Gabriel Sprung (1751-1807)

with Maria Bayard (1770-1826)

My fourth great-grandparents Gabriel and Maria Sprung were ancestors of my great-grandmother Hanna “Hattie” Sprung Drayer. Click here to view Gabriel’s profile in the family tree.

Early life

Gabriel Sprung was featured in this book from the early 1900s. However, by 2023, FamilySearch and their contributors established that his origins were not at all as described here!

Here is the lone passage depicting our ancestor:.

In this account, Gabriel Sprung’s father, name unknown, was a British soldier stationed in the American colonies, and Gabriel was only one year old “at the close of the Revolutionary War.” But by now there is ample evidence that this account is false in several respects.

Records of the Dutch Reformed Church show that Gabriel Sprung was baptized in December 1751 in  New York City. FamilySearch contributors have traced his pedigree back another four generations, to early settlers of New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony on the island of Manhattan, before it was ceded to England and became part of New York city and colony.

Revolutionary War

Since he later removed to Canada, we may assume that Gabriel was a Loyalist during the Revolution. While I know of no documentary evidence of his activities, he was of prime fighting age at the time. The “Richard Sprong” listed in the muster roll below may have been Gabriel’s brother.

Thus, even though Gabriel was not the love-child of a British regular, as fancied in the book first referred to, it still seems likely that two of my fourth great-grandfathers, Philip Myers and Gabriel Sprung, fought on opposing sides in the Revolution.

Migration

Gabriel married Anna Maria Bayard on 30 July 1789, in New Jersey, also in the Dutch Reformed church. By 1794, the couple and their oldest children emigrated to Canada, where they acquired land in Northumberland County, Ontario. By the time of Gabriel’s death in 1806, they lived in nearby Prince Edward County, with a total of nine children.

Offspring

Of the nine, my third great-grandfather David and his brother Richard were extremely close. They farmed as full partners for nineteen years while they raised their young families, then separated most amicably, dividing their assets in a single hour of discussion, with no hint of dispute.

An anecdote on David appears in “Pioneer Life:” Despite the source’s shaky reliability, the tale seems worth quoting.

David Spring was well known in the county as an officer in the militia and a Methodist local preacher. Late one Saturday night he was ordered to have his company paraded at Roblins Mills on the Monday morning. As he had to preach at three different places on Sunday he told his son to take horse and warn the men in his stead. The whole company paraded on time and volunteered to a man. Among the names of the members at random are … Richard and William Sprung [two of David’s sons]. Not only did David manage to parade with a full complement of men on the Monday morning, but he also attended to all his ministerial duties on the Sunday.

It is not clear which of David’s sons went to warn the militia company, but Richard is a likely one. Richard was David’s second son (named after David’s beloved brother); and is my own great-great-grandfather. Richard farmed first in Huron County, western Ontario, where my great-grandmother Hattie Sprung was born. Richard’s wife, Anna Hudye, was born in Ireland. From Huron County, they immigrated to the US, where they settled in Nebraska. You can follow the family by clicking here for Hattie’s story with her husband, William Drayer. Thus, after three generations, this branch of the Sprung family returned to its roots in the USA.