Person:John Spring (5)

John Spring sailed from Ipswich in 1634 with his wife Elinor and four small children. They soon settled in Watertown. On 25 July 1636, “John Springe” was granted 35 acres in the Third Division of the Great Dividend at Watertown, followed by several other grants in the area, totalling about 60 acres by the Watertown Inventory of Grants. ^[3]

By 1656, he was married to the widow of Thomas Hatch. On 6 October 1659, “concerning a certain woman, viz: the wife of John Spring, of Watertowne, which was sometimes the wife of Thomas Hatch, of Scittuate, which said woman hath lived about three or four years at Scittuate from her husband, the Court have ordered, that she either repair to her husband with all convenient speed, or to repair to Duxburrow to the house of Mr. Alden, on the twentieth of this present month of October, to give a reason why she doth not; and in case she shall refuse to attend this order, the court will take a speedy course to send her to her said husband."^[4]

On 25 March 1656, “John Spring of Watertowne …, Senior,” deeded to “Henry Spring his son … all that his messuage or tenement and now mansion place … in Watertowne before named, containing one dwelling house, with the outhouses and about two acres of land adjoining thereto …, also all other lands that he now hath in Watertowne aforesaid …, also all his household stuff and utensils of husbandry (excepting and always reserving to the said John Spring during his natural life as followeth, viz: the north end of the dwelling house, and so far of the garden as is between the highway abutting against that north end to the middle of the chimney, and about three roods of hop ground, and half the fruit of the orchard and the kiln and kiln house and such household stuff and utensils of husbandry as be mentioned in an inventory subscribed by both parties at the signing hereof),” the said Henry Spring “to pay unto the said John Spring annually during the time of his natural life four pounds … and to John Spring the brother of the said Henry after the decease of the said John Spring their father thirty pounds.”^[5]

1. ↑ Great Migration Newsletter. (Boston, Massachusetts: Great Migration Study Project)
   [1].

   MIGRATION: 1634 on the Elizabeth of Ipswich (on 30 April 1634, “John Spring,” aged 45, “Elinor his wife,” aged 46, “Mary Spring,” aged 11, “Henry Spring,” aged 6, “John Spring,” aged 4, and “William Spring, aged 3 quarters,” were enrolled at Ipswich as passengers for New England on the Elizabeth [Hotten 280, 281]).
   FIRST RESIDENCE: Watertown.
   BIRTH: About 1589 (aged 45 on 30 April 1634 [Hotten 280]).
   DEATH: After 6 October 1659 (when his second wife was ordered to return to him [PCR 3:174]).
   MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1623 Elinor _____. She had died by about 1656.
   (2) By about 1656 Lydia (_____) Hatch, widow of THOMAS HATCH {1638, Scituate} [Joseph Neal Anc 115].

2. ↑ 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].
3. ↑ Great Migration, citing WaBOP 4 and 96.
4. ↑ Great Migration, citing PCR 3:174
5. ↑ Great Migration, citing MLR 1:220-23