‘She,’ says Wood, ‘being a holy sister, kept, or caused to be kept, conventicles in her house,’ so ‘upon trouble ensuing,’ they removed from Crayford to Highgate. Sprigg died at Highgate in June 1684, and was buried at Crayford. His wife died a fortnight later (Wood, Athenæ, iv. 137).
By his will, dated 6 June 1684, Sprigg left 500l. to the corporation of Banbury to build a workhouse and set the poor to work (Beesley, History of Banbury, p. 468).
Sprigg's most important work is ‘Anglia Rediviva: England's Recovery, being the History of the Motions, Actions, and Successes of the Army under his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax’ (1647, fol.; 2nd edit. 1854, 8vo, Oxford). On the title-page Sprigg describes his work as ‘compiled for the public good.’ It is throughout based on the pamphlets and newspapers of the period, and contains very little information which can be regarded as embodying the author's own recollections; at the same time it is a very judicious and accurate compilation. Clement Walker [q. v.] asserts that Sprigg was not its real author, referring to ‘Sprigg alias Nathaniel Fiennes in his legend or romance of this army called Anglia Rediviva’ (History of Independency, i. 32); but his assumption is not supported by any evidence. It is probably based on the fact that ‘Anglia Rediviva’ justifies the conduct of Fiennes in surrendering Bristol in 1643 (p. 129, ed. 1854).
- ‘Certain Weighty Considerations humbly tendered to the Consideration of the Members of the High Court of Justice for the Trial of the King,’ 1648, 4to.
- ‘Solace for Saints in the Saddest Times,’ 8vo., n.d.
- ‘News of a New World from the Word and Works of God compared together,’ 1676, 8vo.
Wood states that Sprigg also published other tracts, which he could not find, and mentions the titles of four sermons: ‘God, a Christian's All,’ 1640; ‘A Testimony to Approaching Glory;’ ‘A Further Testimony;’ and ‘The Dying and Living Christian.’
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon, ed. Bliss, iv. 136; Beesley's History of Banbury.]
SPRIGG, WILLIAM (fl. 1655-1695), pamphleteer, born in or near Banbury, Oxfordshire, was younger son of William Sprigg, steward of New College, Oxford, and brother of Joshua Sprigg [q. v.] He matriculated at Oxford on 2 Oct. 1652, and the same year graduated B.A. (12 Oct.), and was elected (11 Dec.) fellow of Lincoln College, on the recommendation of the chancellor of the university, Oliver Cromwell. Having proceeded M.A. on 15 June 1655, he was elected fellow of Cromwell's new foundation at Durham in 1657, and on the dissolution of that college in 1659 he was incorporated at Cambridge. He was admitted on 27 Nov. 1657 a member of Gray's Inn, where he was called to the bar in 1664. He had been ejected from the Lincoln fellowship on the Restoration, and soon after his call to the bar he migrated to Dublin, where he married and resided for some years. On his brother's death in 1684 he returned to England, and thenceforth resided on the Crayford estate. He was living in 1695.
Sprigge was author of:
- 'Philosophical Essays, with brief Advisos, accommodated to the capacity of the Ladies and Gentlemen sometime Students of the English Academy lately erected at London,' &c., London, 1657, 12mo.
- 'A Modest Plea for an equal Commonwealth against Monarchy, in which the genuine Nature and true Interest of a Free State is briefly stated, and its consistency with a National Clergy, Mercenary Lawyers, and Hereditary Nobility examined; together with the expediency of an agrarian and rotation of officers asserted.'
- Also 'An Apology for Younger Brothers, the Restitution of Gavilkind and Relief of the Poor. With a lift at Tythes, and Reformation of the Lawes and Universities,' London, 1659, 4to.
- 'The Royal and Happy Poverty; or a Meditation on the Felicities of an Innocent and happy Poverty, grounded on Matt. v. 3,' London, 1660, 8vo.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Gray's Inn Register; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 136, 560.].
SPRING, TOM (1795-1851), pugilist. [See Winter, Thomas.]
SPRING-RICE, THOMAS, first Baron Monteagle of Brandon in Kerry (1790–1866), elder son of Stephen Edward Rice of Mount Trenchard, co. Limerick, by Catherine, heiress of Thomas Spring of Ballycrispin, Kerry, was born at Limerick on 8 Feb. 1790. Sir Stephen Rice [q. v.] was his ancestor. He was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1811. He afterwards studied law, but was never called to the bar. In 1820 he was elected, in the whig interest, member of parliament for Limerick. He represented that place till 1832, when he was elected member for the town of Cambridge. The latter seat he only resigned on his elevation to the peerage in 1839.
Throughout his parliamentary career he was a warm and steady supporter of the whigs. During his early years in parliament he gained a reputation by his great know-
