Mathias Springham
Mathias Springham (1561-1620) was a British merchant who was involved with the plantation of Ulster.[1][2][3] He was the brother of Richard Springham of Kingsclere, Hampshire (died 1620).[4]
Merchant Taylor
Presented to the Merchant Taylors' Company of London by Charles Hoskyns in 1588, he was appointed Chief Butler for the occasion in 1607 upon which James I, the queen and prince were banqueted at the Company Hall, and supplied a requisition of 19 ells of taffeta to clothe the three singers brought into the feast in a ship.[5] He served with Isaack Holloway as First and Second Warden in 1615-16, and he became Master of that Company (as successor to Charles Hoskyns) in 1617-18.[6]
Ulster
Active in commissions to the plantation in Ulster from 1613 (as assistant to Alderman George Smith),[3][7][8] in 1617 he founded the Free Grammar School in Society Street, Derry, now Foyle and Londonderry College, for 'the honour of God and the spreading of good literature'.[9]
He was survived by his wife, his son and heir Henry, and his daughters Anne Cutts and Mary Purkell.[10][11]
References
- W.S. Ferguson, 'Mathias Springham, 1561-1620', London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, XXIII Part 2 (1972), pp. 194 ff.
- C.W. Russell and J.P. Prendergast (eds), Calendar of the State Papers, Relating to Ireland: 1615-1625 (HMSO, London 1880), pp. 120-121, item 238 (Google).
- B.C. Donovan and D. Edwards (eds), British Sources for Irish History, 1485-1641: A Guide to Manuscripts in Local, Regional, and Specialised Repositories in England, Scotland, and Wales, Irish Manuscripts Commission (Dublin, 1997), pp. 127-28.
- Will of Richard Springham of Kingsclere, Hampshire (P.C.C. 1621, Dale quire).
- C.M. Clode, Memorials Of The Guild Of Merchant Taylors (Harrison and Sons, London 1875), p. 148, and p. 177 (Internet Archive).
- C.M. Clode, The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors, 2 vols (Harrison and Sons, London 1888), II, p. 345 (Internet Archive).
- P. Logue and J. O'Neill, 'Excavations at Bishop's Street Without: 17th Century conflict archaeology in Derry City', in T. Pollard and I. Banks (eds), War and Sacrifice: Studies in the Archaeology of Conflict (Brill, Leiden/Boston 2007), pp. 49-76, at p. 52 (Google).
- J. Morrin (ed.), Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, of the Reign of Charles I, Anno 1-8 (HMSO, Dublin 1863), p. 631 (Google).
- R. Simpson, The Annals of Derry: Showing the Rise and Progress of the Town (Londonderry-Hempton 1847), pp. 261-65 (Google).
- Ferguson, 'Mathias Springham', p. 200.
- Will of Mathias Springham of Richmond, Middlesex (P.C.C. 1620, Soame quire).