John Spring (abt. 1587 - aft. 1659)

John Spring migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 6, p. 440) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

John Spring was born about 1589, based on his age of 45 in 1634, when he enlisted as a passenger on the ship Elizabeth.^[1][2][3]

John came to New England in April 1634 with his family, including his wife Elinor (___) Spring, aged 46 and their children:^[1][2]

• Mary Spring, aged 11
• Henry Spring, aged 6
• John Spring, aged 4
• William Spring, under a year old

John may have married Elinor around 1622, guessed based on the age of their eldest child Mary at the time of the family's arrival in New England in 1634.^{[1] [2]}

On arrival in the new country, the family settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, where John was a planter.^[3] He was made several land grants:

• On 25 July 1636: 35 acres in the third division at Watertown ^[3]
• On 28 February 1636/7: 6 acres of plowlands ^[3]
• 26 June 1637: 6 acres of remote meadow ^[3]
• 10 May 1642: 71 acres of farmland ^[3]

John's other land holdings at Watertown included a homelot with 2 acres and upland lots of 12 and 7 1/2 acres. ^[3]

Despite his supposed moneyed background, John never held any office in Watertown, not even minor offices. ^{[4] [3]}

On 11 March 1652/3, John mortgaged his dwelling house, homelot, and all his farmlands to Isaac Walker of Boston for L50 sterling 'to secure two obligatory bills'. ^{[5] [3]} Isaac released the mortgage on 2 August 1655. ^{[5] [3]}

On 25 March 1656, John granted his dwelling house and adjacent land, all his lands in Watertown, his tools of animal husbandry, household items and utensils to his son Henry, reserving, during his natural life, the right to the north end of the dwelling house, half the fruit orchard, the kiln and kiln house and part of the hop ground, household stuff and utensils of husbandry. Henry was to pay him L4 annually. After his death, Henry was then to pay his brother John Jr. L30. ^{[5] [3] [6]}

John's first wife Elinor is thought to have died by 1655 and before 1656, when John made no provisions for her in the transfer of land to son Henry. ^[4]

John then married Lydia (___), widow of Thomas Hatch of Scituate, about 1655. ^{[5] [4] [3]} Lydia must have found life with John unpleasing, because she left Watertown in 1655. She was ordered by the Plymouth Court to ‘repair to her husband with all convenient speed or give reason why she doth not’, four years later, in October 1659. It is unknown whether she complied with the court's order. ^{[5] [4] [3]}

John's date of death is yet to be learned, but he was living on 6 October 1659, when his wife Lydia was ordered to return. ^{[5] [4][3]}

Children

by wife Elinor

1. Mary Spring born c 1623 ^[1]; she may have married about 1642, John Davis and died a widow in 1656 ^[6], but the marriage and details that John Davis' widow was Mary Spring are uncertain. ^[3]
2. Henry Spring born c 1628 ^[1]; admitted a freeman May 30, 1660 ^[6]; married first on January 7, 1657/8, Mehitable Bartlett; married second, widow Susanna (nee Stowers/Wheeler/Goodwin) Cooke on September 15, 1691. ^[3]
3. John Spring born c 1630 ^{[1] [6]}; died on May 18, 1717 at Newon ^[7]; married Hannah Barsham at Watertown on December 19, 1656. ^{[8] [9] [3]}
4. William Spring born in June or July, 1633 ^[1] ; settled in Barbadoes; had a son John who came to Newton after the decease of his father in Barbadoes, and in 1695, he chose his uncle John Spring to be his guardian. ^{[5] [6] [3]}

Research Notes

Disputed Parents / Origins:
It has been postulated:

• He was the son of Henry Spring and Mary (Finch) Spring, of Great Yeldham, Essex, baptized at Tilbury-juxta- Clare, Essex on 16 June 1587. ^{[5] [3]}
• He was the son of John Spring and Mary Trelawny,^[10][11] (seems unlikely, given the claim that he was the fourth cousin of William Spring, John and Mary's son). In his letter to Governor Winthrop in March 1636/37, William refers to John as cousin John supporting the assertion that John of Watertown was not John and Mary's son.^[12]
• He was the 4th cousin of Sir William Spring of Pakenham, Suffolk who wrote to Governor John Winthrop regarding his support and of an allowance paid his distant cousin on more than one occasion, but by 1637 William had become so annoyed by John’s requests for large sums, that he stopped further payments.^[5][3][4]

Note on English Origins and Parents:

In 1979 Gary Boyd Roberts studied the Spring family of Suffolk in hopes of determining the English origin of this immigrant and establishing the precise connection to Sir William Spring. Roberts proposed that the immigrant was that John Spring, son of Henry Spring, baptized at Tilbury-juxta-Clare, Essex, on 16 June 1587, a date consistent with the age given on the 1634 passenger list. Roberts then developed a tentative pedigree that would make John Spring of Watertown and Sir William Spring fourth-cousins once-removed [TAG 55:65-72].

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Hotten: James C. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 : with their ages and the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars; from mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England, London, England, 1874, p. 281
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} The New England Historical & Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal, Volume 14, S.G. Drake, 1860 p. 330
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19} Anderson, Robert C. John Spring in: Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R-S, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 2009, p. 440-6
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5} Thomspon, Roger. Divided We Stand: Watertown, Massachusetts, 1630-1680, University of Massachusetts Press, 2001 p. 233
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8} Roberts, Gary Boyd. The English Origins of John Spring of Watertown in: The American Genealogist, Volume 55, D. L. Jacobus, New Haven, Connecticut, 1979, p. 65- (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4} Bond, Henry and Horation Gates Jones. Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Including Waltham and Weston: To which is Appended the Early History of the Town, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachussetts, 1860 p. 442-3
7. ↑ Vital Records of Newton Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1905, p. 501
8. ↑ Anderson, Robert C. William Barsham in: Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols. I-III, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1995 p. 108-11 (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010)
9. ↑ Watertown Records Comprising the First and Second Books of Town Proceedings with the Land Grants and Possession, and the First Book and Supplement of Births, Deaths and Marriages, The Historical Society, Press of Fred G. Barker, Watertown, Massachusetts, 1894
10. ↑ "John Spring, Jr." Geni. Retrieved 8 July 2018 by Clare Spring from https://www.geni.com/people/John-Spring-Jr/6000000006441982841.
11. ↑ Rob Regan (24 August 2013). "The Brilliant life of John Spring: A Founder of Watertown, Massachusetts." Regan-Ettinger Family History Retrieved 8 July 2018 by Clare Spring from http://reganettinger.blogspot.com/2013/08/john-spring-founder-of-watertown.html. Archived 3 July 2018 at https://web.archive.org/web/20180703163541/http://reganettinger.blogspot.com/2013/08/john-spring-founder-of-watertown.html#!https://reganettinger.blogspot.com/2013/08/john-spring-founder-of-watertown.html.
12. ↑ Winthrop Papers: Vol. 3, Page 363

• Warner, Frederick C., The ancestry of Samuel, Freda and John Warner, published 1949. Reference Volume 4, page 617