MORE, Sir Thomas, Lord High Chancellor of England, was the son of Sir John More, knight, one of the judges of the King’s Bench, and born in the year 1480, in Milk Street, London. He was first sent to a school at St Anthony’s, in Threadneedle Street, and afterwards introduced into the family of Cardinal Moreton, who in 1497 sent him to Canterbury College, Oxford. During his residence at the university he constantly attended the prelections of Linacre and Grocinus, upon the Greek and Latin languages. Having in about two years made considerable proficiency in academical learning, he came to New Inn, in London, to study the law; and, after some time, he removed thence to Lincoln’s Inn, of which his father was a member. Notwithstanding his application to the law, however, being now about the age of twenty, he was so attached to monkish discipline, that he wore a hair shirt next his skin, practised frequent fastings, and often slept on a bare plank. In the year 1503, being then a burgess in parliament, he distinguished himself in the house, in opposition to the motion for granting a subsidy and three fifteenths for the marriage of Henry VII.’s eldest daughter, Margaret, to the king of Scotland. The motion was rejected, and the king was so highly offended at this opposition from a beardless boy, that he revenged himself on More’s father, by sending him, on a frivolous pretence, to the Tower, and obliging him to pay L.100 for his liberty. Being now called to the bar, More was appointed law-reader at Furnival’s Inn, which place he held during three years; but about this time he also delivered, with great applause, a public lecture in the Church of St Lawrence, Old Jewry, upon St Augustin’s treatise De Civitate Dei. He had, indeed, formed a design of becoming a Franciscan friar, but he was dissuaded from carrying it into effect; and, by the advice of Dr Colet, he married Jane, the eldest daughter of Mr John Colt of Newhall, in the county of Essex. In 1508 he was appointed judge of the Sheriff’s Court in the city of London, was made a justice of the peace, and became eminent at the bar. In 1516 he went to Flanders in the retinue of Bishop Tonstal and Dr Knight, who were sent by Henry VIII. to renew the alliance with the archduke of Austria, afterwards Charles V. On his return, Cardinal Wolsey wished to engage More in the service of the crown, and offered him a pension, which he refused. Nevertheless, it was not long before he accepted the place of master of the requests, was created a knight, admitted of the privy council, and in 1520 made .treasurer of the exchequer. About this time he built a house on the banks of the Thames, at Chelsea, and married a second wife. This lady, by name Middleton, and a widow, was old, ill tempered, and covetous; nevertheless, Erasmus says, he was as fond of her as if she had been a young maid.

In the fourteenth year of Henry VIII. Sir Thomas More was made speaker of the House of Commons, and in this capacity he had the resolution to oppose the then powerful minister, Wolsey, in his demand of an oppressive subsidy; but notwithstanding this, it was not long before he became chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and was treated by the king with singular familiarity. The king having once dined with Sir Thomas at Chelsea, walked with him nearly an hour in the garden, with his arm round his neck. After he was gone, Mr Roper, Sir Thomas’s son-in-law, observed how happy he was to be so familiarly treated by the king. To this Sir Thomas replied, “I thank our lord, son Roper, I find his grace my very good lord indeed, and believe he doth as singularly favour me as any subject within this realm; howbeit, I must tell thee, I have no cause to be proud thereof, for if my head would win him a castle in France, it would not fail to go off.” From this anecdote it appears that Sir Thomas fully appreciated the king’s real character.

