names, amounting in all to the Sum of £785.]

   Dublin Castle, 21st Dec. 1827.

   The LORD LIEUTENANT for the better apprehending and bringing to Justice, the Persons concerned in the Outrage Committed on CHAS. SPROULE, jun. is pleased hereby to promise His Majesty's most gracious Pardon to any of them (except the Person who fired the Shots), who shall, within Six Months from the date hereof, discover his Accomplices, so as they, or any of them, be convicted.

  Given at His Majesty's Castle of Dublin, the 21st day of December, 1827.

   By His Excellency's Command,

   WM. LAMB.

 

Charles Sproule of Grennan handing over his estate to James and Charles 7 Dec 1836

1837 12 198 Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org, transcribed by Kate Tammemagi

A memorial of an indednted deed baring the date 7 Dec 1836 and made between Charles Sproule Sen. of Grennan in the Parish of Dromore and the County of Tyrone Gent. of the first part, James Sproule of Grennan Gent. his son to the said Charles Sproule in the second part, and Charles Sproule of Daisy Hill, in the parish of  Kilskeery Gent. also son of Charles Sproule of Grennan. Whereby the said Charles Sproule Sen for the consideration therein mentioned did grant etc. to the said James Sproule and Charles Sproule Jun in their actual possession ... share and share alike and to their respective heirs and assigns all that and those the one half of the townland of Glennan heretofore in the tenure and occupation of John McCloskey, James Sherry ,William McCraner and Thomas Loughran their indented and assigns excepting thereout that part formerly held by James Sherry and now in the possession of Thomas Graham and his undertennants situated and lying in the parish of Fintona, Barony of Omagh, Co Tyrone.

Also and those that quarter or fourth part of the town of Letteree held by James Owey and his undertennants, containing 70 acres or thereabouts, in Dromore, also the townlands of Skreen bounded in the east by the townland of Dunnamona, on the west by the townland of Glennan, on the north by Tallykeel, and on the south by the townland of Alla, all in Donnacavey (that’s not what is written) except Crawfords Hill containing 40 acres or thereabouts, to hold by James & Charles share & share alike.

The said Charles Sproule did sell etc. unto the said James Sproule in his actual possession etc. all that and those that part of Grennan formerly in the occupation of the said Charles Sproule sen in the parish of Dromore, and also the lands of Tully containing 700 acres situated in the parish of Lower Langfield. To hold the lands of Grennan for and during the natural lives of Andrew, son of said Charles, Archibald Osbourne and John Osbourne, first and second sons of Archibald Osbourne late of Derrynasseer deceased. To hold the lands of Tully for all the residue of the term and years unexpired of the lease. And which said deed further witnessed that the said Charles Sproule for the consideration therein mentioned did grant etc. onto the said James Sproule in his actual possession etc. all that and those an equal and undivided moity of all the estate right and interest in and to the lands of Skreen with the rents issues and profits thereof situated in the parish of Fintona, to hold etc. forever, to hold to the said James Sproule forever heirs etc.  and the deed also witnessed that the said James Sproule for the consideration therein did sell etc. unto Charles Sproule sen the and equal and undivided moity of the half of three fourths of the lands of Ardvarnok and Noughty situated in the Parish of Raphoe.

Witness Alexander Osbourne of the Royal Navy esq,  Archibald Osbourne of Dernaser, farmer, and John Osbourne of Mossfield, farmer, and Oliver Sproule of Curraghamulkin, farmer

 

Friday, 7 May 2021

Part 3 – The Big Breakthough in Sproule DNA, Using the Mutation

 The Cornet Andrew Mutation, BY105178, had been found in four members of the Sproule DNA Project. Two of those members helped us pin down the time that this mutation had occurred, and this was round the birth of Cornet Andrew Spreull in Tyrone, or very close to that time.

Tommy was another project member who had this Cornet Andrew Mutation.  Like many other people, he had been searching for his roots, and he had invested in Y-DNA testing – and thank goodness he did! Without Tommy and all of the other Sproule DNA project members, we could never have identified something like the Cornet Andrew mutation, or, indeed, the other Sproule family mutations that we have found.

Tommy’s ancestor was a man called James Sproule who lived in Addington, in Canada. James was born in 1788 and in the 1851 Census he is a farmer. Now looking for a James Sproule, who was born in Ireland at that time… well let’s just say that the words ‘needles’ and ‘haystacks’ leap to mind! That name occurs in almost every Sproule family.

But now we know that this James Sproule of Addington had the Cornet Andrew mutation, and we know that he is a close relative or descendant of Cornet Andrew Spreull himself.

We are looking in two areas. The sons of Cornet Andrew were left land in two deeds both dated 10 March 1719. In one deed, Cornet Andrew leaves the townland of Grennan to 3 of his sons, Andrew, James and Charles. The name James occurs everywhere in these three Grennan families - there are loads of them!  A few years ago some of us Sproule researchers worked together at trying to sort them out and it took a while! However, an awful lot of work has been done on the Grennan Sproules, and most, if not all of the James Sproules there  have been identified and accounted for.

The second place to look is the Curraghamulkin Sproules. In the second deed of 1719, Cornet Andrew left the the Curraghamulkin land to his son Joseph. The Curraghamulkin Sproules are  a much better bet to find our James Sproule. They have large families, and many of them ended up in Canada. There are definite gaps in these families.

So let’s look at the family of James Sproule of Addington to see if we can get any clues. In the 1851 census, James is living with, or next to, his son, Joseph. Joseph was born in Ireland in about 1827. This is looking good for the Curraghamulkins – the name Joseph is definitely a Curraghamulkin name.

