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link to ancestors of George and Isabella Aldous & Alex and Matilda Sproule
Link to: Clare Stewart Aldous (24) marries James (Jimmy) Chambers Sproule (27)
Emmanuel Parish Church, Compton Gifford, Plymouth, Devon - Wednesday 28 July 1915
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The Sproule Family and their home "Denamona", Fintona, Co Tyrone
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The Sproule family were not at Jimmy and Clare's wedding! They are seen here looking glum about 15 years earlier (c1900) at their (farm) house "Denamona", Fintona, Co Tyrone.
Alexander ("AHR Snr" then 35, 54 in this pic) had returned from Peterborough, Ontario to Ireland in 1881 to take over the house and its 209 acre estate, after his wealthy childless uncle (mother's brother) Dr Alex Harpur Robinson died in 1880 and bequeathed everything in trust to him to look after for the eventual benefit of his kids.
According to the 1871 Fintona Trades Directory, Dr Robinson was a dispensary doctor and insurance agent. Whilst yarning with his brother Harpur on a holiday stay at Harpur's farm in the E Transvaal in 1930, Jimmy Sproule recounts in his note book - "I had never heard that Mrs Robinson ran away with the groom, and when Dr R caught her and brought her back, he assigned to her the position of servant in his house". Any wonder they were childless!
Apparently, one of AHR Snr's first tasks when he returned to Ireland in 1881 was to track down and recover (for £100) the family silver which had been nicked by a family member living in Fintona. He then managed to spend / drink most of the monies he had been supposed to look after for his children.
The family had become comparatively wealthy in theory with the windfall of Dr Robinson's estate (below), but AHRSnr, who was a pretend professional photographer in Peterborough (Ontario) in the 1870s, managed the property indifferently and did a lot of depressed drinking. He died aged 75 in December 1921 but the assets were not distributed - they seem to have been taken over by Jack. Certainly Jimmy Sproule, who was due one eighth of the estate, never saw a brass razoo.
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photo from Jimmy Sproule's album
"Denamona" - Fintona, Co Tyrone - c1900 - 11 family members in 15 rooms.
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No source or date information
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News about A.H.R.Sproule - "this drunken magisterial perjurer" - reaches New Zealand
1886 – The NZ Tablet reprints an article from a Co Tyrone newspaper
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Many thanks to Maggie Sutherland, Pam's daughter from a second marriage, for this and some other photos on this page.
"Denamona Hunt" - c1910 - Jimmy Sproule is, we think, the first person to the left of the line of the edge of the house.
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"Denamona" - Fintona, Co Tyrone - c1933 (photographed by Clare Sproule)
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photo hand coloured by Clare
Sproule family caravan holiday at Denamona (Fintona, Co Tyrone) 1933 - Peggy (16) Clare (42) Brian (9) Jimmy (46). One would have thought that there would have been a room or two to spare in the enormous house!
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Many thanks to Maggie Sutherland, Pam's daughter from a second marriage, for this and some other photos on this page.
Pamela Williams, daughter of Jimmy Sproule's sister Anna, marries Guy Sinclair - 23 September 1937 at Holm Villa, Castlederg, Co Tyrone -
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Aerial Photo of Denamona in 1987
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link to ancestors of George and Isabella Aldous & Alex and Matilda Sproule
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