SPRINGETT, Harbert (c.1614-62), of Broyle Place, Ringmer, Suss.

Harbert Springett was born into a minor gentry family which settled in Sussex in the early seventeenth century and were granted armigerous status only in 1612, but which steadily climbed the social ladder. Springett’s grandfather, Harbert Springett (d. 1620), was a servant in the household of Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst (later 1st earl of Dorset), and a steward of the estates of the Morleys of Glynde; he evidently prospered greatly.31E. Suss. RO, Danny MS 7; Dyke MSS 757-761; Glynde MSS 135, 137, 1449, 1469, 1662, 2259; M. A. Lower, ‘Sir William Springett and the Springett family', Suss. Arch. Coll. xx. 35; W. Suss. RO, Wiston MS 1653. At his death he was able to leave lands in Sussex and Kent to his elder son Thomas as well as £1,000 to his younger son (another) Harbert.32PROB11/135/559. Although there were disputes over the estate between the two sons and their brother-in-law, Simon Stone, one of the overseers, these appear to have been resolved before the younger Harbert made his own will in April 1622, envisaging a portion of £1,000 if an expected child was a daughter, on top of provision for two sons.33C78/359/8; Shaw, Knights of Eng., ii. 177. The future MP’s father, Thomas, was clearly a wealthy man. Knighted in 1621, he purchased the manor of Kingston Bowsey for £2,400 in 1622, sold property in East Grinstead to Edward Sackville†, 4th earl of Dorset, for over £1,400 in 1627, and left both his daughters a portion of £2,000.34SP16/407, f. 66; E. Suss. RO, SAS/PG/128-130; C54/2718/2; PROB11/181/390.

Following education at Christ’s College, Cambridge – then home to the prominent divine, Joseph Mede – in November 1630 Harbert Springett was granted special admission to the Middle Temple, where his father had been a member since 1608, and where he was admitted to the chamber of his uncle, Simon Stone. He was still at the inn in July 1633, but he appears not to have been called to the bar.35MTR ii. 769, 809; Comber, Suss. Genealogies Lewes, 279-81. He may have left by the time of his marriage in July 1634 to a daughter of Sir William Campion of Combwell, head of one of the most prominent gentry families in Kent, but he did not surrender his chambers to his younger brother Thomas until January 1639.36Comber, Suss. Genealogies Lewes, 279-81; MTR ii. 878. A few months after the birth of his first child, Mary, on 2 October 1635 Springett left Rye, bound for Dieppe with his servant John Horsmonden, but apparently without his wife.37CSP Dom. 1635-6, p. 353.

Springett returned to England by the autumn of 1637; a second daughter, Elizabeth, was baptized in Kent in April 1638.38Goudhurst, Kent, par. reg. He settled in Jevington, where he and his family lived until the death of his father in September 1639. He then inherited the family estate, and its principal seat, Broyle Place in Ringmer, although it may have taken some years for his mother – who died in 1658 – to fulfill his father’s intention of settling on him her land in Ringmer and her house in Lewes.39Add. 39483, ff. 386v, 393; PROB11/181/390.

On 4 July 1641 Springett, whose father, uncle and grandfather had all displayed puritan traits in their wills, led the parishioners of Ringmer in signing the Protestation, and he contributed £1 towards the relief of Irish Protestants.40R.W. Blencowe, ‘Extracts from Parish Registers’, Suss. Arch. Coll. iv. 288; SP28/181, unfol. He was probably prompt in declaring his allegiance to Parliament after the outbreak of war, since on 1 December 1642 he was nominated as a deputy lieutenant for Sussex; the appointment was confirmed on 5 July 1643.41CJ ii. 870a; iii. 156a. Two weeks after that he was named to the county committee, having already served as a commissioner for assessment and sequestration.42A. and O.; CJ iii. 173a. In August Springett signed the letter from the committee to William Lenthall*, Speaker of the House of Commons, calling for an association of the southern counties.43Bodl. Nalson III, no. 21. On 2 January 1644 he signed another letter from the committee to Lenthall, asking that the Solemn League and Covenant might be circulated for subscription in every parish – a measure never accepted by Parliament.44Bodl. Tanner 62, f. 493.

