WILLIAM SPRING 1533-1599

Thomas Spring, Lavenham Church, Suffolk
Transcription of Text: The Spryng Brass.
Known as a "resurrection brass" showing Thomas, his wife and eleven children all in their shrouds, kneeling.



Pakenham church patrons, Pakenham, Suffolk



Transcription of text in document
St Mary's church Patrons including 2XRobert Spring; 1x Elizabeth Spring; 1X Sir William Spring

Cockfield Hall, Yoxford Suffolk

Grade I listed Tudor home built by the Spring family Located 20 miles northeast of Ipswich and 5 miles in from the coast north of Adeburgh. Run as a hotel today.

Sir William Spring of Lavenham (died 1599)
Sir William Spring of Lavenham (died 1599) was an English politician and merchant, the son of Sir John Spring and Dorothy Waldegrave. Spring was MP for Suffolk in 1570. He was High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1578 and 1579 and oversaw Elizabeth I's visit to the county in 1578[1]. He was knighted by the Queen upon becoming High Sheriff.

Whilst patron of Cockfield Church, Spring allowed it to be used for puritan religious meetings, starting the Spring family's association with Puritanism that would last until the Restoration. Cockfield became a centre of Puritan doctrine. In May 1582, Spring organised an assembly of about 60 clergymen from Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire who met in Cockfield Church, to confer about the Prayer Book, clerical dress and customs[2].

Sir William first married Anne, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kitson, and then Susan, the daughter of Sir Ambrose Jermyn. He had one son and four daughters [1].

His descendants were made baronets by Charles I.

References

Excursions in the county of Suffolk [by T.K. Cromwell] pg. 168.
Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (1982)
A concise description of Bury St. Edmund's, and its environs 1827 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kqkHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA262&lpg=PA262&dq=sir+william+spring ,+high+sheriff&source=bl&ots=zhlVou1fHV&sig=GnmD0bGT6i_cjWKMYs1XdEg7O40&hl=en&ei =wUtXSuPwMoeSjAfy5eTEDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4
http://www.pa kenham-village.co.uk/History/PV2Mbk/s10_C7ManorsOfPakenham.htm