Thomas Spring III

The ‘rich clothier’ and Lord of the Manor of Lavenham.
Thomas Spring (1456-1523)
There were three generations of Thomas Springs of Lavenham, all three were rich merchants and local politicians, but the third Thomas was the wealthiest and most significant of all the clothiers in Suffolk.
Thomas Spring III was born at Lavenham on 3 October 1456, the first son of Thomas Spring II and his wife Alice. Young Spring went to The King's School, Canterbury, before taking over his father’s cloth business as a young man. He married Anne King, of Boxford, in 1487, and together they had four children.
It is known that he was sometimes too anxious over the making of the money and was found guilty on several occasions of misconduct when buying or selling cloth. His conscience apparently became uneasy, and to safeguard his own person and his tsrade, Thomas Spring applied for a general pardon. This was granted in 1508 by Henry VII, with whom the ‘rich clothier’ is believed to have been a friend. It was Thomas Spring III who raised the Spring family from being a merchant family in the market town of Lavenham to one of the most prominent noble families in East Anglia.
Thomas Spring must have been a busy man; his clothmaking business alone might have seemed sufficient for one man to look after, and then he had to deal with all his property, as well as travelling to London as an advisor to the king. Added to all this came his public duties as one of the most important men in the county. In 1512, 1513 and 1517 his name appears as one of the commissioners for collecting the subsidy. He played a large part in defeating supporters of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, who claimed the throne from Henry VII. However in 1517, under the reign of Henry VIII, Thomas was given exemption from his public duties. At this point, he was probably at the height of his wealth, but great wealth had its drawbacks and Thomas Spring found that he was a marked man where taxation was concerned - Wolsey was trying to squeeze as much money as possible out the country to pay for foreign wars
. The poet laureate of the day was Skelton. He had fallen out with Cardinal Wolsey and went to live in Diss, Norfolk. Here he wrote one of his famous satirical poems, largely about the heavy taxation imposed on the people of England by Wolsey. The poem is called "Why come ye not to Court" and it contains a reference to Thomas Spring, the 'rich clothier', with whom Skelton is said to have been friends. He writes:
"Now nothing, but pay pay with laughe and lay downe Borough, Citie and towne good Springe of Lanam must count what became of his clothe makyng. My Lordes grace will bryng down thys hye Springe and brynge it so lowe it shal not ever flow."

Along with previous generations of Springs, Thomas has been accredited with building or providing money for much of Lavenham, in particular the church of St Peter and St Paul and the Guidhall on the Market Place. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of where the Springs' original house stood, although local rumour says it was somewhere near the Guild Hall. Thomas Spring's house must have been large and today there is enough contemporary work to show what the Springs' house must have looked like from the outside.
Wealth
Thomas Spring's incredible wealth came mostly from the cloth and wool trade, a profession that he had taken on from his father and grandfather, who were both merchants. Villages like Lavenham, Long Melford and Nayland became very important and were the homes of the wealthiest of Suffolk clothiers. Most of the wool, used by the clothiers for their cloth, was grown in Suffolk. The area's proximity to London and therefore a major sea port meant that Suffolk's cloth was exported across England and Northern Europe. Though most of his wealth was in these 'moveable goods', he still had very much capital in lands, owning 16 manor houses in Suffolk, seven in Norfolk, two in Essex as well as land in Cambridgeshire.
Examples of the wealth of the Springs can be seen in the manors they were able to purchase. In 1518 Thomas was buying a manor in Cambridgeshire, together with other Lavenham clothiers, by the legal fiction called 'fines'. The manor was in Swaffam Pryor, near Cambridge, and consisted six messuages, ten tofts, five hundred acres of land, one hundred of meadow, four hundred of pasture, six of wood and five hundred of marsh. Four years later, Thomas added yet more acres to this large estate.
This wealth is shown in Thomas' will. Although not all of it survives, his property in Suffolk alone is written to have been:
* Manor of Cranvyles in Melford and Aketon
* Manor of Blyford in Blyford
* Manor of Beradys in Whatfyld
* Nether Hall
* Manor of Bordyshaws in Sprowton
* Manor of Pepers in Cockfield
* Manor of Butlers
* Wood Hall in Ratillesdon
* Fen Hall in Buxhale
* Manor of Bacons in Gorleston
* Manor of Hepworth
* Manor of Eldenewton
* Manor of Willishams
* Manor of Rowhed
* Manor of Bowrys
* Manor of Netherall in Stanton
* Mill called Hummyll in Melford, and arable land and crofts.
* Land in Nether Bulney, in Buxnalle, in Hecham, in Preston (pasture), in Rattlesdon, Flesham, Gedding, Lesley, Chelleysworth, Berton near Burys, Stanton, Weston, Stansted, Cornard Magna, North Cove and Ringlingham.
* Tenements in Polstead, Boxford, Stike Boyton, Hunden, Kedingston, Bodysdale and Redgrave.
Offspring
*John Spring (see Sir John Spring)
*Brigdet Spring - married Aubrey de Vere, son of the Earl of Oxford
*Margaret Spring - married a knight and lived at Rushbrooke Hall
*Richard Spring
*Thomas Spring IV

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