Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Builder, of Dublin and/or Monkstown. John Sproule reset the coping of the Parliament House in Dublin in 1749(1) and did 'ventilater's work' there in 1761.(2) In 1756 he and nine others were asked to submit proposals for the rebuilding of St Werburgh's church, which had been gutted by fire in 1754. His proposal was on a shortlist of three, but WILLIAM GOODWIN' WILLIAM GOODWIN' s was eventually selected by the building committee.(3) Sproule was one of three contractors asked by the Barrack Board to assess the condition of the Royal Barracks in Dublin with a view to discrediting the Surveyor General, THOMAS EYRE THOMAS EYRE , though he demurred from signing the joint report.(4)

A John Sproule, uncle of SAMUEL SPROULE SAMUEL SPROULE , was living in Monkstown when he wrote his will in 1783 and may have built houses there.(5) John Sproule of Monkstown died on 13 December 1793; his will was proved in the Prerogative Court in 1794.(6)



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from F. O'Dwyer's MS. Sproule family tree, compiled 1988 (in Jones file on Samuel Sproule).

(1) JHCI, Appendix 46, cited by C.P. Curran, 'The building of the Bank 1800-1946' in S.G. Hall, The Bank of Ireland 1783-1946 (1949), 460n.
(2) MS 'General Accompt' of Thomas Eyre, 1752-62 (IAA, Acc. 86/149), 82,90.
(3) K. Severens, 'a new perspective on Georgian building practice; the rebuilding of St Werburgh's Church, Dublin (1754-59)', BIGS 35 (1992-93), 6-7.
(4) F. O'Dwyer, 'Building empires: architecture, politics and the Board of Works 1760-1860', Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies 5 (2002), 115-7.
(5) Peter Pearson, Between the Mountains and the Sea (1998), 198,200.
(6) Arthur Vicars, Index to the Prerogative Wills of Ireland 1536-1810 (1897), 164.