James has another son, also called James, who is living in Frontenac, and he is an innkeeper. So this family had money. Son James was born in Ireland in 1813.  There seems to be one more son identified, William, and there is a Robert mentioned, but I didn’t find any proof of him. So we have Joseph, James and William, and possibly a Robert. Nothing greatly distinctive there, other than the Joseph.

However, when we look at the children of two of the sons, there is something quite dramatic – well for a Sproule it was dramatic.

Two  of the sons of James Sproule of Addington had named a son Frederick Henry Sproule. This may not seem strange names to the rest of you, but to Sproules at this time, both of these names, Frederick and Henry, were almost unheard of!

Frederick is rare enough, but the name Henry is very striking. There are no Henrys at all in the any of the Grennan Sproule families – none. In my own family tree, which includes all of these families, plus the Tullymoan and the Golan Sproules, there are only 6 Henry Sproules. It really occurs in only 2 families on my tree. The name Henry occurs in the Glenfin Sproules, and in the Curraghamulkin Sproules. So Curraghamulkin get a vote again for our James Sproule of Addington.

But that wasn’t the dramatic thing – it was the two names together, Frederick Henry. For I recognised that name straight away. John Sproule of Ardvarney West, who went with his family to live in Canada, had a son called Henry Frederick Sproule born on 08 Sep 1816.

John Sproule of Ardvarney West is a Curraghamulkin Sproule, the son of John ‘Jack Roe’ Sproule of Curraghamulkin. Furthermore, John  ‘Jack Roe’ Sproule of Curraghamulkin married twice, as we now know, and he had a son Henry – the first Henry in any of these families. The name Henry almost certainly came in to the family with his second wife, Elizabeth Edwards.

Henry, the son of John of Curraghamulkin, was unmarried and had no children. We can speculate that this Henry was, in fact, a Henry Frederick, or a Frederick Henry, and that his nephew and /or great nephews were named for him.

Now we know that our James of Addington is right in there in the family of John ‘Jack Roe’ Sproule. That is fairly definite. Can we get further? Only a bit.

John Sproule of Addington was born in 1788. Based on his age, he is almost certainly the son of one of the three older sons of John ‘Jack Roe’ Sproule.

And there, in my database was the perfect James! I had him. James Sproule of Curraghamulkin, son of Andrew Sproule of Curraghamulkin who died in 1799. Andrew of Curraghamulkin definitely had a son James, no birth date but the time is right, and we don't know what happened to him.

But this was wrong. When I double checked my data for this James, I found him in my notes of a PRONI document dated 30 May 1835, and this James had died in Ireland before 1835. Sad - it was so perfect.

But from all of this, what we can be definite about is that Tommy’s James Sproule of Addington is a Curraghamulkin Sproule, and that he is in the family of John 'Jack Roe' of Curraghamulkin. We can also say that he is almost certainly the son of either Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill or Robert Sproule of Leganvy.

More research to do.


Part 1 – The Big Breakthough in Sproule DNA

Part 2 – The Big Breakthough in Sproule DNA, the Timeline

Saturday, 19 April 2014

The Family of Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan and Rebecca MacKay (c.1760 - c.1845)

Andrew Sproule was born about 1760 in Tullymoan, Urney, County Tyrone, Ireland. Andrew was one of the five sons of Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan and Martha Sproule of Coolnacruniagh. He married REBECCA MACKY from Lismontigley, Raphoe, County Donegal. Rebecca was born in 1774 and she died in 1858.

Andrew and Rebecca had eight children:

  1. ANDREW SPROULE Died November 1826 in Jamaica at the home of James Sproule of Rosemount in Jamaica. (No issue)
  2. SAMUEL SPROULE Died 1827.  Samuel was training to be a surgeon and was either  in his Uncle Samuel's home in Cheltenham England or on route to Bombay when he died. (No issue)
  3. JANE SPROULE 1802-1864 Jane married Andrew Sproule of Glenfin and lived in Broomfield, Co Donegal. They had five children - Andrew Sproule and Samuel Sproule died in St Louis, also had Elizabeth, Rebecca and Charlotte
  4. CATHERINE SPROULE 1803 -1833 died unmarried at her father's home in Tullymoan
  5. MARGARET SPROULE d. 1835 died unmarried at her father's home in Tullymoan
  6. MATILDA SPROULE d. 1838 youngest daughter died unmarried at Tullymoan
  7. WILLIAM JOHN SPROULE MD. went to Glasgow University and qualified in 1834. Worked as a Doctor in the dispensary in Dunfanaghy. Married Ellen Ramsey of Lisennan House, Letterkenny in September 1836. They had two children Andrew Sproule of Fernhill 1835-1908, and Robert born 1838. William John died on 8th January 1839 in the home of his father-in-law in Letterkenny. 
  8. JAMES SPROULE of TULLYMOAN was born 1816 in Tullymoan, married MARY MCGLINCHY in 1869 when he was 53 years old. Mary was from Laghtmorris, Termonamongan, County Tyrone and was born in 1838. For details of their family see: The Family of James Sproule of Tullymoan (1816-1897)
For more information on this family see:
  1. The full family tree of the  - Sproules of Tullymoan
  2. The Mystery of the Children - A Sign of the Times?
  3. The Lost Sproule Boys
________________________________________________________________

Friday, 11 April 2014

Light on the Last Mysteries

I was nearing the end of the amazing story of James Sproule and his lady Charlotte Taylor, but there were a few more puzzles yet to be solved. One was the mystery of the children’s names – why did James Sproule call their first child Margaret Madden Sproule? And of course there was the big question - how did Charlotte Taylor make the extraordinary move from slave in Jamaica, to lady of the Mellmount Mansion in Ireland? How was this possible?

