The Spring family is a Suffolk gentry family that has been involved in the politics and economy of East Anglia since the 15th century, as well as holding large estates in Ireland from the 16th century. [2]
The Spring family is a Suffolk gentry family that has been involved in the politics and economy of East Anglia since the 15th century, as well as holding large estates in Ireland from the 16th century. [2]
The earliest recording of the family is in 1311 in northern England, where Sir Henry Spring was lord of the manor at a place that would become known as Houghton-le-Spring. [3] The family first came to prominence in the town of Lavenham in Suffolk, where they were important merchants in the cloth and wool trade during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the height of the wool trade in the late 15th century, the Springs were one of the richest families in England. The family owned over two dozen manor houses in the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, [4] including Cockfield Hall, which they built in the 16th century, and Newe House. The most successful of the Spring merchants was Thomas Spring (c. 1474–1523), who was the first member of the Suffolk Springs to hold public office. [5] Thomas Spring gave substantial funds for the construction of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham, where he lies buried. [2]
Over following generations, the Springs firmly established themselves as gentry in Suffolk. [2] This was partly facilitated through a series of advantageous marriages to powerful local families, such as the Waldegraves, Jermyns and de Veres. Additionally, successive generations of the family held public office, representing Suffolk in the House of Commons and occupying the role of High Sheriff of Suffolk. Despite being relations of the Yorkist George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the Springs were supporters of the House of Lancaster throughout the Wars of the Roses, reflected by the grant of arms to the family by Henry VI. [6] Sir John Spring (d.1549) was knighted by Henry VII and aided the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk in suppressing the Lavenham revolt of 1525. His son, Sir William, became High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1578 having served as MP for Suffolk and was knighted by Elizabeth I. His grandson was knighted by James I, also serving as MP and High Sheriff of Suffolk. [7] During this period, the Springs were committed Puritans and under their patronage Cockfield became a centre for Puritan thought and activity. [8]
On 11 August 1641, Sir William Spring was created a baronet, of Pakenham in the County of Suffolk, in the Baronetage of England by King Charles I, in an attempt by the king to win the favour of Parliamentarian gentry families in the lead up to the Civil War. He was High Sheriff of Suffolk and later served as MP for Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk, and was an active recruiter for the Parliamentarian army during the war. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the family was issued with a pardon for their actions against the king. [2] Sir William's son, the second baronet, was also the MP for Suffolk and one of the earliest members to be designated a Whig. [9] The family title became dormant on the death of the sixth baronet in 1769.
The Conservative politician Lord Risby (b.1946) is the most recent member of the family to represent Suffolk in the British Parliament. Other members of the family include the British Army officers Lieutenant-Colonel William Spring (1769-c. 1839), Brigadier-General Frederick Spring (1878-1963), Major Trevor Spring (1882-1926) and Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Spring (1921–1997). [2] Flying Officer Hector Spring DFC (1915-1978) served with distinction in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
The family have a monument erected to them in the church of St Peter and St Paul in Lavenham and the parclose screen in the north aisle is to their chantry. Additional monuments to the family exist in Cockfield and Pakenham, as well as on Ullswater in the Lake District.
In 1578, Captain Thomas Spring, the great-grandson of Thomas Spring of Lavenham, settled in Ireland as the Constable of Castlemaine, where there was a small English garrison. [10] The Crown granted him over 3,000 acres of land in County Kerry and elsewhere in Munster, including Killagha Abbey. [11] [12] The family's secure financial position facilitated marriages with several Old English Munster dynasties. Another descendant, Walter Spring, married a daughter of the Knight of Kerry and was involved in the Irish Confederate Wars, consequently forfeiting much of his land. His descendants married into the Anglo-Irish Rice family, establishing the Spring Rice family. This branch was raised to the peerage as Barons Monteagle of Brandon, after the Whig politician Thomas Spring Rice had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Spring Rices owned 6,445 acres in County Limerick, 2,000 acres in County Kerry and a further 2,000 acres elsewhere in Ireland. [13] The second Lord Monteagle was a Liberal Unionist politician who helped to found the Irish Dominion League. [14] Future generations sat in the House of Lords as both Liberals and Conservatives until the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. Sir Cecil Spring Rice (1859–1918) was the British Ambassador to the United States during the First World War, while his cousin, Thomas Spring Rice, 3rd Baron Monteagle of Brandon held minor diplomatic office. The 3rd Baron's sister was the Irish nationalist activist, Mary Spring Rice. The sixth baron, Gerald Spring Rice (1926–2013) was an officer in the Irish Guards. [15]
The civil servant Sir Francis Spring (1849–1933), the army officer Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Spring Walker (1876-1941) and the Irish politician Dick Spring (b.1950) are also descended from the same family.
