The Spring family is a Suffolk gentry family that has been involved in the politics and economy of East Anglia since the 15th century, and held large estates in Ireland from the 16th century.The earliest recording of the family is in 1311 in northern England, where Sir Henry Spring was lord of the manor at a place that would become known as Houghton-le-Spring. The family first came to prominence in the town of Lavenham in Suffolk, where they were important merchants in the cloth and wool trade during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. At the height of the wool trade in the late 15th century, the Springs were one of the richest families in England. The family owned over two dozen manor houses in the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, including Cockfield Hall, which they built in the 16th century, and Newe House. The most successful of the Spring merchants was Thomas Spring (c. 1474–1523), who was the first member of the Suffolk Springs to hold public office, although an ancestor of Thomas Spring, John Spring, had been a Member of Parliament for Northampton in the early 15th century. Thomas Spring gave substantial funds for the construction of St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham, where he lies buried. Wikipedia
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