My ancestors - Spring - Contents

Capt. Thomas Spring

Sources yet to be consulted:
- SPRING on p.57 of [Smith, 1756].
- The life and letters of Florence MacCarthy Reagh, Daniel MacCarthy, 1867.
- 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, 290.
- J. Carmody, Story of Castle Mayne ..., Kerry Archaeological Magazine, I (1908) 17-37, 49-79; 119-141.

Killagha Abbey.
Photo 2012. See full size. From here.
See more photos.

Capt. Thomas Spring (see here).
His family were from Lavenham, Suffolk.
He served as Captain in army of Elizabeth I in Ireland.
He was granted land in Co.Kerry. Settled in Ireland.
He served with distinction for the Crown against the rebels during the Desmond Rebellions.

He mar post-1580 to Annabel Browne [or Annabella, a widow, of Co.Limerick].
Her father (killed 1580) was an ally of the rebel Earl of Desmond.

Constable of Castlemaine:
Spring was made Constable of Castlemaine (stronghold between Killorglin and Tralee), Co.Kerry. Castlemaine was an Earl of Desmond castle, seized by the crown.
Page 132 of [Rowan, 1846] says he was made Constable of Castlemaine by patent dated 24 Jan 1584.
[King, 1931] says that Spring was Constable of Castlemaine in 1586.

Granted Killagha:
On 12 Dec 1588 he was granted the estates of Killagha Abbey (or Killagh Abbey or Kilcolman Abbey), near Milltown, Co.Kerry.
He was High Sheriff of Kerry in 1592.
[King, 1931] says he had a grant in 1596 of church lands at Killagha and in Iveragh.
He died 1597.
[Visitation of Suffolk] says he was "slain in Ireland".
Capt. Thomas and Annabel had issue:

Thomas Spring,
born post-1580, probably 1580s, definitely pre-1597.
He mar Margaret Fen.
He was made Constable of Castlemaine by Sir William St. Leger (Lord President of Munster 1627-1642), who also commissioned Spring as a Captain to command a company at Castlemaine in the Rebellion of 1641.
Thomas and Margaret had issue:
1. Thomas Spring,
  of Killaclohane.
  We take him as the Thomas Spring who had two sons who married Blennerhassetts.
  [Burkes Landed Gentry, 1879] and other pedigrees have these two sons as sons of Thomas Spring and Margaret Fen.
  But the dates seem unlikely - a father born maybe 1580s and his son alive in 1733.
  [Spring and Spring, 2000, p.6] suggests this intervening generation and this tree makes more sense.
Alice Spring [or Alison],
mar Col. James Ryeves and had issue.

Extract from "Old Kerry Records" by Hickson, re-published on 2 May 1908.
Refers to a 1588 letter referring to "Tom Spring" of Kilcolman.
(todo) See Spring in [MacCarthy, 1867].

"Captain Spring" arrests Florence MacCarthy in 1588 for a marriage alliance that angered the crown.
Spring imprisons MacCarthy in Castlemaine.
Extract from "Old Kerry Records" by Hickson, re-published on 9 May 1908.

Killagha Abbey ruin (to NW) and the new Kilcolman Abbey (to SE) on 1829 to 1842 map.
See modern satellite view.

Castlemaine, Co.Kerry, on 1829 to 1842 map.
The castle once stood on the bridge. It was destroyed in 1652.
Nothing remains today. See street view.

Spring in Landed Estates Database.
Wikipedia here and here had Annabel Browne's parentage wrong. I fixed it. See history here and here.
Spring estate confiscated:
- The Spring estate of Kilcolman Abbey was confiscated by Cromwell during the Irish Confederate Wars (1641-53 period).
- It was granted 1668 to Godfrey. They built a new seat called Kilcolman Abbey (or Bushfield) a short distance away.
Castlemaine in 1788:
- From entry of 21 Aug 1788 in [Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort's Tour of Kerry, 1788]: "Castlemain is now a most wretched village, only a few cabins at each end of a very long bridge over the Maing. On the East side of this bridge are large ruins of a Castle, & on the West some also, with several marks in the battlements where the gate that defended this pass anciently stood. A singular situation for a Castle, in the midst of a river in which the tide might bring large vessels. Yet there is a Constable of this Castle with a Salary of 10 shillings per day besides a considerable piece of land near it: Capt Botet, who lives at Kinsale, is the present Constable & Sir William Godfrey says it is altogether worth £300 a year."