Margaret Spring
d. 1562
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Margaret Spring came of the clothier family of Lavenham in Suffolk, whose wool money built the church tower that still dominates that town. She was the first wife of Aubrey de Vere, and the mother of Jane, who married Henry Hunte of Gosfield in 1573. She was buried at Castle Hedingham on 11 July 1562. There is a symmetry in her that took five centuries to close: the first Aubrey de Vere, who held land of the Conqueror, is recorded planting vineyards at Hedingham and at Lavenham, and it was at Lavenham that his family's fortune and hers eventually met.
Research notes
~ DOCUMENTED as Aubrey de Vere's first wife; ~ on her exact filiation within the Spring family. MARGARET SPRING, of the rich clothier family of LAVENHAM, Suffolk; FIRST wife of Aubrey de Vere (I99500), and the MOTHER OF JANE VERE (I99104), our line. Buried in the parish church of Castle Hedingham 11 Jul 1562. WHY SHE IS JANE'S MOTHER, not the Gibbon second wife: the 16th Earl of Oxford's will (PROB 11/46/247), made in July 1562, names all five of Aubrey's children as living (Hugh, John, Anne, Bridget, Jane), so all five were born before this burial and before Aubrey's second marriage to Bridget Gibbon (I99501). FILIATION CAUTION (~): the printed accounts call her daughter of a John Spring, brother of Thomas Spring (d.1523) the rich clothier of Lavenham, but Nina Green notes there appears to be no evidence that Thomas Spring had a brother John (see the will of Thomas Spring, PROB 11/21/179); she is more safely described as a Spring of Lavenham and a niece of the clothier. Her parents are therefore NOT wired. Kinship note: Rose Spring, dau. of Thomas Spring the clothier, married Thomas Guybon of West Lynn, Norfolk (PROB 11/24/134), so the Springs and the Guybons/Gibbons were already connected, which is very likely how Aubrey's second marriage came about. STORY HOOK: Aubrey de Vere I, the Domesday ancestor, is recorded planting vineyards at Hedingham AND AT LAVENHAM; five centuries later a de Vere married a Spring of Lavenham, whose family's cloth money built the church tower there. SOURCES: ESSEX RECORD OFFICE D/AMR 3/281/1 (will of Aubrey Vere, 18 Jan 1579/80, transcript and apparatus by Nina Green, oxford-shakespeare.com, 2010); Betterton & Dymond, Lavenham: Industrial Town (1989) p.51; Anderson, The De Veres of Castle Hedingham (1993) p.141. Direct ancestress. Added 24 Jul 2026.