Sir John Spring of Lavenham

Sir John Spring
Died	12 August 1547
Burial place	Hitcham, Suffolk
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Waldegrave
Children	Sir William Spring Frances Spring Bridget Spring
Parent(s)	Thomas Spring, Anne King

Sir John Spring (died 12 August 1547), of Lavenham, Buxhall, Hitcham, and Cockfield, Suffolk, was an English merchant and politician.

John Spring was the son of Thomas Spring of Lavenham (d.1523) by his first wife, Anne King, whose family was of Boxford, Suffolk. He had a cousin, also John Spring, whose daughter, Margaret, married Aubrey de Vere, second son of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford; Aubrey de Vere and Margaret Spring were the grandparents of Robert de Vere, 19th Earl of Oxford.

Spring inherited the Spring family cloth trading business, as well as an extensive estate, following his father’s death. His lands holdings increased when the Spring family were granted former abbey lands after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. During the reign of Edward VI he was referred to as lord of the manor of Leffey. He was knighted at the accession of Edward VI. Spring aided the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk in suppressing the Lavenham revolt of 1525, by removing the bells from the Church of St Peter and St Paul, meaning the rebels could not be called to arms.

Spring made his last will on 8 June 1544 as 'John Spring of Hitcham, esquire', leaving bequests to his wife, Dorothy, his father-in-law, Sir William Waldegrave of Smallbridge in Bures St Mary, and mother-in-law, Margery (née Wentworth) Waldegrave, his son and heir, William, his son-in-law, Edmund Wright, and his unmarried daughter, Bridget, and expressing the wish that Sir William Drury should 'have the marriage of my son [William] before any other'. The will was proved 21 May 1549.

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