Document with Information on Magheracrigan and Curraghamulkin Sons

 One of my most pleasurable experiences was rooting through old cardboard boxes in PRONI, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, in Belfast. One of these was the box of  documents of James Sproule Crockett & Ors Solicitors, and it had some good information, including this one on the Magheracrigan and Curraghamulkin Sproules.

At that time you were not permitted to copy documents, so I have here my notes.

 In the box of deeds LR1/1605/1 of James Sproule Crockett & Ors, County Tyrone, Record Number NI 165, Box 1605.

This is document is dated 30 May 1835 and in it Andrew Sproule of Crigan (Magheracrigan)  in Ardstraw is handing over land land that had been left in the will of Andrew of Curraghamulkin to  Andrew Sproule junior, his son. It records the death of other sons, though no dates.

Andrew Sproule late of Grannan (this is Andrew of Curraghamulkin) deceased did by his last will and testament bearing the date 27 July 1797 bequeatherd the lands of …. Therein mentioned described as then in the possession of a Alexander King,  12 acres unto his son Joseph Sproul during the said Joseph Sproul and his wife Elizabeth’s lives and after their decease to the sons of said Joseph Sproul namely James and Andrew and in the case that the said persons should die without issue then the said lands to go to his two sons Charles Sproule and Andrew Sproul. And the said Andrew Sproul did further also by this said will bequeath unto his son James Sproule that part of the lands of Screen then in possession of the Widdow Hall  and now in the possession of Benjamen and Robert Hall and if James should die without issue the said lands were to go to his sons Charles and Andrew. Andrew of Crigan is now passing these lands to his son Andrew.

 So in this document we learn:

• Andrew Sproule of Curraghamulkin was also referred to as Andrew Sproule of Grennan
• Andrew of Curraghamulkin had a son Joseph , who is now dead in 1835
• Son Joseph had two sons James and Andrew who are now both dead with without issue
• Andrew of Curraghamulkin also had two sons Charles and Andrew Sproule (Andrew of Magheracrigan) We assume Charles is also now dead, though it doesn’t state that.
• Andrew of Curraghamulkin also had a son James, who is also dead without issue.
• Andrew Sproule of Curraghamulkin is passing all of the land left by these deaths to his son Andrew.

Note - John Sproule Crockett, the Solictor, was the son of John Clare Crockett and Martha Sproule of the Holm

Who is Joseph Sproule of Castletown?

I have been intrigued by Joseph Sproule of Castletown for a long time. It's not just that he is one of those isolated Sproules that you can't fit in - there are loads of those. It's because he is obviously connected to a Sproule family that he can't really belong to. I'll explain.

I have just two pieces of information on this Joseph Sproule. One is a nice record of his death in the Strabane Morning Post in 1832:

“After a lingering illness, on Thursday last, Mr Joseph Sproule, of Castletown, deservedly regretted by his numerous acquaintance.”

May 15, 1832 p. 291 Strabane Morning Post

A newspaper entry at that time tells us that Joseph is a man of some means. I know the townland of Castletown, it is on the outskirts of Strabane, and there were a few Sproules living there at one time or another in the 1700s and early 1800s. For example, Jane, the widow of Robert Sproule the Nabob, lived there until her death in 1828. She was the daughter of John Sproull the Apothecary, and a couple of his other daughters also lived in Castletown at different times. But there was no Joseph Sproule in that family. 

Castletown, Co. Tyrone, from Townlands.ie

It is the second record for this Joseph of Castletown that is quite strange. It is from a newspaper of June 16, 1829 where Freeholders are listed, and there is our Joseph Sproull of Castletown, and he is registering a freehold in ‘Grannan’.

From Strabane Morning Post June 16, 1829

Now this is odd for two reasons. Firstly, we know the 'Grennan' Sproules very well, thanks to John Inch and Jack Elder. There is no Joseph anywhere in the Grennan Sproule families - none that we know of anyway.

Secondly, the Grennan land was leased, not freehold. It was leased by Cornet Andrew Spreull, and he left his Grennan land to his three sons, Andrew, James and Charles. Prior to 1853, there was very little freehold land in Grennan.

So this unknown Joseph Sproule of Castletown does not appear to be a Grennan Sproule, and yet he owns one of the only two pieces of freehold land in Grennan in 1829. Who is he?

