Three Scottish Brothers Moving East to Tyrone

One of the challenges facing the early Sproule family historians was to explain how the Sproules could possibly have spread so quickly throughout different parishes in Tyrone.  John Inch, Jack Elder, Thomas Sproule of Altamullen and Fred Sproule had all lived in different generations, and they had all traced the family history.  For these good folk, fitting all the Sproules of the early 1700s into one single family tree was a major problem. And none of them succeeded in fitting in my line of the family, the Tullymoan Sproules, who were left out completely!

However, this conundrum is relatively easily resolved when we look at the early records. For there was not one, but three Sproule men who all arrived in Ireland together shortly after 1622. These three Sproules were  almost certainly brothers, and it is their children and their grandchildren who spread throughout County Tyrone.

James, Robert and Archibald

The first Spreull, James Spreull formerly of Cowden in Scotland, appeared in the Donegal Muster Roll of 1630. In the 1642 muster, James was joined by another Sproule,  one ‘Robert Sprule’. Robert was on the Stewart lands in this muster, the same lands where James had been in the earlier muster.¹

James and Robert Sproule arrived about the same time in Donegal and both were on the lands of the Duke of Lennox.  We cannot immediately assume that they were brothers. Robert could have been a travelling companion, a distant relative or a Sproule tenant from Cowden lands. However, the evidence would suggest that they were indeed brothers, for like James, Robert Spreull was not poor, he had money in his pocket!

Raphoe Parish - the first Spreul Leases

On the 14^th July 1634, Robert Sproule (this spelling was used) bought land ‘by deed of indenture’ in  the townlands of Boggach and Stranelachan in the Barony of Raphoe, about 10 miles from Tullymoan. The sale is recorded in the Civil Survey of 1654 and this document also shows that Robert did not hold the land for very long. At some stage between 1634 and 1654, Robert sold the land and the buyer was named as his brother, Archibald Sproule! ² 

Now we have three brothers, all with money to buy or lease land, James, Robert and Archibald Sproule.  Archibald settled there in the parish of Raphoe, extending his land holding into Listmontigley, an adjacent townland.³ James moved to Tyrone, and Robert sold up and also moved.

Is this Robert of Castlederg?

Could this Robert possibly be the Robert Spreull who is buried in Castlederg? The grave of Robert in Castlederg is quite famous in Sproule lore! He was buried in 1689 at the age of 61,  and was joined later by his wife Jean Deniston. They were thought by many to be the original Sproule settlers and the story was that they came from Renfrewshire in the 1650s.

Could Robert of Castlederg be one of the three brothers? Actually no, for he is of a later generation than our three original settlers. Robert of Castlederg was born about 1628, and that year the three Sproule brothers who had come from Cowden would have been in their 30s. Robert could, therefore, be a son!

Robert, Born in Ireland

Let us assume for the moment that Robert of Castlederg was actually born in Ireland and is indeed a son of one of our three brothers - which one, of course, we don’t know. We would then need to find a family of Denistons somewhere in the Raphoe area for young Robert Spreull to have married!

In the 1630 Muster Roll, we find that there must have been a mass migration, for there is a superfluity of Denistons on the Lennox lands in Raphoe!⁴ In the same muster as James Spreul we find:

John Deneston                          

James Denniston elder          

Robert Deneston                      

William Deneston     

Walter Deneston

Robert Denyston                                      

James Deneston

These Denistons are all neighbours of our three brothers. Robert who is buried in the grave in Castlederg is almost certainly a son of one of the original three brothers. He married Jean Deniston of Raphoe, and moved to Lisleen near Castlederg in the 1650s.

The Spread of the Tyrone Sproules

The arrival of the three sons of James Spreull of Cowden in the early 1620s easily explains the spread of the Tyrone Sproules in the following centuary. Archibald had his family in Listmontigley and his children could have moved both east to Tyrone and west further into Donegal.  Both Robert and James moved  to Tyrone. James, the eldest brother, settled in Tullymoan. There are several different options as to where Robert settled, but Golan is the most likely. 

Their descendants spread from Tyrone to the far corners of the world - to India, Jamaica, Canada, the US, Australia and beyond. The evidence indicates that all Tyrone Sproules are related! We are descendants of one man, James Spreull of Cowden.

