Is Francis Sprague the brother or son of Edward Sprague?

Question

I am working my tree along the Sprague line, starting from Mercy Sprague and going back.  I start to run into problems with Francis Sprague, Information I have received from my family and other online sources has Francis Sprague (born 1590) as her father, Edward Sprague (born 1576) as his father and Tristam Sprague (born 1550) as his grandfather.  On the profile here Edward Sprague is listed as his brother but the dates of birth of birth would seem more in keeping with a father-son relationship between Edward and Francis than that of brothers.  I have run into a roadblock here and would appreciate any clarification that can be offered.

Thank you!

Mary (Yaple) Mocanu

Comments

Thank you! I would be interested in the name study. I currently can go back only as far as Mercy Sprague and I would like to know more. What I have seen of the rest of the line looks very interesting g.

Answer 1

There seems to be a few problems with this. One, it is actually disputed by some researchers that Tristram Sprague is the father of Edward. It seems the profile managers have not come up with an accurate death date for him which brings to question the possibility he is not the father of Edward. If  Francis is the brother however, it would reason that is probable if Edward were born to his parents first and Francis would be the youngest.,   If Tristram were the father of these two there would have to be a 2nd wife because it is documented that Edward was the only son of Tristram Sprague and Elizabeth Colt.  

It isn't very likely Francis was the son of Edward for several reasons. One, we know Ralph is is first son as confirmed by the Will of Edward when he says "To my 1st son, Ralph..." Second Ralp was born in 1599. Francis was born about 1590 and with Edward being born in 1576 he would only be 14 when Francis was born. Also he is not named in the Will of Edward.  I read somewhere that it was possible Francis was a cousin to Ralph being that he may have been  the nephew of Edward, The profiles should not be connected with out proof of parentage but theories should be noted in the bio.

This is something I will be adding as a goal to solve as part of the Sprague Name Study, I invite you to join our project and hope you will take advantage of all the resources I have compiled to aide you in your research. Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in.  the link can be found below :

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Sprague_Name_Study

Thank you for bringing this up!

Zoiya

Comments

Thank you! I would be interested in the name study. I currently can go back only as far as Mercy Sprague and I would like to know more. What I have seen of the rest of the line looks very interesting.

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I also have seen no reference to Francis in the documents relating to Edward Sprague (d. 1614).

Here is a little more detail of Edward Sprague's Will. In the Will of Edward Sprague he identifies Ralph Sprague as his oldest son, Edward as next oldest son, Richard as his third oldest son, Christopher as his fourth son and William as his youngest son. He identifies. Alice is identified as his oldest daughter and was his oldest child. No other daughter is listed. Christian is identified as the wife of Edward Sprague (d. 1614).