Maybe we can get a clue by looking at that Grennan freehold land. Usually, this works well – follow the land.  In 1829 we see that one piece of freehold is owned by Charles Sproule of Grennan. Now if we look in Griffiths Valuation, we find that Charles of Grennan still owns that freehold land and it is 54 acres.   This helps us locate the only other bit of freehold land prior to 1853. It is a small 12 acre plot within that family of Grennan Sproules that Jack Elder in his family trees called ‘Another Grennan’ family. We  have pretty good records of this family in the late 1700s early 1800s – and there is no Joseph here.

I tried several times over the years to trace this Joseph Sproule of Castletown, without any luck.  But then in my recent trawl through the Sproule Deeds there was the answer, and, as is so often the case, the answer lay in the land. It was not the Grennan land that revealed the answer, it was the Castletown land.

It was in a deed dated 11 Oct 1832.  One Robert Sproule of Clover Hill, farmer, was selling the lease of a farm and land in Castletown in the parish of Urney, consisting of 70 acres. The deed tells us that this Castletown land was lately in the possession of Joseph Sproule, now deceased. Now we know a Joseph Sproule who was recently deceased in 1832,  it is our Joseph Sproule of Castletown who died in 10 May1832.

So now Robert Sproule of Clover Hill is selling the Castletown land that was formerly Joseph Sproule’s land, and now Joseph Sproule is dead.  Robert Sproule of Clover Hill is the eldest son of Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill, who is the eldest son of John ‘Jack Roe’ of Curraghamulkin. There is only one Joseph Sproule in the family of Robert of Clover Hill that this could possibly be. Robert Sproule is selling his father’s land in Castletown, the land of Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill, a Curraghamulkin Sproule. So now we know, Joseph Sproule of Castletown and Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill are one and the same.

This was quite normal in those days. It was the custom within these Plantation families that the father retires at some point, and he moves to a retirement house. A lot of these Sproule families did this. So Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill retired to Castletown. He would not have been farming the land, I’m sure. A sub-tenant would do that, or perhaps a family member.  Joseph was living out his retirement whilst his son Robert of Clover Hill, who later became Robert Sproule of Kirlish, took over his inheritance.

Joseph Sproule of Clover Hill was our Joseph Sproule who died on 10 May 1832,  

“After a lingering illness,…deservedly regretted by his numerous acquaintance.”

And why did Joseph Sproule, a Curraghamulkin Sproule, own that wee bit of Grennan freehold? Well we know, of course, that Cornet Andrew Spreull, who acquired the Grennan land, was the great grandfather of this Joseph of Clover Hill. However, Cornet Andrew left Grennan to other sons, not this family. Why did Joseph of Clover Hill own Grennan land, and why is it freehold? Actually, I have no idea. 

Deed where the Castletown land is sold 

11 Oct 1832 between Robert Sproule of Clover Hill farmer on the one part and Major John Semple of Strabane on the other part whereby Robert Sproule for the consideration there mentioned did make over to John Semple the farm land in Castletown lately in the possession of Joseph Sproule deceased containing 70 acres of land in the parish of Urney during the residue and remainder of the 21 years remaining on the lease witnessed by Samuel Colhoun of Strabane and Robert Mease of Strabane

Deed no. 888 424 587924 Registry of Deeds, Familysearch.org, Transcribed by Kate Tammemagi

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

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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:

25^th 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:

22^nd 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

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

The Lost Sproule Boys

I had a blog block. It wasn't a roadblock, of the genealogy type, where I came to a dead end. My block was a conflict. It was the inability to resolve conflicting information about one generation of the family.  It stopped this blog dead.  Somehow it became very important that I resolve this before moving on. And now at last I have the missing piece of evidence, that will allow me to complete this stepping stone and move on to the next.

The Conflict

I had gathered evidence of six children in the family of my great, great grandfather, Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan. Four of those six children had died in the 1830s as young adults, and I written of this in a previous blog post.¹

However, Jack Elder, in his hand-written tree of this family drawn up in the 1890s, had recorded eight children, not six. Elder had said that there were two older boys. The eldest, Andrew, had died young in Jamaica, and the second, Samuel, had also died young but this time in Bombay.²

Jamaica 1820

I trust Elder enough to know that there was a good chance he was right. Also, it would make sense for these boys to go overseas as they had Uncles in both Jamaica and Bombay at that time. Andrew and Samuel would have been born round 1800, and, presumably, would have been in their early twenties when they left home. I hunted for any trace of my two Sproule boys - in India, Jamaica, England and Ireland.

There is an awful lot of information on-line now, including the recently added East India records. I still could not find them, no records and no deaths of either Andrew or Samuel, sons of Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan.