References:

¹ Ulster Ancestry, Muster Rolls of Donegal

² Ulster Ancestry, Civil List 1654

³ Hearth Money Rolls, Donegal, Bill Macafee's Family & Local History Website

⁴ McLaughlin of Dún na nGall website, Muster Rolls of Donegal

For more information:

1. The Sproule entry in the Civil Survey 1654
2. The Original Version of the Tyrone Sproules, Back on the Table!
3. James Spreul of Cowden - Making Sense of the Sale
4. James of Cowden - and Tullymoan?
5. The First Sproules in Ulster
6. Sproules in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1665

James Spreul of Cowden - Making Sense of the Sale

The early Sproules believed that James Spreul, Laird of Cowden in Scotland, was the father of all Tyrone Sproules. The story was that James had sold his estates in Renfrewshire in 1622, moved to Ireland and settled in the townland of Tullymoan, County Tyrone.  The question has to be asked, does this make any sense? Why would a successful Laird, James of Cowden, suddenly sell up and move to an uncertain future in Ireland?

And yet James Spreul definitely sold all of his lands and estates in 1622, and signed away the inheritance of his heirs.¹ The sale itself was a total mystery. The Spreuls had been Lairds for hundreds of years, and had expanded their land holdings through Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire. Selling all of this made no sense! Fred Sproule carefully documented the events leading up to the sale but could find no logical explanation. I believe there is one way to explain this, and that is to accept that James was not the one who wanted to sell at all!

The Customs of the Lairds of Cowden

James Spreul of Cowden was born about 1564, and had inherited his lands in 1589 from his father, John. James Spreul then became Laird of the Cowden estates in Renfrewshire, and also held the lands of Dalchurne and Dalmure in Dunbartonshire. His father had not died, John Spreul was alive and well at the time. There seems to have been an odd custom of Lairds retiring here. James Spreul's father, John, had retired when James got married. The father in turn had also become Laird when his father,Thomas Spreul, had retired.¹ 

Renfrewshire, Blaeu Atlas of Scotland 1654

The Role of the Laird

It would seem that the role of Laird was quite arduous! It was the feudal system and the role  involved managing the tenants and ensuring there was sufficient money generated to pay the overlord, the Duke of Lennox. The Laird had to supply arms and men when the Duke of Lennox, went to war.  He also had to raise additional money for the Crown when England and Scotland had one of their many disagreements. There were constant political shifts at this time, and it must have been extremely difficult to keep on the winning side! The Laird had no security of tenure, and could be thrown off the land at a whim by the Lord Duke, or by the Crown.

James of Cowden, however, seemed to have fared well in the role. He had even taken steps to make his situation more secure. In 1597, James had entered into a new landholding arrangement which gave him the title of ‘Fiar’. ³   This meant that he was now a life tenant and had a series of protections. As a Fiar, he was not now obliged to raise armies for the overlord, and he was even more secure than his forefathers.

Why Sell - Why Not Retire?

Why then did he sell? Some suggested that James may have been in dire financial straits. However, when he sold, there appeared to be no others involved – no debtors or mortgages. Equally, he did not sell everything, he gave away the Dalchurne lands to his son-in-law:

“Instruments of sasine on a precept from Ludovick, Duke of Lennox, on a resignation from James Spreull, fiar of Coldoun, of Dalchurne, in favour of John Dennestoun in Kirkmichael, 1st December, 1620” ⁴   

This was an overly generous gift for the husband of his daughter Margaret. It was not the action of a bankrupt man. It was obviously part of the plan, for just three days after this James began the process of selling all of his remaining estates.

Why did he not retire?  James of Cowden was in his late 50s. James' father had retired a lot younger and his grandfather had also retired.  Why did James sell, rather than hand over to his son, James the Younger?

Making Sense of the Sale

The only way to make sense of the sale,  is to turn our focus from the father to the son, to James Spreul the Younger.

His parents had married in roughly 1588, so by 1620 James the Younger should have been in his late 20s and ready to take on the role of Laird. Was there something amiss with young James? Could James the Elder have doubted his ability? Or is there a very different explanation?  Perhaps James the Younger did not want to take on the challenging role of Laird at all, and he may have had other plans for his future.

The overlord of the Renfrewshire estates was Ludovick Stewart, Duke of Lennox. In the early 1600s Stewart had been allocated some lands in the Plantation areas of Ulster. These were in Portlough, in County Donegal. Stewart held  a comparatively small amount of land here, but other overlords nearby had plenty of land available. For the new leaseholders of this land it was a fresh start, and for someone with money to buy leases, it was a good opportunity.

Plantation Donegal, The Seven Precincts  

The Seller - James the Younger?