I found two very precious pieces of information that helped shed some light on both of these remaining puzzles. 

Charlotte Taylor’s Appearance

The diary of Lady Maria Nugent held the first key to the  life of this remarkable woman, Charlotte Taylor. Lady Maria Nugent was the wife of the Governer of Jamaica, and she visited Golden Grove, one of Simon Taylor's homes, in 1803. She recorded vivid descriptions of the visit in her journal, and she related one incident  that is very relevant to our story.1

Lady Maria was early for dinner one day and she passed the time by walking round the Golden Grove house.  The housekeeper sent a child, who Lady Maria identifies as a ‘mulatto child’,  into the living room  to amuse her.  Simon Taylor arrived and was anxious that she dismiss this child. Lady Maria discovered later from the housekeeper that this mulatto child was, in fact, Simon Taylor’s daughter. Taylor's other children lived in Trelawny, his main home. The little mulatto daughter on Golden Grove was almost certainly an 8 year old Charlotte Taylor! Lady Maria actually gives us a brief description of her:

“She was a sickly, delicate child, with straight light-brown hair, and very black eyes.”

Mixing with the Ladies

This little snippet also gives an important insight into the status of Charlotte on Golden Grove. Lady Maria Nugent was the most distinguished lady in the whole of Jamaica at that time and yet it was obviously quite normal for the housekeeper to send Charlotte in alone to amuse her.  Even as a slave child, Charlotte was apparently mixing with the best.

Another thought struck me on reading this little story. Much later, Charlotte and James Sproule gave their children some unusual names, and one of these was that of their daughter, Jane Nugent Sproule. Could Jane Nugent have been named for Lady Maria Nugent? Possibly, but I think it much more likely that she is named in memory of ‘the housekeeper’ in this incident. According to Lady Maria, she was called Nelly Nugent! I strongly suspect that Nelly Nugent, the ‘housekeeper’ of Simon Taylor,  had been proudly displaying her own daughter to the distinguished visitor!

Charlotte after Simon Taylor

Simon Taylor died in 1813, and he left Charlotte as a slave on Golden Grove at that time. I knew that she had her first child by James Sproule in 1814, the daughter named Margaret Madden Sproule. In 1816, they had their first boy and Charlotte was recorded there as being a free person. So James Sproule must have arranged his lady’s freedom some time in 1815.

And that was it, I had no more information on Charlotte Taylor  – or so I thought until I was writing up this story! There was one little fact that I had overlooked, Charlotte had owned a slave! She had been bequeathed a slave in the will of her father, the Honourable Simon Taylor.  Would her name appear  in the Slave Registers as a slave owner?

I looked this up on Ancestry, and I was quite stunned at what I found.  In 1817, Charlotte Taylor, former slave, was now a slave owner. As I looked at the names of her two slaves, and at the long declaration that followed this tiny entry in the Slave Registers, it suddenly dawned! Charlotte Taylor had written the entry herself! 2 

Charlotte’s Writing

Charlotte had written a long declaration in the most beautiful handwriting. I checked later entries to ensure that this was definitely her writing, and every entry is consistent. Charlotte Taylor, a slave in Jamaica in the early 1800s, could read and write beautifully! 


How could this be? Was Simon Taylor having his slave children educated? From my reading  of Simon Taylor, he was not the type of man who would have done this.  But strangely, when I checked back  through his history I saw that his other daughter, Sarah Taylor, could also read and write. Charlotte had received some level of education at Golden Grove, and she was much better prepared to become a lady in Mellmount than I had imagined.

The Last Mystery

It was Charlotte’s last entry in the Slave Register that provided the answer to the question that had niggled me from the beginning. In Charlotte’s entry of 1832, a  name leaps straight off the page - Margaret Madden! Charlotte had acquired 3 slaves who had been formerly owned by plantation owner Margaret Madden, and now they had been ‘bequeathed’ to Charlotte. Margaret Madden, Charlotte Taylor and James Sproule had all lived in the same area, and had obviously become close friends.


Margaret Madden, the name of the couple’s first child, was the name that had opened the door to this mystery, and now this same name had helped to close it.
_____________________________________________________________


* Episode 1 of this story - The Beginning of the BIG Story

References:

1 Lady Nugent’s Journal: Jamaica One Hundred Years Ago… Lady Maria Nugent, Frank Cundall, Published by the Institute of Jamaica by Adam & Charles Black, London , 1907
2 Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 Ancestry.com Class: T71; Piece: 145

Friday, 4 April 2014

Simon Taylor and the Golden Grove Child

Charlotte Taylor was born on the Golden Grove plantation, where the rich and powerful Simon Taylor had one of his many homes. The Honourable Simon Taylor (1739-1813) had no legitimate children in Jamaica, but he actually had a policy of producing as many mixed race children as possible!

Golden Grove Estate, lithograph by Adolphus Duperly,  c.1830

Simon Taylor and Golden Grove

Taylor owned at least six big sugar cane plantations in Jamaica, but he made most of his vast wealth from acting as an agent for absentee landlords.  It was one of these clients, Chaloner Arcedeckne (1763-1809), who actually owned the Golden Grove plantation where Charlotte Taylor was born. Arcedecne was an MP in England who had inherited Golden Grove from his father but he had no interest at all in going to Jamaica. Simon Taylor was his agent, he ran the Golden Grove estate and Taylor also maintained a home there.

