Thomas Spring of Castlemaine (died 1597) 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 ...

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

soldier, politician and Constable of Castle Maine in

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, Ireland.

Biography

Thomas Spring was born in

Lavenham Lavenham is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Guildhall, Little Hall, 15th-century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walks. In the medie ...

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 ...

, the son of Robert Spring. He was the grandson of

Thomas Spring of Lavenham Thomas Spring (c. 1474 – 1523), (''alias'' Thomas Spring III or The Rich Clothier), of Lavenham in Suffolk, was an English people, English cloth merchant.Phil W Kaufman, ''American Traces in Anglian Places'' (Lulu.com), 19. He consolidated h ...

, the richest merchant in England during the early 1500s. Spring was an officer in the army of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

during the Tudor conquest of Ireland. He served with distinction, coming to the attention of

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion ...

who lobbied Sir Michael Hicks for a reward for Spring. As part of the Plantation of Munster he was granted over 3,000 acres of land in County Kerry in 1578. In 1584, he was appointed Constable of Castle Maine, with responsibility for maintaining English royal authority over the locality. He was accorded the right to hold several country fairs as a source of income and was in control of collecting tolls and taxes for the Crown. His land increased to approximately 6,000 acres when, on 12 December 1588, he was granted the estates of Killagha Abbey, which had been seized by The Crown during the dissolution of the monasteries. Spring was instructed to rebuild the abbey in a castle-like manner, so that it could serve as a defensive structure. From 1585 to 1586 Spring was the Member of Parliament for Kerry in the Irish House of Commons and he served as

High Sheriff of Kerry 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 sheri ...

in 1592. He was the first of the Spring family to settle in Ireland. Spring married Annabelle Browne, the daughter of John Browne, Master of Awney, Co.Limerick, with whom he had two sons and five daughters. His eldest son, Thomas, was a practising lawyer. His younger son, Walter, served as High Sheriff of Kerry in 1609. Walter's grandson was Walter Spring, who lost much of the family's Irish estate during the

Irish Confederate Wars The Irish Confederate Wars, also called the Eleven Years' War (from ga, Cogadh na hAon-déag mBliana), took place in Ireland between 1641 and 1653. It was the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars in the kin ...

.James Carmody, 'The Abbey of Killagha, Parish of Kilcoleman, County Kerry', ''The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland'', Fifth Series, Vol. 36, No. 3, p.291. Of Thomas's daughters, Alice married Colonel James Ryves, elder brother of Sir William Ryves and Sir Thomas Ryves.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, Thomas Year of birth uncertain 1597 deaths 16th-century English people High Sheriffs of Kerry Irish MPs 1585–1586 People from Lavenham People of Elizabethan Ireland People of the Nine Years' War (Ireland) People of the Second Desmond Rebellion Thomas Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kerry constituencies