Walter Spring

Walter Spring the Unfortunate (1620 – c.1678) was an Anglo-Irish Roman Catholic landowner involved in the Irish Confederate Wars.[1]

Walter Spring
Born1620
Killagha Abbey
Diedc.1678
Spouse(s)Juliana Fitzgerald
ChildrenThomas Spring
Mary Spring
Parent(s)Edward Spring, Anne Browne

Biography

Spring was the son of Edward Spring, a lawyer. He was the grandson of Walter Spring, who had served as High Sheriff of Kerry, and the great-grandson of Captain Thomas Spring, Constable of Castlemaine.[2] He inherited the family estates in County Kerry from his father, including Killagha Abbey, where he was born and brought up.[3]

Unlike the previous generations of his family, Walter Spring was raised as a Catholic. His control of the strategic fortress at Castlemaine and the lands surrounding Milltown made him an important figure in Kerry. He attended the 1642 Kilkenny meeting of Catholic gentry which established the Association of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland and was active in helping to organise the war effort on behalf of the Catholic rebels. During the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Spring’s fortified manor house at Killagha Abbey was attacked by soldiers of the New Model Army armed with canon, leading to its destruction. Cromwell seized Spring’s extensive estates and granted Killagha to one of his supporters, Major John Godfrey.[4]

Following the defeat of the Confederacy, Spring retained only a small portion of his estate. In order to protect it, he occasionally attended Protestant services. However, he was thought to still pose a significant threat by The Protectorate government and was transplanted to County Clare, where he had little influence, under the Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652.[5] This led to him being dubbed ‘The Unfortunate’ by both opponents and supporters.[6][7] His remaining estates in Kerry were transferred to his son, Thomas.

Ancestry[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

References
  1. James Carmody, 'The Abbey of Killagha, Parish of Kilcoleman, County Kerry', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 36, No. 3, 291
  2. Joseph Jackson Howard, ‘Spring’, The Visitation of Suffolk ( Whittaker and Co, 1866), 165-206.
  3. Michael C. O'Laughlin, Families of Co. Kerry, Ireland (Irish Roots Cafe, 1994), 137.
  4. James Carmody, 'The Abbey of Killagha, Parish of Kilcoleman, County Kerry', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 36, No. 3, 291
  5. James Carmody, 'The Abbey of Killagha, Parish of Kilcoleman, County Kerry', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Fifth Series, Vol. 36, No. 3, 291
  6. Michael C. O'Laughlin, Families of Co. Kerry, Ireland (Irish Roots Cafe, 1994), 137.
  7. Charles Smith, The Antient and Present State of the County of Kerry (1756), 57.
  8. Selections from Old Kerry records : historical and genealogical : with introductory memoir, notes and appendix, page. 73, https://archive.org/details/selectionsfromol00hick/page/n159
  9. The Spring family of Suffolk and County Kerry, and branches in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, William Anthony Spring and Jane Vivien Spring, 2nd edn
  10. Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the peerage, baronetage, and knightage, Privy Council, and order of preference, 1938, pg. 1107, https://archive.org/details/burkesgenealogic1949unse/page/1107
  11. Notes for the Article: "Ancient history of the Kingdom of Kerry, by Friar O'Sullivan, of Muckross Abbey. With a pedigree of the family of O'Sullivan", Rev. Jarlath Prendergast, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society , Ser. 2, Vols. IV-VI, 1898-1900, 27. 30., https://clanmaccarthysociety.org/Articles/KerryHistoryNotes.html
  12. Irish pedigrees; or, The origin and stem of the Irish nation, John O'Hart, pg. 244, https://archive.org/details/irishpedigreesor_01ohar/page/244
  13. Notes on the Family of Patrick Crosbie of Maryborough, by Whom the Seven Septs of Leix Were Transplanted to Tarbert in the County Kerry in 1608-9, Walter FitzGerald, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1923), pp. 133-150, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25513295?loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
  14. The Military Services and Public Life of Major-General John Sullivan by Thomas Coffin Amory, page 279
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