Over the years, Simon Taylor wrote many letters to Arcedecne and to other clients,  and these letters are the reason that Taylor is so famous to this day. They are studied by historians, sociologists and political scientists:

"Simon Taylor's letters from Jamaica form the richest correspondence I know of bearing on politics and society, black and white, in the British Atlantic world of the late eighteenth century. His observations on slave life in Jamaica, especially when one considers the limits of his perspective, are often keen.” (Prof. Alexander Byrd)1  

Simon Taylor's Philosophies

Ardently pro-slavery, Simon Taylor led a powerful group of planters in the Jamaican Assembly to prevent any moves towards emancipation. He also advocated a rather novel method of adjusting the racial imbalance in Jamaica.

There were more than 250,000 people of African origin to a mere 40,000 whites, and all efforts to encourage more white people to come to Jamaica had failed. Taylor had a solution to this which he termed, 'Whitewashing the Blackamoors’! The idea was that if a man had a child with a negro woman, and then this child in turn had a child by a white man, in 4 generations the last child born would then be legally white.

"When I returned from England in the year 1760 there were only three quadroon women in the Town of Kingston. There are now three hundred, and more of the decent class of them never will have any commerce with their own colour, but only with White People. Their progeny is growing whiter and whiter every remove - from thence a White Generation will come." (Simon Taylor, 1804)2 



Children of Simon Taylor

Simon Taylor practiced what he preached! Lady Maria Nugent, wife of the Governor of Jamaica, visited him on the Golden Grove estate, and she said Taylor was ‘… an old bachelor, and detests the society of women’. But Lady Maria also learnt from his housekeeper that Mr Taylor had ‘numerous family, some on almost every estate’. 3

Taylor did not acknowledge any of these children publicly, his name did not appear on a baptism record nor were there children named in his letters. His Will, on the other hand, does make reference to two mixed race children, who are both assumed to be his daughters. The first was Sarah Taylor, a free quadroon who was the daughter of his long-term housekeeper, Sarah Blacktree Hunter. Sarah Blacktree Hunter had lived with Taylor on one of his estates and he had made her a free person. He left a great deal of money for her, for her daughter and for her granddaughter Sarah Taylor Cathcart.4 

Slave Child of Golden Grove

The other child named in his Will is not treated quite so well. She appears in a codicil dated 1811, and she is described as a quadroon slave, the property of the Golden Grove estate. In the Will, Taylor states that he is not going to free this slave as he feels he has a better way of making provision for her. He asks his executors to take £700 and to buy ‘a negro or other slave’  to be placed on Golden Grove in her stead. She is to remain a slave, but now she will have a slave to do her work. The interest on the remainder of the £700 is to be used for her clothes and maintenance during her natural life.  

Simon Taylor names this quadroon slave of Golden Grove, and, of course, this is our Charlotte Taylor.
__________________________________________________________


* Episode 1 of this story - The Beginning of the BIG Story
* Episode 5 - Finding Charlotte Taylor

* NEXT Episode - Light on the Last Mysteries


References:

1 Professor Alexander Byrd in Plantation Life in the Carribean Part 1: Jamaica c.1765-1848: The Taylor and Vanneck-Arcedekne Papers from Cambridge University Library and the Institue of Commonwealth Studies, University of London
2  Simon Taylor in a letter to George Hibbert, 14 January 1804, MS Simon Taylor Papers, London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), Letter book F, no. 42
3 Lady Nugent’s Journal: Jamaica One Hundred Years Ago… Lady Maria Nugent, Frank Cundall, Published by the Institute of Jamaica by Adam & Charles Black, London , 1907
4 National Archives of England, Simon Taylor’s Will, PROB 10/7400/7, fols 2-4, folio 59.

Monday, 31 March 2014

Finding Charlotte Taylor

I began the hunt for Charlotte Taylor in the Slave Registers of Jamaica on Ancestry. There were two and a half pages of Charlotte Taylors! They were in all different parishes, all over the island. It was a very popular name for a slave and I wondered if the Honourable Simon Taylor had anything to do with this!1

The Slave Registers

Stokes Hall Today
Finding my Charlotte Taylor, the lady of James Sproule of Mellmount, looked at first as if it was going to be a daunting task. She did not appear on the Slave Registers of Stokes Hall, where James Sproule had worked, nor was she on his home plantation of Rosemount. As I was double checking these, I realised I was on the wrong track altogether.  

The Slave Registers of Jamaica in Ancestry begin with the year 1817. Charlotte was not a slave at this time. She had been a ‘free quadroon’ on the baptism record of her second child, William Taylor Sproule, in 1816. So none of these Charlotte Taylors were my Charlotte Taylor! Equally, it was also possible that Charlotte’s mother had been a free mulatto, in which case Charlotte would have been free when she was born – she may never have been a slave at any time.

In Familysearch

That left me with the Jamaican Parish Records on Familysearch. Again, there was a long list of Charlotte Taylors here, and I had so little to go on. I knew that Charlotte was a quadroon and that she had her first child in 1814. So I guessed that her age at that time would be anything from 14 to about 24. On a quick scan down the ‘Charlotte Taylors’ in Familysearch, there were surprisingly only two that were in the right age range.2 

One of these had been born in 1794, but her mother was a negro woman. My Charlotte’s mother would have been mulatto.  However, the other Charlotte Taylor fit perfectly!  She was one of 48 slaves baptised on the 17th March 1798. Charlotte was in a smaller group of four slaves that had been marked with the term ‘Quadroon’.


