Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet (1613 – 17 December 1654) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
Parliamentarian politician and a member of the
Spring family
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.Joseph Jackson Howard, ‘Spring’, ‘’Th ...
of
Pakenham, Suffolk.
Life
William was the son of
Sir William Spring (died 1637) and his wife Elizabeth Smith. Like his father, he was educated at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
. The only surviving son, he inherited the family lands from his father, including Pakenham Hall and Cockfield Hall. He lived for many years at
Newe House, Pakenham, which he purchased from Sir Robert Bright.
Spring was knighted by
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
and served as
High Sheriff of Suffolk
This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Suffolk.
The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The Sheriff was originally the principal law enforcement officer in the county a ...
in 1641. During the
Stour Valley anti-popery riots of August 1642, Sir William was ordered by Parliament to search
Hengrave Hall
Hengrave Hall is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house in Hengrave near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England and was the seat of the Kitson and Gage families 1525–1887. Both families were Roman Catholic recusants.
Architecture
Work on the ho ...
, the house of his cousin, Lady Penelope Darcy, where it was thought arms for a Catholic insurrection were being stored. He was created a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
, of Pakenham in the
Baronetage of England
Baronets are a rank in the British aristocracy. The current Baronetage of the United Kingdom has replaced the earlier but existing Baronetages of England, Nova Scotia, Ireland, and Great Britain.
Baronetage of England (1611–1705)
King James I ...
, on 11 August 1642 by Charles I. This was despite Spring being widely known as a committed
Parliamentarian who openly opposed the king's policies.
Throughout the
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
Spring travelled the eastern counties of England, helping to recruit soldiers to the Parliamentarian army and maintain Parliament's control of East Anglia. Although there is no evidence that Sir William engaged in armed combat on behalf of the cause of Parliament, he was a prominent member of the Bury St. Edmunds Committee of the
Eastern Association
The Eastern Association of counties was an administrative organisation set up by Parliament in the early years of the First English Civil War. Its main function was to finance and support an army which became a mainstay of the Parliamentarian mi ...
, which recruited men for Cromwell's
Ironsides. He was in regular correspondence with
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
, who notably wrote to Spring regarding the
Good Old Cause
The Good Old Cause was the name given, retrospectively, by the soldiers of the New Model Army, to the complex of reasons that motivated their fight on behalf of the Parliament of England.
Their struggle was against King Charles I and the Royalis ...
. In the summer of 1643, Spring refused to recognise a troop of Ironsides raised by Captain Raphe Margery, as Spring deemed Margery, who was not from a
gentry
Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past.
Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies
''Gentry'', in its widest ...
family, to be too low-born to lead men into battle. Cromwell intervened, telling Spring that he did not care which social class his soldiers came from, as long as they believed in Parliament's cause. In September 1643, Cromwell wrote to Spring, saying: ''I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else''. He was a staunch friend of Sir
Nathaniel Barnardiston
Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston (1588 – 25 July 1653) of Kedington, alias Ketton, Suffolk was an English (East Anglian) landowner, magistrate and senior representative of a long-established knightly family, one of the wealthiest in Suffolk, w ...
of Kedington, a notable advocate of the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
cause, upon whose death he wrote an acrostic elegy. Spring was elected in 1645 as a recruiter for the
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
for
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
, and sat from 1646 to 1648, when he was secluded by
Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England.
Despite defeat in the ...
. Spring sat in the
First Protectorate Parliament
The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the Hou ...
for
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
in 1654 and died at the end of that year. He was buried on 19 December; his eldest son
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
succeeded him.
Family
William married Elizabeth L'Estrange, the daughter of
Lady Alice
Lady Alice is Child ballad 85. It may be a fragment of a longer ballad that has not been preserved. Synopsis
Lady Alice sees a corpse being carried by and is told it is her lover. She asks the bearers to leave the corpse, saying that she herself ...
and
Sir Hamon L'Estrange, with whom he had six children:
*
Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet
Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet (1642–1684) was an English politician, member of the Spring family and MP for Suffolk in 1679–1684.
Spring was educated at King Edward VI School and Christ's College, Cambridge. He inherited the Baronetcy of ...
(1642–1684), married first Mary, daughter of
Dudley North, 4th Baron North
Dudley North, 4th Baron North, KB (160224 June 1677) of Kirtling Tower, Cambridgeshire was an English politician, who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1660.
Life
North was the elder son of Dudley North, 3rd Baron ...
(no issue) and married second Sarah, daughter of
Sir Robert Cordell, 1st Baronet
Sir Robert Cordell, 1st Baronet (died c. 1680), of Long Melford, Suffolk, was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1660 and 1679.
Cordell was the son of Sir John Cordell, of St Lawrenc ...
of Melford Hall, Suffolk, with whom he had three children.
*Thomas Spring, died unmarried in 1677, Fellow of
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...
.
*John Spring Traveled and settled in the New World becoming a prominent member and politician in
Watertown MA
*Elizabeth Spring, died unmarried
*Catherine Spring, married (1st) Capt. Laurence, (2nd) John Palgrave
*Dorothy Spring (1648–1714/15), married
Sir Christopher Calthorpe in 1664
Ancestry
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, William, 1st Baronet
1613 births
1654 deaths
Baronets in the Baronetage of England
High Sheriffs of Suffolk
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
Roundheads
17th-century English Puritans
English MPs 1640–1648
English MPs 1654–1655
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge