Author: Spring, Thomas
Biography:
SPRING, Thomas (1735-94: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the first-born son of Thomas Spring, barrister, and his wife Hannah Annesley of Ballycrispin, County Kerry. His family was well-connected Irish gentry and owned the Ballycrispin estate and a house in Dublin on Digges Street near St. Stephen’s Green. He was baptised in the church of Saint Peter and Saint Kevin, Dublin, on 24 June 1735. He earned his BA from Trinity College Dublin in 1755 and entered the Middle Temple, London, on 6 May of the same year. He was twice married, first to Katherine Wight whose father, Edward, was Archdeacon of Limerick and, second, in 1764 to Jane Maunsell. With Katherine he had one daughter, also Katherine; she married Stephen Rice and was the mother of Thomas Spring Rice, Lord Monteagle. Spring died intestate in 1794. His poem was written in 1759 but not published until 1771. The “friend” of the title was the distinguished lawyer and MP Barry Yelverton, Viscount Avonmore, who also studied at Trinity and entered the Middle Temple in 1759. (ancestry.co.uk 27 Oct. 2021; Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple [1949]; Catalogue of Graduates Who Have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin [1869]; DIB for Barry Yelverton 27 Oct. 2021)