Charlotte Taylor Born 1795

This had to be her. I couldn’t believe that I had found her so easily!  Charlotte Taylor, the lady of James Sproule of Mellmount, had definitely been born as a slave in Jamaica. Her birth year was given as 1795, so Charlotte Taylor had been 19 at the birth of her first child, Margaret Madden Sproule. But it was when I saw where she was born that I got those prickly tingles you get when you know that a story is coming together.

Charlotte Taylor was born on Golden Grove, and Golden Grove was one of the homes of the Honourable Simon Taylor. 

But much more than this, Simon Taylor himself mentions this Charlotte Taylor, quadroon child of Golden Grove, in a document dated 1813. And I might even have a description of her!
___________________________________________________________


* Episode 1 of this story - The Beginning of the BIG Story


References:

1 Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 Ancestry.com Class: T71; Piece: 145
2 Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, Familysearch

Friday, 28 March 2014

Charlotte Taylor - Quadroon

In 1835, Charlotte Sproule was living with her family in Ireland and she was the grand lady of the Mellmount mansion in County Tyrone. However, Charlotte had been born in Jamaica as Charlotte Taylor, and Charlotte Taylor was a quadroon.  At this point in my research, I knew full well the implications of that term.

In those days of colonial Jamaica, race was important. Each Jamaican child was labelled very clearly at baptism, using terms that identified the racial mix. Charlotte Taylor was a quadroon. This meant that she had been born of a mulatto mother and a white father. Charlotte's mulatto mother was mixed race - she had a negro mother and a white father. Charlotte's father had been white, and her grandfather was also white.

Race Culture in Jamaica

There were strange attitudes to race in the white culture of Jamaica at that time. Men, both married and single, felt free to have sexual relations with slaves of all colours. However, many white men went on to form a long-term relationship with a mulatto or a quadroon lady. The man would then live quite openly with this woman and her children.

"Every unmarried white man has his black or his brown mistress, with whom
he lives openly; and of so little consequence is this thought, that his white female
friends and relations think it no breach of decorum to visit his house, partake of
his hospitality, fondle his children, and converse with his housekeeper..." (James Stewart, 1813)1


But at the same time, white was white, and other colours were socially unacceptable. A quadroon lady might be recognised as his woman, but she was not accepted into society, and neither were her children. She lived in his house, but she was not its mistress, she was known as the ‘housekeeper’.

Marriage was out of the question. It was not illegal in Jamaica to marry a mulatto or a quadroon woman, but it was totally unacceptable:

“It would be considered an indeniable stain in the character of a white
man to enter into a matrimonial bondage with one of them (a woman of color); he would be despised in the community and excluded from all society on that account.” (J. B. Moreton, 1790)2 

 What, then, of Charlotte Taylor?

Daughter of the Honourable Simon Taylor?

Simon Taylor
According to my information, Charlotte was supposed to have been the daughter of the Honourable Simon Taylor.  As a quadroon, she was certainly not his legitimate child. 

When I looked up the Honourable Simon Taylor, the Google machine lit up! Simon Taylor was a very famous man. He was born in Jamaica in 1739, was a plantation owner and a member of the Jamaican Assembly. Simon Taylor was fabulously rich and when he died in 1813,  he was one of the wealthiest men in the whole of the British Empire. 

The Honourable Simon Taylor was also unmarried, and he had no legitimate children!

The Source

How did I get the idea that Charlotte Taylor was this man’s daughter? Where did this information come from? On checking my records, I found it had come from the 'horses mouth' - well almost. It came from Jack Elder.

From 1880 to 1920, Jack Elder had gathered vast quantities of information on the Sproule families of Tyrone. He left us superb hand drawn family trees of different branches of the Sproule clans. On one of these trees is the information that James Sproule, son of Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan, had married Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of the Honourable Simon Taylor.

Jack Elder was a relative of this Sproule family and he lived in the same neighbourhood in Tyrone where James Sproule had settled with Charlotte in 1835. Elder was collecting information directly from friends and family who had known James and Charlotte of Mellmount.  It had to have been James Sproule himself who had told these folk that Charlotte Taylor was the daughter of the Honourable Simon Taylor. 

James Sproule and Charlotte Taylor

I wondered if James had also told friends and family in Tyrone that Charlotte was his wife, or did they just assume that? For from my reading of the situation, James and his lady Charlotte Taylor could not have been married in Jamaica.

The evidence was there in the children’s Jamaican baptism records. The first child of James Sproule was identified as his ‘reputed child’, but it is the baptism of child number 5 that actually confirms the marital status of his parents. Robert Samuel Sproule was baptised in Jamaica on September 18th 1826. His parents were given as James Sproule, not married, and Charlotte Taylor, not married.3

Breaking Cultural Chains

When James Sproule brought his lady to live as his ‘wife’ in Ireland in 1835, he was breaking the social and cultural rules of both countries. Men did not take their mulatto or quadroon ladies out of Jamaica, perish the thought! Women who had been slaves could definitely not be presented to the family in England, Scotland or Ireland.

James Sproule of Mellmount and Jamaica was different. He had worked within the system of those times, and he had been successful. But when it came to his family, he would not allow the system to destroy what he had built. James Sproule had chosen his own path and his path was to be with his lady, Charlotte Taylor.  I was getting to know James Sproule, and he was man that I admired.

