Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet, c.1680, circle of Willem Wissing.jpg

| alt =

| caption = A portrait of Sir William Spring, Bt by Willem Wissing

| order =

| office = Member of Parliament for Suffolk

| status =

| term_start = 1679

| term_end = 1684

| monarch = Charles II

| predecessor =

| successor =

| birth_date = May 1642

| death_date = 30 April 1684

| parents = Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet
Elizabeth L'Estrange

| spouse = Hon. Mary North (m.1661)
Sarah Cordell (m.1667)

}}

Sir William Spring, 2nd Baronet (May 1642 – 30 April 1684) was an English Whig politician who was a Member of Parliament for Suffolk from 1679 until his death in 1684.{{cite web |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/spring-sir-william-1642-84 |title=SPRING, Sir William, 2nd Bt. (1642-84), of Pakenham, Suff. |last=Henning |first=B. D. |date=1983 |website=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |access-date=1 March 2023 |quote=}}

Early life

Spring was the son of Sir William Spring, 1st Baronet and Elizabeth L'Estrange, daughter of Alice L'Estrange and Sir Hamon le Strange. He was educated at King Edward VI School and Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1658. In 1654 he inherited his father's baronetcy.

Career

In 1661, Spring was appointed a commissioner for assessment for Suffolk. He was appointed a justice of the peace in 1664, but was removed from the Commission of the Peace for Suffolk in 1670 for opposing the Conventicle Act 1664. He served as High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1674. He contested the Sudbury constituency in 1679, but lost. He was subsequently elected to represent Suffolk in both the second and third Exclusion Parliaments as an exclusionist. The Earl of Shaftesbury classed him as an "honest" opponent of James, Duke of York inheriting the throne.

Although he moved away from his father's Puritan beliefs, Spring opposed the increasing Catholicisation of the Church of England over his lifetime. On 14 February 1681, after he and Sir Samuel Barnardiston had been unanimously elected, an address was presented to them from the freeholders of the constituency, thanking them for their "zeal for the Protestant religion, your loyalty to his Majesty’s person and government, and your endeavours for the preservation of our laws, rights and liberties" and urging them to continue their support of exclusion. He made no recorded speeches and was not appointed to any committees in either of the exclusion parliaments. He died in 1684 and was buried in Pakenham, Suffolk.

Marriages and children

Spring was married twice. On 11 October 1661, he first married Mary, daughter of Dudley North, 4th Baron North; they had no children. On 3 February 1667, he married secondly Sarah, daughter of Sir Robert Cordell, 1st Baronet of Melford Hall, Suffolk and together they had three children:{{cite book | first=Bernard | last=Burke | title=A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland | year=1844 | page=501 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF1tAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA501}}