The Block

I needed to put up this family on my blog to complete this generation and to move on to the next. It somehow seemed irreverent to put up Andrew and Rebecca’s family without the two oldest boys, but I wasn’t going to put the names up there if I could not validate Elder’s information. What if Elder was wrong and they didn't exist at all? Or, worse still, perhaps they belonged to a completely different family. And equally, I couldn’t just skip them, and move on to other generation's trees. I know it's only a blog, but somehow putting the entire family group up together had become very important.

The Letter From America

This week, through the magic of genealogy web contacts, I got a wonderful present. It was a series of letters written between 1800 and 1840 from Sproules in Tyrone to the family of Robert Sproule of Ohio. Members of the Bridgehill Sproules wrote the letters from their home just south of Castlederg, County Tyrone, to their cousins in America, and the Tullymoan Sproules are also cousins of both families.

In a letter written on 28^th March 1827, Robert Sproule of Bridgehill gives his Uncle in America news of the Tullymoan Sproules:

“The Tullymoan family have been in low spirits of late, having heard of the death of Andy, the eldest son. He died in November last at his Uncles in Jamaica. Sam, the next, is preparing for a surgeon by his uncle who has lately returned from India and is living in the neighbourhood of London with his wife and one child, a girl”

Elder was quite correct, the two oldest boys did, indeed, exist!

This was proof positive of Andrew, the eldest son of Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan. Andy died in November 1826 at the home of his uncle James Sproule in the Rosemount Plantation in Jamaica. Sam, the second son, was alive at the time this letter was written in 1827 and he was studying to be a surgeon with his Uncle Samuel Sproule in Cheltenham in England.³ But just one year later, when his Uncle Samuel was writing his will, young Sam, son of Andrew of Tullymoan, was no more.

The Family of Andrew and Rebecca of Tullymoan

The family is complete at last! But this also now proves that Andrew and Rebecca, the parents of this generation, had indeed  suffered great tragedy in their lives. In 1826 they had 8 healthy adult children, and twelve years later, there were only two remaining alive.  Of the six who had died as young adults, only one had lived to marry and have children. William John, who became a Doctor in Dunfanaghy, managed to father two babies before his death in 1838. Happily, one of these, Andrew of Fernhill, lived to have many children and a descendant was in touch just this week!

Of the two children who lived to rear families:

1.       Jane Sproule, the eldest girl, was born in 1802 and lived to 1864. She married another Sproule,  Andrew Sproule of Glenfin, and they bought the Broomfield house, in Donegal,  from her Uncle Robert Sproule. The Broomfield Sproules had at least four children:

·         Andrew Sproule of St Louis who married Florinda Jane Spoule d. 1865

·         Samuel Sproule who died in St Louis 1866

·         Elizabeth Sproule

·         Rebecca Sproule

·         Charlotte Sproule

2.       James Sproule of Tullymoan, my great grandfather, married Mary McGlinchy. He was the youngest child of the family, born in 1816, but with the death of the other three boys, James inherited the Tullymoan farm. James and Mary had nine children, and his descendants are there to this day.⁴ 

Now I can move on!


The completed Family Tree - Andrew Sproule and Rebecca MacKay of Tullymoan.

References:

¹ Other Children in this family -  The Mystery of the Children

² Elder’s Tree of The Nabob Sproules
³ The story of Uncle Samuel - Samuel Sproule of the Medical Board in Bombay

⁴ James Sproule and Mary McGlinchy    The Family Tree, Matriarch of Tullymoan

Thanks to Tim Hayes for providing the Spoule of Ohio Letters.

Elder's Tree of the Family of 'The Nabob'

This is Jack Elder's tree of the family of  Robert Sproule, known as 'The Nabob'. I am descended from a sister of the Nabob, who Elder calls Matilda. In fact, her name was Martha Sproule, and she married Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan, who was son of William Sproule of Tullymoan.

The 'James' who is brother of the Nabob, was in fact Thomas Sproule who was father of Samuel Sproule of Bridgehill. See later posts for more details on this family.

Elder's Tree of the Holm Sproules and Loves of County Tyrone

This family tree is another of Jack Elders, first produced in 1890.

For more information:

• For information on the Jack Elder and the source of this Family Tree see: John Inch and Jack Elder - Early Sproule Family Historians 
• For other Jack Elder Sproule family trees, see the posts immediately before and following this post

The Amazing Journeys of The Adventuring Sproules

There were five of them! There were five Sproule brothers, five sons of Tullymoan, born between 1765 and 1780 on the farm near Clady, County Tyrone. From there, they made great journeys - the mileage covered by some of the brothers and their children was astounding!