It was time, now, to get to know his lady, Charlotte Taylor.
_________________________________________________________

* Episode 1 of this story - The Beginning of the BIG Story

* Episode 2  - In Jamaica - James and Other Sproules


* NEXT Episode - Finding Charlotte Taylor


References:


1 James Stewart, A View of the Past and Present State of the Island of Jamaica (Edinburgh, 1823), 173-74.
2  J. B. Moreton, Manners and Customs in the West India Islands (London, 1790), 125.
3 Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, Familysearch.org


Painting 1 - Harbour Street, Kingston. From A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica  (1825)  by James Hakewill
Painting 2 – Simon Taylor from the Group Portrait of Sir John Taylor and his family, by Daniel Gardner 1785

Monday, 24 March 2014

As One Door Closes… Another one Explodes!

It was time to tidy up my findings, and to close the book on James Sproule of Mellmount and Jamaica. I was preparing to enter the details in my family tree - James Sproule, his wife Charlotte, their seven children and his two reputed children. In his Will written in 1840, James had provided the names of his children:

Margaret Madden Sproule
William Taylor Sproule
Matilda Ann Sproule
Ellen Madden Sproule
Robert Samuel Sproule
Jane Nugent Sproule
Sarah Charlotte Sproule

The Children’s Names

There are some unusual names there, especially for a Sproule family. Robert, Samuel, Sarah and Charlotte are all good Sproule names.  I could also understand the ‘William Taylor’. James Sproule had married Charlotte Taylor, daughter of the Honourable Simon Taylor. Their son, William Taylor Sproule, had obviously been given his grandfather’s name.

However, the eldest child’s name, Margaret Madden, was very unusual. A second child had been given the name Madden too, Ellen Madden Sproule. I knew that there were no Maddens in the family of James Sproule in Ireland. In fact, both of his parents had been Sproules.

The Parents of James Sproule

James’ father was Andrew Sproule, son of William Sproule of Tullymoan, Urney, County Tyrone.  James’ mother was Martha Sproule (c.1750-1820) and she came from a farm near the town of Castlederg, also in County Tyrone. Martha was the daughter of Samuel Sproule and the granddaughter of Thomas Sproule of Golan (1680-1761). There were no Maddens anywhere in this family. 


Margaret Madden Sproule’s Baptism

I needed some dates to enter Margaret Madden Sproule into the family tree. I thought her baptism record might be in the Jamaican Parish Records on Familysearch. She popped up right away, and Familysearch also had the original page from the Parish Record:

25th February 1814 Baptised at Pleasant Hill Plantation six children of colour
Margaret Madden Sproule reputed daughter of James Sproule1 

What? Wait, no, that can’t be right! Margaret Madden Sproule, ‘reputed daughter’? She is not a reputed daughter, she is the legitimate daughter.

Margaret Madden Sproule

She is definitely the legitimate daughter! I know her history. Margaret Madden Sproule went to Ireland when she was 21 years old and she married her first cousin, Doctor Samuel Sproule of the East India Company. Their children became the ‘Knox Sproules’, big bankers in Indianapolis. She can’t be a reputed daughter!

But there it was, and there could only be one Margaret Madden Sproule:


Making Sense of Margaret Madden Sproule

James Sproule must have had another reputed child, and this time, he had brought the child into his family. His wife Charlotte had reared this reputed child as her own!

And then it dawned, the strange name Margaret Madden Sproule! Is it possible that a woman called Margaret Madden was the real mother of this child? Had James Sproule presented his wife Charlotte with a ‘reputed’ child, complete with the name of her birth mother? Could James really have done that?  Could anyone have done that? There were so many questions now!

The Theories

I had to find the origin of this name. I searched for ‘Margaret Madden’ in the records of St Thomas in the East, Jamaica. Very near to Stokes Hall, I found a ‘Margaret Madden, plantation owner’! Perhaps James had an affair with this Margaret Madden, plantation owner. In that case, his daughter would be white. That would explain how the adult Margaret Madden Sproule had gone on to fit so comfortably into life in Ireland, and later into high society in the Indian Raj.

But it would not explain why his wife Charlotte would accept this child into her family.

Was the daughter white? I went back to the original entry of the child’s baptism in the Jamaican Parish Records. In my shock at seeing the words ‘reputed child’, I had missed the phrase, ‘children of colour’. James’ daughter was not white. If this child had been given her mother’s name, mother had to be a negro or mulatto ‘Margaret Madden’.  There were plenty of those too! Like all plantation owners, Margaret Madden had given her own name to many of her female slaves. James Sproule could certainly have had a child by a slave named Margaret Madden.

But would wife Charlotte have accepted a slave child as her own? Surely not!

The Next Child

I was going round in circles and getting nowhere. Nothing made any sense.  I decided to leave it for a while and to research the next child, William Taylor Sproule. I was on safer ground here as he had to be the child of Charlotte Taylor Sproule.  I found William Taylor’s baptism record quite quickly, and with it, came the bombshell:

22nd January 1816 William Taylor Sproule son of Charlotte Taylor free quadroon by James Sproule 1 

Charlotte Taylor was a quadroon. She was the ‘child of colour’. It was she  who was the mother of Margaret Madden Sproule.  

