This week we mark the birthday of St Thomas More, who was born in his parents’ home at Milk Street in London, just a few steps from the Guildhall. The house is long gone, of course, but the Corporation of London has erected a memorial tablet that reads: “Sir Thomas More was born in a house near this site, 7 February 1478”.
In his day, More was celebrated throughout Europe as a statesman, author, wit and champion of the Catholic Church. Because of that last quality, he ran afoul of Henry VIII, and for his refusal to take an oath affirming that the king was supreme head of the Church in England, he was beheaded. Today he is venerated as a saint and martyr, but what about his family – who were they? And who were his descendants?
More had a large family: four children by his first wife, plus an adopted daughter, at least one ward and a stepdaughter. And as one of six children, he had lots of nieces and nephews.
Margaret was More’s favourite daughter. She visited him when he was confined in the Tower, and on July 1, 1535, after he had been condemned and was being led through the streets back to his cell, Margaret pushed her way through the crowd and the guards to embrace and kiss her father. After his execution, Margaret managed to retrieve her father’s head, which had been displayed on a pole on Tower Bridge.
Margaret, like her father, had refused to take the Oath of Supremacy. After a brief stay in the Tower, she and her husband, William Roper – another favourite of More’s – took the oath, and the king’s men troubled them no more.
Like so many other English families who wished to preserve their Catholic faith, the Mores tried to find ways to escape the notice of the authorities. Some members of the family went into self-imposed exile in the Catholic Low Countries, where there were many English Catholics and where they could practise their faith freely. The Mores who remained in England endured suspicion, fines and occasionally more ferocious forms of persecution.
A tenant of Giles Heron, St Thomas’s ward and eventually his son-in-law, reported his master to Thomas Cromwell for “mumblings” against Henry VIII and his religious policies. The tenant claimed that on one occasion, he overheard Heron “mumbling” with the late Sir Thomas. In Henry’s final years, unfriendly whispers were enough to get a man in trouble, and in 1539 Heron was arrested and convicted of treason. The following year he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.
Additional More martyrs came in the next century. In 1678, two of More’s several times great-granddaughters, Mary and Margaret More, both of whom were nuns of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, were arrested for their Catholicism and confined in York prison. Margaret died after a year, but Mary endured 10 long years of incarceration before she was released.
Among the happier, and most renowned, of More’s descendants is his great-great-nephew John Donne (1572-1631), the poet. He was descended from St Thomas’s sister, Elizabeth. Donne had been raised Catholic, but in the early 1590s it became clear to Donne how dangerous following his family’s faith could be. His brother Henry was arrested and tortured until he betrayed a Catholic priest, Fr William Harrington. Fr Harrington was captured, tortured and executed. Henry died of the plague in Newgate Prison.
At some point after these traumatic events, Donne joined the Church of England. He rose to be dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, but he is best remembered, of course, as a brilliantly inventive and sensual poet.
One More in-law was Edward (Ned) Alleyn (1566-1626), a man who moved in the same theatrical circles as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. He is said to have been the greatest actor of his day. Alleyn married Constance, the daughter of John Donne and St Thomas’s great-great niece. On stage, Alleyn starred in the title roles of Marlowe’s most popular dramas, Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine the Great and The Jew of Malta. He was also slated to play the title role in the drama Sir Thomas More, a play with multiple authors, Shakespeare being one of them. But it appears the play was never produced.
Typically, the biography of a saint ends with the saint’s death. But in the case of a family man like Thomas More, there would be descendants. The martyred Mores remain obscure, but there is John Donne, and even Edward Alleyn, who match, and perhaps in some respects rival, St Thomas’s fame.
Thomas J Craughwell is the author of Saints Behaving Badly. He writes from his home in Bethel, Connecticut
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.