The family motto is Non mihi sed Patriae (Latin), Not for myself but for my fatherland. [16]
Thomas Spring Esquire (died 1440) of Lavenham, the grandfather of Thomas Spring, was granted a coat-of-arms in the first reign of Henry VI, thus elevating his family into the ranks of armigerous society. As the family moved from the merchant class to the minor nobility, the coat-of-arms was employed to convey the newly bestowed rank of the family. [17] As such it is prominently displayed, alongside the arms of the Earl of Oxford, over thirty times on Lavenham church. Examples of the Spring arms, often quartered with other local noble families, can be found across Suffolk. The coat-of-arms is now borne by Thomas Spring's descendants.
The arms is described as "Argent on a chevron, between three mascles Gules, as many cinquefoils Or." [16] The crest is an antelope or stag, quartered in gold and silver, although the crest of an eagle has also been used.
Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, was a British Whig politician, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839.
Cockfield is a village and civil parish located approximately 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) from Lavenham in Suffolk, England. The village consists of a central point and several outlying hamlets: Buttons Green, Colchester Green, Cross Green, Great Green, Oldhall Green, Smithwood Green and Windsor Green. Surrounded mostly by fields used for farming, and with few roads, its population was 839 in 2001, increasing to 868 at the 2011 Census.
The Spring Baronetcy, of Pakenham in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Baronetage of England.
Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet was an English landowner and politician. During the English Civil War, he was one of the leading Parliamentarian officials in East Anglia. He was the Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds before being removed during Pride's Purge in 1648, but was returned to the House of Commons as the MP for Suffolk shortly before his death in 1654.
Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet was an English Whig politician who was a Member of Parliament for Suffolk from 1679 until his death in 1684.
Sir William Spring of Lavenham was an English politician and landowner.
Sir Thomas Spring, 3rd Baronet of Pakenham Hall in Pakenham, Suffolk, was an English baronet and landowner who served as High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1696.
Sir Thomas Kitson was a wealthy English merchant, Sheriff of London, and builder of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.
Sir John Spring, of Lavenham, Buxhall, Hitcham, and Cockfield, Suffolk, was an English merchant and politician.
Thomas Spring of Lavenham in Suffolk, was an English cloth merchant. He consolidated his father's business to become one of the most successful in the booming wool trade of the period and was one of the richest men in England. He has been described as the most important figure of the early Tudor cloth industry.
Sir William Courtenay of Powderham in Devon was a prominent member of the Devonshire gentry. He was Sheriff of Devon in 1579–80 and received the rare honour of having been three times elected MP for the prestigious county seat (Devon) in 1584, 1589 and 1601.
The High Sheriff of Kerry was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Kerry, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Kerry County Sheriff. The sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed High Court Writs. In 1908, an Order in Council made the Lord-Lieutenant the Sovereign's prime representative in a county and reduced the High Sheriff's precedence. However, the sheriff retained his responsibilities for the preservation of law and order in the county. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed his choice as High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Sometimes a sheriff did not fulfil his entire term through death or other event and another sheriff was then appointed for the remainder of the year. The dates given hereunder are the dates of appointment. All addresses are in County Kerry unless stated otherwise.
Sir Stephen Rice (1637–1715) was Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland and a notable supporter of James II.
Sir William Spring of Pakenham was a Suffolk gentry politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1623 and 1629.
Sir Peter George FitzGerald, 1st Baronet, 19th Knight of Kerry was an Anglo-Irish nobleman.
St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in Lavenham, Suffolk. It is a notable wool church and regarded as one of the finest examples of Late Perpendicular Gothic architecture in England.
Killagha Abbey of Our Lady of Bello Loco, also called Kilcolman Abbey, is a ruined Augustinian abbey and former manor house in County Kerry, Ireland. The abbey is situated one and a half miles north-west of Milltown on the banks of the River Maine.
Thomas Spring of Castlemaine was an English Protestant soldier, politician and Constable of Castle Maine in County Kerry, Ireland.
Pakenham Hall was a manor house in Pakenham, Suffolk, the capital residence of Pakenham manor. It was demolished and replaced by a more modern house, now called Pakenham Old Hall, in 1900. It was the family seat of the Spring family between 1545 and 1735, and then of the Barons Calthorpe.
Buckenham Tofts is a former civil parish, now in the parish of Stanford, in the Breckland district, in the county of Norfolk, England, situated about 7 miles north of Thetford, and since 1942 situated within the Stanford Training Area, a 30,000-acre military training ground closed to the public. It was situated about one mile south of the small village of Langford, with its Church of St Andrew, and about one mile west of Stanford, with its All Saints' Church and one mile north of West Tofts, with its Church of St Mary, all deserted and demolished villages. None of these settlements are shown on modern maps but are simply replaced by "Danger Area" in red capital letters. In 1931 the parish had a population of 60. On 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Stanford.