Charlotte Taylor was a quadroon. Charlotte Taylor was not who she was supposed to be.
_________________________________________________


* Episode 1 of this story - The Beginning of the BIG Story
* Episode 2  - In Jamaica - James and Other Sproules
* Episode 3  - The Sproule Children of Stokes Hall Jamaica

* NEXT Episode - Charlotte Taylor - Quadroon


References:

* The Will of James Sproule of Mellmount and Jamaica
1 Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, Familysearch

Friday, 21 March 2014

The Sproule Children of Stokes Hall Jamaica

Their names appeared in a register created in 1817. Two Sproule children, acknowledged by James Sproule as his 'reputed' children in his will of 1840, and they were, indeed, slaves. Their names were listed in the slave register of the Stokes Hall plantation in St Thomas in the East, Jamaica. Jane was the first entry that I came across:

Jane alias Jane Sproull, Mulato, aged 10, Creole 1

This Sproule child had a negro mother and a white father, hence she was ‘mulatto’. She was also ‘creole’, indicating that she was born in Jamaica. Of course, the entry did not say that James was the father of this girl, but the profile of this Jane Sproull fitted perfectly. This was definitely my cousin Jane.

And there was further proof, for they were here together. Eleanor Sproule, the other ‘reputed’ child of James, appeared in the same list of slaves:

Eleanor alias Eleanor Sproull, Mulato, aged 4, Creole.

I wondered if there were any more 'reputed' children. I hunted for other children of James Sproule anywhere on the island of Jamaica, and found only one possibility. This child was in the same Stokes Hall plantation list of 1817, a little boy this time:

Robert alias Robert Sproull,  Mulatto, aged 7,  Creole

Robert appeared again in the next registry of slaves carried out in 1820, and it was recorded here that Robert Sproull had died.

Stokes Hall Plantation

Sugar Plantation in Jamaica
The Stokes Hall plantation was next to the smaller Rosemount Plantation owned by James Sproule. Stokes Hall was recorded as belonging to 'Alexander Donaldson deceased'.  I was never able to find any information on Alexander Donaldson, as he seemed to have always been deceased! This was quite common in the plantations of Jamaica. Some owners died, others left to return to their homes, usually in England or Scotland. The financial aspects of their plantation was then run by an agent in Jamaica, usually a lawyer or a law firm.  The agent appointed a manager to run the day-to-day activities of producing the sugar cane.

James Sproule in Stokes Hall

Stokes Hall was a plantation of about 800 acres and it had roughly 180 slaves. James Sproule's name appears on the records of  Stokes Hall in the 1820s and 1830s, first as a joint manager, and later as part owner.1  James obviously worked here at Stokes Hall, and judging by the ages of his reputed children, he had probably worked here since he came to Jamaica in 1801.  As his career progressed, he bought his own small plantation, Rosemount, and set up his home there. However, I found that Stokes Hall was not the only estate that James had managed.

In 1834 slavery was abolished in Jamaica, and the arrangement was that the plantation owners would be compensated. The compensation was allocated in 1838, and in these records we find that James Sproule had interests in nine different plantations! He has become a very affluent man at this stage. 2 

Compensations Awarded to James Sproull 1838

The Family of Jane Sproule

The slave registers give us some more information about the two Sproule children of Stokes Hall. Jane, the older reputed daughter, was born in 1807, just six years after James arrived in Jamaica. In the register of 1817, Jane’s mother is named beside her. She is Phillis, alias Misa Cargill. 

Each slave had an official ‘registered’ name, and also had a name that was used on an every-day basis - hence the 'alias'. Misa Cargill, the mother of Jane, was known as Phillis and she has her own separate entry in the same register.  Here we find that she is a 26 year old creole negro. Her mother, the grandmother of Jane Sproull, is named as Helen alias Lucy Cargill. 

Grandmother Helen is still living on the same plantation, she is 55 years old and she is African. When she was young, Jane Sproull's grandmother had a different name. She was living in a village in West Africa. She was captured, kept in a holding pen with hundreds of other frightened folk, and then transported in chains to Jamaica.

Now called Helen alias Lucy Cargill, she is registered as having died in the 1820 register of slaves of Stokes Hall, Jamaica.


The Family of Eleanor Sproule

Eleanor, the second daughter of James, had a different mother. She was called Deborah alias Elizabeth Bryan and she was a 26 year old creole negro.  Deborah's mother is named simply as Esther. Esther, grandmother of Eleanor Sproule, had four other children living on the Stokes Hall estate in 1817. All were negro, and all had different surnames.  

1826

In 1826, we see that life has changed for the two girls. James Sproule himself signed the register of slaves for Stokes Hall that year. By this time, it was not a full list of slaves, James was only required to list changes to the slaves on the plantation - new births, deaths, bought etc. James registered changes concerning both of his daughters. They appear together:

Jane Sproull Mulatto 19 Creole   - by sold
Eleanor Sproull Mulatto 13 Creole  - by sold

There is another detail on the entry that is vitally important, ‘sold for manumission’. James Sproule had bought both of his girls, and James had paid to have them freed.


The Girls Freed

We know only a little of the girls following their manumission. James provided for Eleanor in his Will of 1840, and it looks as if she may be living with the family in Ireland at that time:

“To my reputed Daughter Eleanor Sproule three hundred pounds sterling or fifteen pounds annually as interest until paid as my executors and executrix may think proper and at their convenience to pay the legacy or should she wish to remain with the family to get her board gratis and five pounds annually for nothing in lieu of interest and should my estate turn out well she is to get something more as my executors may decide.” 3 

James also tells us that his other 'reputed' daughter, Jane, has a son, James Sproull Wilson and is living in Bath, Jamaica. Little James Sproull Wilson was born on 25th April 1830 and his father was James Wilson of Bath.4  In his Will, James left his Rosemount estate to Jane and her son;

“To my reputed Daughter Jane Sproule of Bath Jamaica I bequeath the remaining part of my freehold of land in Jamaica named Rose Mount now partly occupied by my late negroes for her sole use & her son James Sproule Wilson but in case both dying without lawful issue then it is to fall into my wife and children and to be sold on their account that they get the proceeds thereof.”