My theory is that James the Younger had planned to leave the country and go to Ireland. It was he who wanted the family lands in Scotland to be sold. If this were the case, I am sure that James Spreul of Cowden would have fought the decision. And sure enough, even after the documents were signed, there is plenty of evidence that  James of Cowden regretted the sale. During 1622 he was engaged in many disagreements with the new owner which ended in several court battles.⁵ He and his brother John even marshalled the tennents to take protest actions against the new laird. James of Cowden was not happy!

But if James the Younger did not want the job of Laird, surely there were other brothers who could have stepped in? Well, no other brother came forward during the sales process and the subsequent disagreements. I would suggest that there are two possible reasons for this:

1. Either James Spreul the Younger was an only son or
2. There were other brothers, and they had agreed to share the proceeds of the sale. With shares in the sale, they too could set off to the new world in Ireland with money in their pockets.

The Most Logical Explanation

I believe the “James Spreul went to Ireland” story is the most feasible explanation for the sale of the Cowden estates. It all fits. However, it was not the Fiar who went, for James the Elder simply wanted to retire. It was his son, James Spreul former heir to the Cowden estates, who ventured to Ireland, possibly accompanied by his brothers. They went initially to the estates of their overlord, Ludovick Stewart, the Lord Duke of Lennox in Donegal.

And it is there that we will find them!

_____________________________________________________________________

For More Information:

1. The First Sproules in Ulster
2. The Original Version of the Tyrone Sproules, Back on the Table!
3. James Spreul of Cowden - Making Sense of the Sale
4. James of Cowden - and Tullymoan?
5. Three Scottish Brothers Moving East to Tyrone
6. Sproules in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1665

References:

Thanks to the great work of Fred Sproule on the Spreuls of Renfrewshire which was recorded in his unpublished book “A Sproule Family of Ireland and Canada”. Thanks again to Ryan Sproule for forwarding this Fred's work.

¹  Sproule Charters – Dundonald, p. 5, Section VI, Item 54.

² Sproule Charters – Dundonald, p. 5, Section VI, Item 52.

³ Pitcairn, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 438.

⁴ Sproule Charters – Smollett, p. 188, Items 13 & 14.

⁵ Sproule Charters – Dundonald, p. 5, Sec. VII, Items 63, 64 and 65 

Ulster Plantation Map from Donegal Plantation 400 Years, by Ulster Scots Community Network

The Original Version of the Tyrone Sproules, Back on the Table!

The Sproules of the 1700s had a story about the origin of the family in Tyrone. It had nothing to do with the Robert Spreul who is buried in Castlederg. It was a very precise, and a very definite story, with a name, a place and a date. It was handed down by word-of-mouth in the first few generations of settlers and was, thankfully, recorded by John Inch in the 1820s. John Inch's mother was a Sproule, he was born in 1795 and he left Ireland in 1818. All of his information came directly from family members prior to the 1820s. His version was:

“In 1622 James Spreul (last of the Spreuls of Cowden) sold his estate to the father of the first Lord Cowden and Earl of Dundonald, went to Ireland and settled at Tullymoan, County Tyrone.” ¹

Tullymoan, Home of the First Sproules?

The early Sproules believed that the first settler was James Spreul, a fiar from Cowden in Renfrewshire in Scotland, and that he settled in the townland of Tullymoan, Urney, County Tyrone in 1622. Tullymoan is the home of my line of Sproules, and this is the family I am researching. 

The Tullymoan story was still the popular version of the Sproule origin right through to the end of the 1800s. Jack Elder, who did amazing work recording the different branches of the Sproules, also believed this version and put it in the introduction of his Sproule family history of 1890:

“James Spreul [Sproule?] sold his estate of Cowdon in 1622, crossed over to Ireland and settled at Tullymoan, Co. Tyrone.  It was said that he was the ancestor of all the County Tyrone Sproules, good, bad and indifferent.” ² 

The Demise of the First Version

Renfrewshire in Scotland 1600s

How did this version get lost? As it happens, it was down to Jack Elder himself! Elder researched James Spreul of Cowden, and was initially happy that the story must be true. There was indeed a James Spreul of Cowden (or Coldoun) in Renfrewshire in Scotland. James Spreul had come from a long line of Spreuls going back to the thirteenth century. It is also true that James sold all of his leases and properties in 1622, the same year that was identified in the family story.  