The stories of their travels were largely lost to us over time, and it is great to be able to bring them back to life.

The Family in Samuel's Will

It was the will of Samuel Sproule that confirmed that the adventuring Sproules were, in fact, brothers. Samuel was a meticulous man, bless him! In his will of 1828, Samuel made sure that his fortune would always have a home – if this person dies, then the money should go to that person;  if that person dies then the money should go to the other person ; and so on. In doing so, he bequeathed us an invaluable list of his immediate family members!

He names his four brothers and some of their children.  I have added some details which will give you an idea of some of the journeys undertaken by this family.

1. “Brother Robert of Strabane”

Robert is the first brother mentioned in Samuel’s will. He died in 1834 in Strabane, County Tyrone. Samuel names two of Robert of Strabane’s children:

·     Matilda Sproule - Matilda married William Gwynne in March 1828 in Strabane. She is also mentioned in the will of James of Mellmount.

·   “My Nephew Robert Sproule of Jamaica”  This is the Young Robert that I had found on the plantation in the parish of St George in Jamaica.  

Young Robert lived in Jamaica for most of his life, however he made an amazing journey in 1855. He went from Jamaica to Australia to attend the wedding of his daughter. He then returned to Jamaica and on to Ireland! Robert of Jamaica died in Mulvin, County Tyrone in 1862. 
This is the line of Sproules where the eldest son is called Robert to this day.

2. “My late brother William” 

Brother William had died prior to 1828, the date of Samuel's will. Samuel leaves money to the widow and to her son:

·  “My Nephew Samuel Sproule” This is Young Samuel who I had found working as a Doctor in Bombay. Samuel Senior was fond of his nephew and he left £200 for his education and advancement in the first draft of his will.

Later Samuel added a codicil to his will specifically about Young Samuel:

“I have a particular wish to have my young nephew Samuel Sproule, only son of my late Brother William, to be provided for,  whom I entertain a favourable opinion of”

He requests that Young Samuel is moved from his school in Strabane to a school in London for a year or two.  He asks “my esteemed and proven friend Major Carnac” (James Rivett-Carnac) to get Young Samuel an appointment in the East India Company, and he provides money for this purpose.

No wonder the second Doctor Samuel Sproule did so well in Bombay!

3. “Brother James of Jamaica”

Samuel mentions Brother James of Mellmount and Jamaica only briefly, but it is enough to confirm that James was indeed one of the five brothers!

Here is just a taste of the mileage sailed by these folk.
James of Mellmount's eldest daughter was called Margaret Madden Sproule. Margaret was born in Jamaica in 1814 and she traveled to Ireland where she was married in 1836. Her spouse was her first cousin, Young Samuel Sproule, son of the late brother William. Young Samuel had gone to Glasgow to University, then to Bombay to work, but he traveled back to Ireland for the wedding. They then both sailed to Bombay, where he was stationed. Young Samuel died in a shipwreck in Marseilles, France in 1848, and Margaret died in Tyrone. Their son, William Knox Sproule was born in Calcutta, lived in Ireland, and became a big banker in Indianapolis. I got dizzy just writing that!

4. “Brother Andrew of Tullymoan” - my great, great grandfather

Samuel names two sons of Andrew of Tullymoan:

·         “My nephew William John Sproule of Tullymoan (son of my brother Andrew)”.

This was the first I had heard of a William John, a completely new find! 

·         James Sproule of Tullymoan -  my great grandfather

5. Samuel Sproule – Samuel, the author of this will,  was of course the fifth brother.

Samuel had gone to Bombay in 1797, travelled to England to marry Eliza Walker in 1818 and returned to Bombay to work as Head of the Medical Board there. In 1827 Eliza and Samuel travelled from Bombay to live in Cheltenham in England, where they both died.

Problem Solved – But Wait!

I was thrilled to have this confirmation! They were indeed all brothers from the home farm in Tullymoan, County Tyrone. For two whole days I basked in the rosy glow of a job completed. But wait! There were a couple of loose ends. Who was the Uncle Andrew Sproule who had been in Jamaica and had left the money? There was no mention of him. He had died in 1801. Was he from an earlier generation of travelling Sproules?

And who was the Robert Sproule in the entry from the Strabane Journal?

DIED July 22, 1828
On Friday last, at Castletown, Mrs Sproull, relict of the late Robert Sproull, Esq. of Bombay, at the advanced age of 80 years.