That from the summer of 1644 Springett preferred not to associate with county committee radicals like Harbert Morley* is suggested by his nomination in September to the commission of the peace. The latter was dominated by men like Sir Thomas Pelham* and Sir Thomas Parker*, and increasingly a home to parliamentarian moderates. It seems likely that Pelham was instrumental in Springett’s nomination.45ASSI35/85/1. It also seems clear that it was from the milieu of Pelham and Parker that Springett was elected to Parliament as a recruiter MP for New Shoreham, following a writ issued on 18 August 1646 for a replacement for William Marlott*.46CJ iv. 627a; C231/6, p. 55. Springett enjoyed at least some connection with the borough in that his mother’s family had hailed from nearby Erringham.

Like many of Pelham’s friends who were returned to Parliament in the mid-1640s, Springett’s role appears to have been to block the election of one of Morley’s clients, rather than to be active in affairs at Westminster. There is no evidence of his attendance before 24 February 1647, when he took the Solemn League and Covenant.47CJ v. 97a. Springett made no impression on the House during the eventful summer of which followed, and the first evidence that he attended at all after taking the Covenant was when his absence was excused on 24 April 1648.48CJ v. 543b.

Springett’s inactivity doubtless helped justify his removal from the county bench, which occurred some time before 13 March 1648.49ASSI35/89/9. He was an obvious target when Parliament was purged in the following December, but by this stage there may even have been suspicions that he was a crypto-royalist.50A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62); Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 386. In May he had been named alongside Sir Thomas Parker as an executor of the estate of his brother-in-law (and Parker’s son-in-law), Sir William Campion, a royalist commander killed at the siege of Colchester.51E. Suss. RO, Danny MS 170. Springett would assist in the management of Campion’s estates until 1654, although not without periodic acrimonious disputes.52E. Suss. RO, Danny MSS 368, 1661, 1664; C7/279/42. It is possible that Springett was sympathetic to the resurgent Presbyterian faction in Sussex, who masterminded the rehabilitation of former delinquents like Sir William Morley*, and whose views, as expressed in the Sussex petition of June 1648, favoured a restoration of the king’s power.

Following Pride’s Purge, it was the management of his own, as well as Campion’s estate, which occupied Springett, and the men with whom he did business probably provide the key to his political stance. Springett’s estate had been improved during the 1640s through a number of transactions, some of which were undertaken with his uncle, Simon Stone, who in 1648 bequeathed all of his copyhold and freehold lands to Springett and his brother Thomas.53E. Suss. RO, Glynde MSS 2062-3, 2077-8, 2082, 2100; Danny MS 171; Suss. Manors, i. 116; PROB11/206/88. Following Thomas’s death in 1654, Springett also inherited the bulk of this brother’s property, although he sold some of it to another brother, Anthony.54Add. 39483, f. 395; PROB11/234/129; E. Suss. RO, SAS/A/171; SAS/PG/134. The previous year Springett sold land in Laughton to Sir Thomas Pelham and his son John Pelham*, and worked alongside Harbert Morley*, in order to protect the interests of Guilielma Maria Springett, posthumous daughter of his cousin Sir William Springett (who had died in 1644 while in parliamentarian service) and step-daughter (from 1654) of Isaac Penington*.55Add. Ch. 30548-50; Comber, Suss. Genealogies Lewes, 281-2; Suss. Arch. Coll. xx. 35–44; CSP Ire. Adv. 1642-59, p. 73; CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 399; s.v. ‘Mary Penington’, Oxford DNB.

