Margaret Spring

~ 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. ||RE-CHECKED 7 Aug 2026 - PARENTS STILL DELIBERATELY UNWIRED|| The filiation remains genuinely unresolved and the three printed accounts CONFLICT, none evidenced: (a) dau. of John Spring, brother of Thomas III 'the Rich Clothier' d.1523 [the old Burke reading - Nina Green: no evidence Thomas III had a brother John]; (b) dau. of John Spring, brother of Thomas Spring II d.1486 [per the Wikipedia 'John Spring of Lavenham' article, which makes her a first cousin of the Rich Clothier - chronologically the best fit but still unsourced]; (c) dau. of Sir John Spring, son of Thomas III [19th-c. Burke, 'no evidence found']. THE RESOLVING DOCUMENT is the 1561 VISITATION OF SUFFOLK (Metcalfe/Corder-Jackson eds; archive.org 'visitationsofsuf00harvuoft' & 'visitationssuff00cookgoog' - full-text searchable but the archive server timed out 7 Aug, retry later; search 'Spring' + 'Vere'). Until then she stays a SPRING OF LAVENHAM and a niece/cousin of the Rich Clothier, parents UNWIRED, per the evidence-weighting standard. This is a GENUINE brick-wall, not a lazy one. STORY (documented collateral): her kinsman THOMAS SPRING III 'the RICH CLOTHIER' (c.1474-1523) was reputedly the wealthiest commoner in England outside London; his cloth fortune paid for the tower of Lavenham church (finished after his death), where the Spring parclose screen and his arms still stand; his daughter Rose m. Thomas Guybon of West Lynn, which is very likely how Aubrey de Vere's SECOND wife, a Gibbon, was found. The Springs later threw off a Kerry (Ireland) branch too. ||1612 VISITATION OF SUFFOLK READ 7 Aug 2026 (Aynsley's photo, 'Springe of Pakenham' p.167-68)|| The senior Spring pedigree is now in hand and it CONFIRMS THE WALL rather than breaking it: Thomas Springe of Lavenham (the Rich Clothier, 'descended of a younger house in Yorkshire', m. a dau. of Appleton) had children JOHN (heir, =Sir John of Cockfield m. Dorothy Waldegrave), ROBERT, a daughter m. Sir Thomas Jermyn, and BRIDGET m. Gibbon of Norfolk - NO MARGARET; and Sir John of Cockfield's daughters were Frances (m. Edw. Wright of Bradfield) and Bridget (m. Wingfield/Fleetwood) - again NO MARGARET. So Margaret (Aubrey de Vere's 1st wife) is NOT of the senior line; she is a Spring of a CADET branch (possibly a dau. of Robert the 2nd son, whose issue the Visitation does not detail) - parents REMAIN UNWIRED, wall confirmed genuine. Two real gains from the page: (1) it DOCUMENTS the Spring-Gibbon marriage (see Bridget Gibbon I99501); (2) it documents a Spring-WRIGHT marriage (Frances Spring m. Edward Wright of Burnt Bradfield, Suff.) - possibly relevant to the compiler's own Wright ancestors of Suffolk (Ambrose/Rose Wright), flagged for the rainy-Sunday project. ||PRIMARY SOURCE 8 Aug 2026|| Confirmed a NIECE of Thomas Spring III 'the Rich Clothier of Lavenham' (his will, TNA PROB 11/21/179, 1523) - of the Lavenham Spring clothiers but collateral to the senior line, which is why the 1612 Visitation of Suffolk (senior Springe-of-Pakenham) does not carry her. Exact father UNPROVEN (the 'John Spring' parentage is unsupported - no such brother; her uncle's son Sir John Spring is chronologically impossible). Parents remain UNWIRED. First wife of Aubrey de Vere, 2nd son of the 15th Earl of Oxford; mother of Jane (I99104).