Who was this Robert Sproule? He must have been in Bombay in the mid 1700s! There had to have been an earlier generation of them, and they had to be related!

On the third day I cranked up my trusty laptop and got stuck in again!


For more information:

• Part 1 of this story
• Samuel Sproule, President of the Medical Board of Bombay

Next Chapter:

• The Beginning of the BIG Story

The Hunt for the Next Level Up - the First Surprise!

The history of my Sproule family had so far centred on the Tullymoan farm, in Urney, County Tyrone. I was now looking at the generation who were born at the end of the 1700s, and it was here that the surprises began!

I had gathered quite a bit of information on my great grandfather James Sproule and his family.  But who were the parents of James Sproule? I knew that James was born in 1816, but I had no hint as to James’ parents or his peers. Now began the serious searching.

First Steps in Family History Research

The wonderful County Tyrone Genealogy website was my tutor.¹  It not only provided me with valuable pieces of information, but it taught me how to find more. It was on this site that I learnt about  the 1857 Griffiths Valuation, a type of census which listed households, tenants  and land owners. I located James Sproule and he had 187 acres of leased land in Tullymoan at that time.

I found out about the earlier tax, the Tithe Applotment tax,  in roughly 1825. James Sproule was only a child at that time, so it was unlikely that he would appear on this list. Sure enough, there was a different Sproule in Tullymoan in 1825, an Andrew Sproule. Surely, this must be the father of James?

Indeed, it proved to be so. I had found for the first time, Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan, my great, great grandfather.

Births, Marriages and Deaths

There were a lot of names and dates on the County Tyrone Genealogy website coming from two local Newspapers  of the eighteen hundreds, The Londonderry Sentinel, and The Strabane Morning Post. The births, marriages and deaths sections of these Newspapers were available for sale, so I purchased a copy of each.  

There were lots of Andrew Sproules in these lists! The Sproules in Tyrone all used the same first names, and they repeat them in every generation to this day. I have lists full of Roberts, Andrews, Samuels and Williams - very confusing!  I narrowed the search, looking for  both ‘Sproule’ and ‘Tullymoan’.

I found no Sproules from Tullymoan in the birth sections, nor in the lists of marriages. I found just four entries in the deaths sections:

DIED Sproule,  January 15, 1833

On Friday, the 4^th inst. Miss Sproule of Tullymoan, aged 30.
The Strabane Morning Post 1812 – 1837

DIED Miss Sproul, February 28th 1835

On the morning of the 19th inst., Miss Sproul, daughter of Mr. Andrew Sproul, of Tullymoan, near Strabane.
The Londonderry Sentinel 1829 – 1869

DIED Matilda Sproule, May  5^th 1838

At the residence of her father, on the morning of Sunday, the 29^th ult., Matilda, youngest daughter of Mr. Andrew Sproule, of Tullymoan, near Strabane.
The Londonderry Sentinel 1829 – 1869

Three daughters of Andrew Sproule, three sisters of James Sproule,  all died within 5 years. They were adults, not children. What happened? Another mystery for another day.

I had found no record of Andrew Sproule himself, not his birth, marriage nor death. Many months on now, I have files and files of information on the Tullymoan Sproules and their connections,  but  I still don’t have this basic data on my great, great grandfather. 

The Wife of Andrew Sproule of Tullymoan

For a long time,  I could also find no record of Andrew’s wife. But then I had the idea to go back to the list that I had compiled of the Sproules from  the newspapers of that time. I didn’t do a search on this occasion. I worked meticulously through every Sproule entry, line by line. I am not sure what I was looking for,  I was just fishing.

And then I found it! Hello, great, great grandmother!

DIED Rebecca Sproule, February 5^th 1858

At Tullymean, in the neighbourhood of Strabane, on Monday, the 1^st inst., Rebecca, relict of the late Mr. Andrew Sproule, aged 84 years. ³

This was my first meeting with Rebecca, wife of Andrew Sproule. Since then I have learnt that she was Rebecca Mackey, born in 1774 in Lismontigley, Raphoe, County Donegal. I now had the next layer up in the Sproules of Tullymoan, Rebecca and Andrew.

The Door that Flew Open - The Fourth Entry

On that very first foray into family history research, there was one other entry that jumped out and bit me! There amidst the lists of farmer Sproules, doctor Sproules and tradesmen Sproules of Tyrone was a very strange Sproule indeed.  It was as if the door of County Tyrone had just flown open and the farming Sproules of Tullymoan had started walking out!

