"Ephraim Spring was a son of Ensign John and Joanna (Richards) Spring of Newton, where he was born on May 30, 1708. John paid a part of his son's college expenses by working on Wadsworth House. The lad lived three years at the college and was rather disorderly the latter half of the time. After graduation he went to sea, and was awarded his M.A. in absentia in 1732. He died sometime between the printing of the Triennial Catalogue of 1736 and that of 1742. It has been supposed that he was the Ephraim Spring who was burned to death at Uxbridge on April 4, 1740, but according to the Boston News-Letter for April 10, the victim was a child. Spring had a wife Sarah who after his death brought to Newton two daughters, Sarah, who died on December 7, 1744, and Thankful, who married Joseph Adams of Newton on November 25, 1782."
