SPREWEL, or SPREULL, a surname of old standing in the west of Scotland. Those of this surname, says Nisbet (vol. i. p. 437,) carry purses or palmer scrips in their arms. The name is now spelled Spreull or Sproul. In the reign of Alexander III. Walter Sprewel of Cowden or Colden, Renfrewshire, seneschal to Malcolm earl of Lennox, had a grant from that nobleman of the lands of Dalquhairn, Dumbartonshire. In 1294 he was threatened with excommunication upon the earl’s account. In the reign of Robert the Bruce, another Walter Sprewel, seneschallus de Dumbarton, obtained a charter of the same lands. The Sprewels are several times thereafter mentioned in the chartulary of Paisley. The family continued in a lineal succession till 1622, when the lands of Cowden were sold by John Sprewel, the then proprietor, to William Lord Cochrane, father of the first earl of Dundonald.

The first of the Sprewels of Ladymuir and Blackairne was John Sprewel, a younger son of the family of Cowden, who, in 1507, was made vicar of Dundonald. He was also one of the professor of philosophy in the university of Glasgow, and rector of the said university. Subsequently he was one of the prebends of the metropolitan church, to which the rectory of Ancrum was attached. He purchased the lands of Ladymuir, Castlehill, and Kingsmeadows, from Gabriel Semple, who had married his sister, Janet, and was brother of the first Lord Semple; also the lands of Blackairne, within the lordship of Provan, and a dwelling-house or lodging in the city of Glasgow. At his death in 1555 he was succeeded by his nephew, John Sprewel, the son of his brother, Robert Sprewel, burgess of Glasgow. The grandson of this John Sprewel, also named John, was provost of Renfrew about the beginning of the reign of Charles I. He was father of John Sprewel, town-clerk of Glasgow, and afterwards one of the principal clerks of session. The son of the latter, John Sprewel of Blackairne, married Agnes, daughter of Andrew Sprewel of Milton. Their son, Andrew Sprewel of Blackairne, was a writer in Edinburgh.