However, Jack Elder later found evidence against the theory that James Spreul had come to Ireland and was the origin of the Tyrone Sproules. He had found a quotation in a book entitled "History of Renfrewshire" (1710) regarding James Spreul that said, "in his person this family failed."  Elder interpreted this to mean that James of Cowden had no children, and therefore the story that he was the father of all the Tyrone Sproules had to be untrue. ² 

Robert - The Alternative Version

The Tullymoan story then lost favour, and was replaced by the alternative version. This said that Robert Spreul came from Renfrewshire in the 1650s and that all Tryone Sproules came from him. This version has one major flaw, they spread too quickly! There were an awful lot of Sproules leasing an awful lot of land in very different parts of West Tyrone in the early 1700s. Robert would have to produced a multitude of very affluent sons who didn't want to live anywhere near each other!

Sproules in Tullymoan in the 1600s

There were two things that struck me when I first read the ‘James of Cowden coming to Tullymoan’ version. I am researching the Tullymoan Sproules, so of course this story was very exciting for me. True or not, I felt that the story had given me some good clues!  

Firstly, the Tullymoan Sproules must have been living there on the farm in the 1600s. They didn't appear on records that I have found so far, but they had to have been there. John Inch had this version of the story in 1818, and it was passed from his parents and grandparents. John Inch’s grandparents must have been certain that there were Sproules in Tullymoan in the 1600s in order to support the James Spreul family story. If the Sproules were more recent arrivals in Tullymoan, the local folk of the late 1700s would certainly have killed the story dead!

Equally, if the Tullymoan Sproules were just a branch of another Sproule family, the local folk would have been quick to identify them. Both John Inch and Jack Elder agreed that the Tullymoan Sproules did not fit with any other family.

Could there be truth in the James Spreul of Cowden story?

The Fact that Re-ingnites the Story

To re-open the original version and put it back on the table as a possible theory, we simply need to prove that James of Cowden had children. This is where another of my fellow Sproule family historians comes into the limelight!  

Scottish Lowland Farm 1690

Fred Sproule in the1900s made it his life’s work to find the origin of the Sproules.³ He actually believed the Robert version, and went to find Robert’s family in Renfrewshire.  Armed with the information from the gravestone in Castlederg, Robert’s death in 1869 and his wife Jean Denniston's in 1712, Fred ploughed through the documents in Scotland. Despite amazingly thorough research tracing the entire family of Spreuls in Cowden and others in Renfrewshire, Fred Sproule failed to find Robert’s origin. There was no family history into which this Robert Spreul nor his wife Jean Denniston could fit. I believe there is a very good reason for that! 

What Fred did find, however, was proof that James Spreul of Cowden definitely had at least one son! 

James Spreul son of James of Cowden

On the very day James Spreul signed away his Cowden estates, there were several other documents that were also signed. Each of these were to ensure that the sale would go through without objection. The heir, if there was one, would have definite grounds to object as his inheritance was being sold. Therefore, it was important to get the heir to sign his agreement to the sale, which he did!

“Ratification by James Spreule, son and apparent heir of James Spreule, fiar of Coldoune, of his father’s disposition and alienation of the said five pound land of Coldoune to Sir George Elphistoun; dated 2nd April 1622”.⁴ 

James of Cowden had a son also called James. Fred Sproule states that this “should put to rest the claim of some secondary sources that James Spreule, Sr., was the last male of the Sproule family of Coldoun.”

There was one more important finding by Fred Sproule. Despite continuing to research the Spreul families of Renfrewshire into the 1800s, Fred could find no record of James of Cowden, nor of his son James, after the date of signing. They were gone.

This puts the Tullymoan version right back on the table!

For More Information:

1. The Grave of Robert Spreull (1628 -1689)
2. James Spreul of Cowden - Making Sense of the Sale
3. James of Cowden - and Tullymoan?
4. Three Scottish Brothers Moving East to Tyrone
5. Sproules in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1665

References:

¹  The Inch family of Ulster, Ireland, and New Brunswick, Canada,  James Robert Inch, b. 1835, Family History Books on FamilySearch

²  Extract of Letter from Jack Elder, Ont., Canada to J.F. Caldwell, Belfast, Sunday, April 1, 1928; PRONI T1264/3; CMSIED 9804826 

³  “A Sproule Family of Ireland and Canada” unpublished book by Albert Frederick Sproule, thanks to Ryan Sproule for forwarding Fred’s great work.

⁴   Sproule Charters – Dundonald, p. 6, Section VII, Item 67.