I don’t know how the little family of Jane Sproull managed after James' death.  I found no record of Jane after this, and there were too many people named James Wilson to accurately pinpoint the son.

James Sproule in a New Light

At this point, I was feeling more positive about my great, great granduncle James Sproule. He had been a slave owner and he had fathered children with women who had no choice, they were held in slavery. But James had gone to great lengths to look after his two girls. Not many men at that time, and in that culture, would have done the same. Furthermore, from my research, James had no other ‘reputed’ children after he met his future wife Charlotte Taylor, daughter of the Honourable Simon Taylor. Maybe James Sproule was not such a bad person after all!

That pleasant thought lasted for a full 24 hours -  and then I found the bombshell!
________________________________________________________________


* Episode 1 of this story - The Beginning of the BIG Story

References:

1 Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 Ancestry.com 
2 Legacies of British Slave-ownership University College London 
4 Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, Familysearch.org 


Tuesday, 18 March 2014

In Jamaica - James and Other Sproules

There were two ‘reputed’ children named in the Will of James Sproule of Jamaica and Mellmount in 1840, and I was determined to track them down.*  I was hunting for possible ‘Sproule’ slaves in Jamaica and it proved to be more productive than I had anticipated!

The Arrival in Jamaica

I learnt that the young James Sproule had arrived in Jamaica in 1801. The journey from Urney, County Tyrone, would have taken two months or more, and for James, this meant he arrived just a little too late.

James had been invited to join his rich and successful cousin, Andrew Sproule of Arnotto Bay in Jamaica. Unfortunately, while James was actually making the journey, Cousin Andrew had died.1  Andrew Sproule was obviously not aware that James was en route when he wrote his Will in August 1801, as he had  left £50 a year  to James 'should he come' to Jamaica. The bulk of Andrew’s  wealth and property was supposed to be sold within three weeks of his death and the money distributed  to friends and family in Ireland. However, this did not happen, as Andrew’s  friends and Executors in Jamaica were quick to confiscate most of the money.2 

James Sproule arrived in 1801 to the news of Andrew’s death,  and he found that he had no claim to his cousin's fortune.

Jamaica 1820s

Slaves in Jamaica – From Ireland and Africa

James was now in a Jamaica run by rich and powerful landowners who made their money from producing sugar cane. Working with sugar cane was heavy labour, made more so by the the hot, humid conditions in Jamaica. The solution for these landowners was slaves, cheaply acquired labour run at minimum cost. I was surprised to find that the first slaves had come from Ireland – men, woman and children shipped by Cromwell’s forces to Cromwell’s captured islands in the Caribbean.

The slaves from Africa came later, and by 1800 there were over 250,000 slaves of African origin working in Jamaica. A bit like the Nazis, the landowners kept meticulous records, tracking each slave as he or she was bought, sold or died.  Amazingly, many slaves were also baptized. There are records of mass baptisms of 50 or 60 slaves at a time in each plantation, and again the names were recorded.  

James Sproule's Plantation

Was it possible, then, to find the ‘reputed’ children of James Sproule that had been named in his Will of 1840? James was a plantation owner in the Parish of St Thomas in the East. I found him recorded in the annual Jamaican Almanac every year from 1816 until his death in 1840.3  For example,  in 1816 James Sproule is recorded as having 23 slaves and five stock, indicating that his property, Rosemount, was quite small. (I was to find later that James was involved in other plantations.)

Parishes of Jamaica 1800

In 1817 there was a ‘registering’ of the slaves in St Thomas in the East. The land owner could actually get a bounty for each slave so every slave’s name in every plantation was recorded. This gave me the names of James’ slaves in his Rosemount Plantation.4  Were there any ‘Sproule’ names among the 23 slaves of James Sproule? Oh, yes, indeed there were!

There was Robert Sproule, John Sproule, James Sproule, Thomas Sproule and William Sproule, and that was just the men! There was also Rebecca Sproule and 'Amelia alias Eleanor Sproule'! Surely these slaves could not all be the children of James Sproule!

The Slaves Named Sproule

I looked at the original documents. All of the slaves with Sproule names on his plantation were aged between 25 and 35 years old, too old to be the children of James. Equally, they were recorded as ‘negro, African’. This meant the poor folk had come directly from Africa, as opposed to ‘creole’ which was the term at the time for those born in Jamaica. These were not the children of James Sproule. They were recently acquired slaves from Africa and James was giving  them new names. He used names that were familiar to him, like Sproule, Caldwell and Sinclair.

The Hunt Continues

I needed to find ‘creole’ Sproules, those born in Jamaica. They also needed to be mixed race,  to be ‘mulatto’ or ‘quadroon’ rather than ‘negro’ . I had not found my cousins Jane and Eleanor Sproule, reputed children of James Sproule, on his Rosemount plantation.  In fact, there were only African slaves on Rosemount, no mixed race children at all.

But I did find them in the plantation next door.
________________________________________


* Episode 1 of this story The Beginning of the BIG Story


* NEXT Episode -  The Sproule Children of Stokes Hall Jamaica



References:

1 From a letter written 12th October 1802 by Samuel Sproule of Bridgehill to Robert Sproule his Uncle who was in in Newbury South Carolina at that time. Thanks again Tim Hayes!
2 From the document ‘Charitable donations and bequests, Andrew Sproule’ , Public Record Office for Northern Ireland FIN/18/2/356
3 Almanacs of Jamaica, Jamaicafamilysearch.com
4  Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 Ancestry.com Class: T71; Piece: 145