Thomas Spring of Castlemaine

Thomas Spring of Castlemaine (died 1597) was an English Protestant soldier, politician and Constable of Castle Maine in County Kerry, Ireland.

Family

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Thomas Spring was born in Suffolk, England, the son of Thomas Spring and Julian Fairey.[1][2][3][4]

He was the first of the Spring family to settle in Ireland.[1][2]

He married Annabelle Browne.[1] The marriage occurred after 1580.[5]

Thomas and Annabelle's children were:

1. Thomas Spring[1][2][3][4]
2. Walter Spring[1][2][3][4]
3. Elizabeth Spring[2][4]
4. Frances Spring[2][4]
5. Susanna Spring[2][4]
6. Alice Spring[2][4]
7. Annabella Spring[2][4]

Thomas served as High Sheriff of Kerry, Ireland in 1592.[1]

He died on 22 August 1597.[1][4]

Research notes

• Birth year guessed.
• Birth place: "The Spring family of Suffolk and County Kerry, and branches in Australia, New Zealand and the USA," claims Thomas' birthplace was Pakenham, Suffolk[4] (not Lavenham).
• Geni website states that Thomas Spring of Castlemaine was married to Annabelle Apsley.[6]

Biography

< Wikipedia >, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Spring was born in Lavenham, Suffolk, the son of clothier Thomas Spring. He was the great-grandson of Thomas Spring of Lavenham, the richest merchant in England during the early 1500s.

Spring was an officer in the army of Elizabeth I during the Tudor conquest of Ireland. He served with distinction, and as part of the Plantation of Munster he was granted over 3,000 acres of land in County Kerry in 1578. 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.[3] Spring was instructed to rebuild the abbey in a castle-like manner, so that it could serve as a defensive structure. He also became constable of the castle over the River 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. Spring served as High Sheriff of Kerry in 1592.[4] 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,[7] with whom he had two sons.[8] 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.

“Regan-Ettinger Family History - Captain Thomas Spring of Castlemaine.” < link >

Spring married Annabelle Browne, the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, with whom he had two sons. He 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.

His descendants married into the Anglo-Irish Rice family, establishing the Spring-Rice dynasty. This branch of the family was raised to the peerage as Barons Monteagle of Brandon, after the Whig politician Thomas Spring-Rice had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Future generations sat in the House of Lords as Conservatives until the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999. Sir Cecil Spring-Rice GCMG GCVO (1859–1918) was an important British diplomat, while his cousin, Thomas Aubrey Spring Rice CMG MVO held minor diplomatic office. The sixth baron, Gerald Spring-Rice (b.1926) is a former Irish Guards officer.

Thomas Spring Esquire (died 1440) of Lavenham 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. 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.

Posted 30th August 2015 by Rob Regan

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Spring_of_Castlemaine (Retrieved 03 February 2023) cites
   1. Michael C. O'Laughlin, Families of Co. Kerry, Ireland (Irish Roots Cafe, 1994), 137.
   2. Joseph Jackson Howard, ‘Spring’, The Visitation of Suffolk (Whittaker and Co, 1866), 165-206.
   3. Raleigh in a letter to Hicks: "I am most earnestly to entreat you for this gentleman Captain Spring, that partly for love, partly for honest consideration, you will further him with my Lord Treasurer for a debt of £300 which her Majesty doth owe him. It hath been long due and he hath good warrant for it. Besides he hath served her Majesty very long, and hath received many wounds in her service. These reasons delivered by a man of your utterance, and having his good angel at your elbow to instruct you, I doubt not but it will take good and speedy effect." Carmody, p.290.
   4. Carmody, James. “Story of Castle Magne (Continued).” Kerry Archaeological Magazine, vol. 1, no. 2, 1909, pp. 49–79. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/30059592. Accessed 4 Feb. 2023.
   5. 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.290
   6. Brid McGrath, A biographical dictionary of the membership of the Irish House of Commons 1640-1641 (Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), 1998), p.A50 (Retrieved 31 March 2020).
   7. Michael C. O'Laughlin, Families of Co. Kerry, Ireland (Irish Roots Cafe, 1994), 137.
   8. Joseph Jackson Howard, ‘Spring’, The Visitation of Suffolk ( Whittaker and Co, 1866), 165-206.
   9. Charles Smith, The Antient and Present State of the County of Kerry (1756), 57.
   10. "Notes on Kerry Topography, Ancient and Modern" (ctd.) by Mary Agnes Hickson, Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association, Fourth Series, Vol 5, No. 44 (Oct 1880), pp.349-364.
   11. Joseph Jackson Howard, ‘Spring’, The Visitation of Suffolk ( Whittaker and Co, 1866), 165-206.
   12. 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.
2. http://reganettinger.blogspot.com/2015/08/captain-thomas-spring-of-... (Posted 29th August 2015 by Unknown)
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Spring-89 (Last modified 10 Mar 2019) cites
   1. "Thomas Spring of Castlemaine." (27 November 2017). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21 February 2018 by Clare Spring from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Spring_of_Castlem....
   2. "Selections from Old Kerry Records." 1872. Watson & Hazell, pp.73–78. Retrieved 19 May 2018 by Clare Spring from http://www.researchireland.com/BLENNERHASSETT.pdf. Archived 5 April 2017 at https://web.archive.org/web/20170405053150/http://www.researchirela....
   3. Lundy, Daryl (compiler). "Captain Thomas Spring of Castlemaine." The Peerage. Retrieved 1 July 2018 by Clare Spring from http://www.thepeerage.com/p27962.htm#i279620.
   4. William Anthony Spring and Jane Vivien Spring [researchers and compilers]. 2000. "The Spring family of Suffolk and County Kerry, and branches in Australia, New Zealand and the USA," p. 6. Accessed 3 March 2018 at the National Library of Australia by Clare Spring. https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21876001.
   5. "Capt. Thomas Spring." HumphreysFamilyTree.com. Retrieved 1 July 2018 by Clare Spring from http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Spring/capt.thomas.html. Archived 1 March 2017 at https://web.archive.org/web/20170301131810/http://humphrysfamilytre....
   6. "Capt. Thomas Spring, of Castlemaine." Geni. Retrieved 5 April 2018 by Clare Spring from Thomas Spring of Castlemaine.