This was the  fourth entry that I had found in the death sections of the newspapers:

DIED, Samuel Sproule,  June 16, 1829

On the 30th of May, at Cheltenham, Samuel Sproule, Esq. recently First Member of the Medical Board at Bombay, and formerly of Tullymoan, Parish of Urney.

The Strabane Morning Post 1812 – 1837

Next Chapter - Great Uncle Samuel, President of the Medical Board Bombay

^{1 The County Tyrone Genealogical Research Website}

² The Strabane Morning Post 1812 – 1837

³ The Londonderry Sentinel 1829 – 1869

Painting

Ploughing with Two Horses by J. Michael Benington; National Museums Northern Ireland

From Question to Quest

It began with a very simple question, ‘Who were they?’  Like so many others, I wanted to get to know my family, I wanted to know their stories. My line of the Sproules came from a townland called Tullymoan, in Urney, County Tyrone. I was born in Derry, and we knew very little of the Sproule family history. I set off to find the answer to that simple question, ‘Who were these Sproules?’

As I followed the Sproules back in time, I found myself further and further from the gentle rolling hills of rural Ireland and the sedate Presbyterian culture of Urney. Eighteen months on, that simple question has become, ‘The Sproule Quest’.

Worthy of the Word ‘Quest’?

The word ‘quest’ implies travelling to far distant lands, having exciting adventures, with perhaps some wild romances thrown in.

Needless to say, I did not leave my comfortable living room. However, my trusty laptop and I spent many happy hours travelling fearlessly through the genealogy online world.  We learnt the best routes, made great new discoveries and gathered precious pieces of evidence along the way.

But this journey was not mine. It was those long dead Sproules that I was tracking through the mists of time who were the true adventurers. It is for them that I claim the term ‘Quest’. Their long forgotten stories tick all the boxes to qualify, and it is their adventures that I wish to share here.

Clady Bridge by Jim Hamilton

The Beginnings

I was born a Sproule, the daughter of Robert Sproule of Derry, who was son of Robert Sproule of Tullymoan, in the parish of Urney, Co Tyrone. The Tullymoan Sproules were farming folk on rich, rolling land near Clady, close to the border with Donegal.

My Grandfather was the youngest of a large family, and he had left the Tullymoan farm to join the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1901. Eventually he settled his family in Derry. We had lost touch with Tullymoan Sproules,  and I was left with just a few pictures of my Grandfather, and a couple of family stories to help me on my search.

The Sproule in Jamaica

One family story that had been handed down gave a hint of what was to come, though at the time I didn’t take it very seriously. It was said that an uncle, Andrew Sproule, had gone to Jamaica, made his fortune and had left all of his money to the Presbyterian Church in Urney. As children we were not too amused by this Uncle Andrew, who we felt should have left his money to his poor relatives!  But even as children, the story seemed totally unbelievable, it was too farfetched.

As with much family lore, I found that there was truth in this story, but it was not quite accurate. Firstly, the ‘uncle’, who I would have thought should have lived in about the 1920s, in fact died in 1801! My great, great Uncle Andrew Sproule, of Arnotto Bay Jamaica, did indeed leave a fortune, much more than the hefty £1000 that he left to Urney.  In fact, he left specific instructions that the Urney money was to be distributed to the poor, which it was for a long time thereafter. The Jamaican connection plays a major part in the Sproule story, as does Bombay!

My Goals

I have two goals now.

I feel it is important to document this line of the Sproule family tree, but more than that, I would like to try to tell their stories. To do this, I will have to set the context, to explore widely different worlds such as the nature of those times in Tyrone, the culture of the white plantation owners in Jamaica, the East India Company and the structure of the British rule in India and so much more.  My goal is to use this blog to paint these pictures and to tell the story of the Sproule Quests.

My second goal is to find the origin of the Tullymoan Sproules. The Sproule family came to Ireland from Scotland. There is some very good genealogy work done on the original Tyrone families, though there are big holes in the evidence! However, no-one has ever found where the Tullymoan Sproules originate. They do not fit comfortably into any known lines. They may also be important to the whole Tyrone Sproule story, as there is a view that they were the very first settlers in Ireland.

My goal to trace the origins of the family and to use this blog to document the search.  It is tricky, but I have some very good lines of enquiry!

I hope you will wish me well on my quest, as I wish you well on yours!


Next Chapter - Sara Dreenan Wife of Robert Sproule of Derry