In the 1650s Pelham and Morley (by now a disillusioned Rumper) proved the focal points for a loose and uneasy alliance of those in Sussex – including crypto-royalists – opposed to the protectorate. It may have been as part of their interest that in 1654 Springett was returned to Parliament as a Member for the county. His chief function seems to have been to prevent the election of protectorate loyalists. Once again he left no mark on the records at Westminster.

A fellow Member for Sussex was his son-in-law (from about 1651) John Stapley*, son of regicide Anthony Stapley I*, who in 1658 led an unsuccessful plot against the protector.56The Gen. new ser. xviii. 146, 149-50, 153; E. Suss. RO, A47, f. 199. Despite this association, Springett was not included on the list of Sussex royalists compiled that year.57Bodl. Eng. hist. e. 309, p. 40. Probably in May, Springett’s daughter Elizabeth married John Whalley*, son of regicide Edward Whalley*, who in June was briefly committed to the Tower, although for duelling rather than for insurrection. When John Whalley was returned for both Nottingham and – presumably on Springett’s interest – New Shoreham to the 1659 Parliament, he toed an implicitly pro-government line.58s.v. ‘John Whalley’.

Springett paid £10 militia money in August 1659.59SP28/335, f. 80. His name appears among sewers commissioners for 1657 and 1659, but he had not been renamed to the commission of the peace.60C181/6, pp. 194, 367. It is not clear whether he returned to Westminster after the readmission of the Secluded Members in February 1660. However, on 16 March, the day that the Long Parliament dissolved itself, Viscountess Mordaunt informed Sir Edward Hyde* that Springett and John Pelham had held meetings with her husband, Viscount Mordaunt, Charles II’s agent in England, suggesting support for a restoration of the monarchy.61CCSP iv. 606. She was evidently pleased to report in a later letter Springett’s return in April to the Convention for New Shoreham.62CCSP iv. 668.

Springett signed the ‘humble address’ of Sussex gentry welcoming Charles II.63SP29/1, f. 89. He was soon restored to the commission of the peace and in August, appointed a deputy lieutenant.64C220/9/4; ASSI 35/102/7; SP29/11, f. 237. Attempting to cash in on a reputation for loyalty, in about October he petitioned for lands settled on his daughter and son-in-law Whalley in 1658, but forfeited through the attainder of Edward Whalley and granted to William Cavendish, marquess of Newcastle.65Abstracts Suss. Deeds and Docs., 162; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 346; Notts. RO, DD/4P/22/329-340; G. Jaggar, ‘The fortunes of the Whalley family of Screveton, Notts.’ (Southampton MPhil. thesis, 1973), 216-29. Left to the law courts, this case dragged on inconclusively, but in January 1661 Springett was elevated to the baronetcy, without payment of the traditional fee of £1,095.66SO3/13, unfol.; CTB i. 261.

Meanwhile, Springett appeared only a little more willing to participate in Parliaments of the new decade than he had been in the 1640s and 1650s, although he was reputed by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, to have been an Anglican royalist. He was named to the committee appointed on 7 November 1660 to consider a bill for the posthumous attainder of Oliver Cromwell*.67Bodl. Carte 81, ff. 74-7; CJ viii. 177b. Returned once more in May 1661 as burgess for New Shoreham to the Cavalier Parliament, Springett died in early January 1662, before the end of its first session. Since he had no surviving male issue, the baronetcy became extinct.68Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 105. His death-bed will, which contained bequests to his brothers-in-law, Richard Wynne and Edward Campion, mentioned lands in Cambridge, as well as in Sussex.69Add. 39483, f. 397; PROB11/309/244. His monumental inscription at Ringmer claimed that he was ‘a true son of the Church of England’, and mentioned his ‘loyalty to his king and country’.70Add. 39483, f. 386. After an initial zeal for the parliamentarian cause in the early 1640s, he appears, like many of the Sussex godly, to have progressed through a Presbyterian antipathy to the army, the Rump and the protectorate, to a stance genuinely supportive of the Restoration.