Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet (May 1642 – 30 April 1684) was an English Whig politician who was a Member of Parliament for

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

from 1679 until his death in 1684.

Early life

Spring was the son of Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet and Elizabeth L'Estrange, daughter of Alice L'Estrange and Sir Hamon le Strange. He was educated at King Edward VI School and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, graduating in 1658. In 1654 he inherited his father's baronetcy.

Career

In 1661, Spring was appointed a commissioner for assessment for Suffolk. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1664, but was removed from the Commission of the Peace for

in 1670 for opposing the

Conventicle Act 1664 The Conventicle Act 1664 was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of England (16 Cha. 2. c. 4) that forbade conventicles, defined as religious assemblies of more than five people other than an immediate family, outside ...

. He served as High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1674. He contested the Sudbury constituency in 1679, but lost. He was subsequently elected to represent Suffolk in both the second and third Exclusion Parliaments as an exclusionist. The Earl of Shaftesbury classed him as an "honest" opponent of

James, Duke of York James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II of England, Charles II, on 6 February 1 ...

inheriting the throne. Although he moved away from his father's

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

beliefs, Spring opposed the increasing Catholicisation of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

over his lifetime. On 14 February 1681, after he and Sir Samuel Barnardiston had been unanimously elected, an address was presented to them from the freeholders of the constituency, thanking them for their "zeal for the Protestant religion, your loyalty to his Majesty’s person and government, and your endeavours for the preservation of our laws, rights and liberties" and urging them to continue their support of exclusion. He made no recorded speeches and was not appointed to any committees in either of the exclusion parliaments. He died in 1684 and was buried in

Pakenham, Suffolk Pakenham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Its name can be linked to Anglo-Saxon roots, Pacca being the founder of a settlement on the hill surrounding Pakenham church. The village descr ...

Marriages and children

Spring was married twice. On 11 October 1661, he first married Mary, daughter of Dudley North, 4th Baron North; they had no children. On 3 February 1667, he married secondly Sarah, daughter of Sir Robert Cordell, 1st Baronet of Melford Hall, Suffolk and together they had three children: # Sir Thomas Spring, 3rd Baronet, married Merolina, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Jermyn, 2nd Baron Jermyn and heiress of the Jacobite Earl of Dover. # Sir John Spring, 5th Baronet, married Elizabeth Nightingale. # Sarah Spring, married John Macky.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, William 1642 births 1684 deaths Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Baronets in the Baronetage of England English MPs 1679 English MPs 1681 High sheriffs of Suffolk People educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

Whig members of the pre-1707 English Parliament