In 1526 he was sent with Cardinal Wolsey and others on a joint embassy to France, and in 1529 accompanied Bishop Tonstal to Cambray. The king, it seems, was so well satisfied with his services on these occasions, that in the following year, when Wolsey fell into disgrace, he made him chancellor; a circumstance which seems the more extraordinary, as we are informed that Sir Thomas had repeatedly declared his disapprobation of that divorce, upon which the great Defender of the Faith was then so earnestly bent. Having executed the office of chancellor for about three years, with equal wisdom and integrity, he resigned the seals in 1533, probably to avoid the danger of a refusal to confirm the king’s divorce. He now retired to his house at Chelsea, dismissed many of his servants, sent his children with their respective families to their own houses (for hitherto he had, it seems, maintained all his children, with their families, in his own house, in the true style of an ancient patriarch), and spent his time in study and devotion. But the capricious tyrant would not permit him to enjoy tranquillity. Though now reduced to a private station, and even to indigence, his opinion of the legality of the king’s marriage with Anne Boleyn was deemed of so much importance, that various means were tried to procure his approbation; but all persuasion having proved ineffectual, he was, with some others, attainted of misprision of treason, for encouraging Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent, in.her treasonable practices. His innocence in this affair appeared so clearly, however, that thèy were obliged to strike his name out of the bill. He was then accused of other crimes, but with the same effect; until, refusing to take the oath enjoined by the act of supremacy, he was committed to the Tower, and, after fifteen months’ imprisonment, brought to trial at the bar of the King’s Bench for high treason, in denying the king’s supremacy. The proof rested solely on the evidence of Rich the solicitor-general, whom Sir Thomas, in his defence, sufficiently discredited; nevertheless the jury brought him in guilty, and he was condemned to suffer death as a traitor. The merciful Henry, however, indulged him with simple decollation; and he was accordingly beheaded on Tower Hill, on the 5th of July 1535. His body, which was first interred in the Tower, was begged by his daughter Margaret, and deposited in the chancel of the church at Chelsea, where a monument, with an inscription written by himself, had been erected some time before. This monument, with the inscription, is still to be seen in that church. The same daughter, Margaret, also procured his head after it had remained fourteen days upon London Bridge, and placed it in a vault belonging to the Roper family, under a chapel adjoining to St Dunstan’s Church, in Canterbury. Sir Thomas More was a [7:15:494]man of great learning, and an upright judge; austere in religion, yet cheerful, and even affectedly witty.^[1. This last disposition, we are told, he could not restrain even at his execution. The day being come, he ascended the scaffold, which seemed so weak that it was ready to fall to pieces; whereupon he said, “I pray, see me safe up; and for my coming down, let me shift for myself.” His prayers being ended, he turned to the executioner, and with a cheerful countenance said, “Pluck up thy spirits, man, and be not afraid to do thy office; my neck is very short, take heed therefore thou strike not awry for saving thy honesty.” Then laying his head upon the block, he bade him stay until he had put aside his beard, saying that it had never committed any treason. ] Picty was a principal ingredient in his character, and he was equally devout and exemplary in all his conduct. In his hours of relaxation he had recourse to music, and had always a person to read to him whilst he sat at table, in order to prevent improper conversation before his children and servants. He lived in habits of intimacy with the most learned men of his time, particularly Erasmus, who held the first place in his affections, and deserved his esteem; nor was he less respected and admired abroad. When the Emperor Charles V. heard of his death, he said to the English ambassador, Sir Thomas Elliot, “I understand that the king, your master, has put to death his faithful servant and wise counsellor Sir Thomas More.” The ambassador answered that he had heard nothing of the matter. “It is too true,” replied the emperor; “and this I will say, that if I had been master of such a servant, of whose abilities I have, these many years, had no little experience, I would rather have lost the best city in my dominions than so worthy a counsellor.” It is even said that the ruthless tyrant, who had pursued him with inflexible perseverance to the scaffold, felt some compunctious visitings of remorse when the thirst of vengeance had ceased to operate; and, upon receiving the news of his execution, observed to Anne Boleyn, “Thou art the cause of this man’s death ;” after which he hastily withdrew, and shut himself up in an adjoining chamber.

Sir Thomas More was the author of various works, both in English and in Latin, of which the best known and most generally esteemed is his Utopia. His English works were collected and published by order of Queen Mary in 1557; his Latin works appeared at Basil in 1563, and at Louvain in 1566; and both show that he was thoroughly conversant with every branch of polite learning. For a minute account of his works, the reader is referred to Oldys’s Librarian, and preface to Dibdin’s edition of the Utopia. The best, because the most discriminating and judicious character of More, is that drawn by Sir James Mackintosh in his History of England (vol. ii. p. 177, et seq.), to which the reader is referred. “He was the first Englishman who signalised himself as an orator, the first writer of prose which is still intelligible, and probably the first layman since the beginning of authentic history who was chancellor of England, a magistracy which has been filled by as many memorable men as any office of a civilized community.”

This excellent person left one son and three daughters; of whom Margaret, the eldest, was remarkable for her knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. She married Mr Roper of Wellhall, in Kent, whose life of Sir Thomas More was published by Mr Hearne at Oxford in 1716. Mrs Roper died in 1544, and was buried in the vault of St Dunstan’s in Canterbury, with her father’s head in her arms.

More, Hannah, a distinguished writer of religious and moral works, was born at Stapleton, in Gloucestershire, in the year 1745. Her father held the humble situation of village schoolmaster; but his sobriety and diligence were such as to secure for him an appointment to the parochial school of St Mary Redcliff, at Bristol. Here his daughter gained the intimacy and patronage of Dr Stonehouse, and opened an establishment for boarders, having previously, through the same interest, been enabled to set on foot a flourishing and respectable day-school. Her first literary efforts were some poetical pieces, written for the edification of her pupils, and amongst them was a pastoral drama. Manuscript copies of these pieces were seen and admired by several persons of literary taste and discrimination at Bristol, who strongly recommended their publication. They accordingly appeared, and the drama, which was entitled the Search after Happiness, soon became very popular. This flattering reception having induced the author to try her strength in the highest walk of dramatic poetry, she successively brought upon the stage her tragedies of the Inflexible Captive, Percy, and the Fatal Falsehood, which closed her dramatic career. Mr Garrick was warmly attached to her, and, by the exertion of his wonderful histrionic powers in the second of these compositions, it was enacted at Drury Lane during fourteen successive nights; but none of her dramas now retain any hold of the stage. Soon after the production of her first tragedy, she published two legendary poems, entitled Sir Eldred of the Bower, and the Bleeding Rock, founded upon popular traditions current in Somersetshire. These pieces had very great success, as had also her volume of Essays for Young Ladies, which she afterwards expunged from the edition of her works published in*1801, on the ground that the book was superseded by her Treatise on Female Education.

In 1782, Hannah More greatly added to her reputation by the publication of a volume of Sacred Dramas, to which was annexed a poem called Sensibility, which was much commended by Dr Johnson, then the autocrat of literature. Being asked his opinion of the author on one occasion, he replied, “I know and esteem her well, Sir; and I think her the best of all our female versifiers.” In 1786, this indefatigable writer gave to the world two poems, Florio, a tale, and Bas Bleu, or the Conversation. The first is a respectable and not ill-natured satire on the frivolous manners of the young gentlemen of the period. The second is also a satire on the Blue Stocking Club, which met at Mrs Montagu’s, in Portman Square, and was so called from one of the members always wearing that article of dress. Other works successively proceeded from her pen. Of these the principal are, a Poem on the Slave Trade, printed in 1788; a tract entitled Thoughts on the Manners of the Great, which appeared the same year; an Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World, published in the year 1791, and esteemed one of her best productions; Remarks on the Speech of Μ. Dupont, in the National Convention, on Religion and Education (the speaker had openly avowed atheism in that assembly); and further, with the view of opposing the propagation of sedition and infidelity, she, in 1795, commenced at Bath, the Cheap Repository, which was published in monthly numbers, and contained several very pleasingly written tales. This periodical obtained a very wide circulation, and was said to have had considerable effect in calming the public mind, then agitated by the doctrines so prevalent in France.

Mrs More now removed from Bristol to Cheddar, where objects of misery having deeply affected her sympathetic and religious feelings, she opened a number of schools for educating the poor children, and alleviating their misery. Her benevolent designs were at first strenuously opposed; but she ultimately succeeded in establishing a number of schools, not only at Cheddar, but all round the Mendip Hills; and the good effects which they produced soon became apparent. In 1799 appeared her Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, three editions [7:15:495]of which issued from the press in the same year. This work was censured by some of the critics as too austere; but notwithstanding this circumstance, she was called upon by the highest, personages in the realm to put her sentiments in writing on the proper course of instruction to be adopted for the infant heiress to the British throne. She set diligently to work to obey the royal commands, and produced, in 1805, a work in two volumes, under the unassuming title of Hints towards forming the Character of a Young Princess. It gave high satisfaction generally; but offence was taken in one quarter, and much abuse was in consequence poured upon it. In the year 1809 was published Coelebs in Search of a Wife; two years afterwards appeared Practical Piety, and Christian Morals; in 1815 came out an Essay on the Character and Writings of St Paul; and, soon after her sister Martha’s death in 1819, the literary career of Mrs More terminated with the publication of Modern Sketches. She was now aged and infirm, but still continued to take a great interest in the welfare of charity schools, bible and missionary societies, and other benevolent and religious institutions. Her piety supported her in her later afflictions, and she expired with the composure, and full of the hope and faith, of a Christian, on the 7th of September 1833. She is said to have realised L.30,000 by her works, a very considerable proportion of which she bequeathed to religious and benevolent societies.

The works of Hannah More have always been highly esteemed by the religious world, and she is generally considered as one of the most distinguished of that class of writers who unite great piety with considerable literary talent, and dedicate the creations of fancy as well as the deductions of reason to the service of religion. Her poetry is not much prized, except by a select few, for the piety and sound judgment which it displays. In this respect it bears a general resemblance to the verse of Cowper; but it is not very copiously embued with that fine ethereal spirit, which alone can give vitality and soul to the inspirations of the muse. Her prose is justly admired for its sententious wisdom, its practical good sense, its masculine vigour, and the dignified religious and moral fervour which pervades it. Coelebs passed through six editions in one year; and since its first appearance it has frequently been reprinted, besides being translated into several foreign languages. (ιι. r. r.)