Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/453

Rh  in Brit. Mus. MS. Cotton Titus D. IV. More's ‘Epigrammata’ were republished in London in 1638, and forty are translated in Thomas Pecke's ‘Parnassi Puerperium’ (1659), pp. 135-48. 3. ‘Thomæ Mori Epistola ad Germanum Brixium: qui quum Morvs in Libellum eius quo contumeliosis Mendacjisincesserat Angliam lusisset aliquot epigrammata, ædidit adversus Morum libellum qui … suum infamat authorem,’ London, 1520, 4to (by R. Pynson), Brit. Mus. 4. ‘Eruditissimi viri G. Rossei opus … quo refellit … Lutheri calumnias, quibus … Angliæ … regem Henricum … octavum scurra turpissimus insectatur: excusum denuo … adjunctis indicibus opera … J. Carcellij,’ London, 1523, 4to. 5. ‘Epistola contra Pomeranum,’ Louvain, 1568, an attack on a German Lutheran, Johann Bugenhagen, written about 1526, and published by John Fowler, an English exile, from More's autograph, doubtless derived from his secretary, John Harris. 6. 'Thomæ Mori v.c. Dissertatio Epistolica de aliquot sui temporis Theologastrorum ineptijs deque correctione translationis vulgatæ N. Testamenti. Ad Martinum Dorpium Theologum Lovaniensem,’ Leyden, 1625, 12mo, preceded by Erasmus's letter to More dated Louvain, 1520. 7. ‘Epistola T. Mori ad Academiam Oxon. Cui adjecta sunt quædam poemata … in mortem … R. Cottoni et T. Alleni [by Richard James q. v.],’ Oxford, 1633, 4to.

The first collected edition of More's Latin works appeared at Basle in 1563, ‘apud Episcopum F.,’ as ‘Thomæ Mori … Lucubrationes ab innumeris mendis repurgatæ.’ This includes the ‘Utopia,’ all the Latin poems, and the renderings of Lucian, with the epistle to Dorpius (No. 6, supra). A fuller collection, prefaced by the Latin epitaph, and including the Latin version of ‘Richard III’ and the ‘Rossei opus,’ was issued at Louvain in 1565, and again in 1566 in folio (‘Omnia opera Latina quorum aliqua nunc primum in lucem prodeunt’). In 1689 at Frankfort-on-Maine and Leipzig appeared the completest collection, ‘Opera omnia quotquot reperiri potuerant ex Basileensi anni 1563, et Lovaniensi anni 1566, editionibus depromta.’ Stapleton's ‘Life of More’ forms the preface; an ‘expositio’ on the Passion, ‘Precatio ex Psalmis collecta,' and letters to Bonvisi and others are included. The first collected edition of Erasmus's ‘Epistolæ’ (London, 1642) supplies much of More's correspondence with Erasmus, while an appended and separately paged ‘Auctarium Epistolarum ex Thoma Moro’ (70 pp.) contains More's letter to Erasmus ‘de Brixio,’ the letter to Dorpius entitled there ‘Apologia pro Moria Erasmi,’ and letters to Giles (Ægidius), Brixius, and Bonvisi. Le Clerc's great collection of Erasmus's correspondence (Leyden, 1706) gives nineteen of More's letters to Erasmus and twenty-four of Erasmus's letters to More.

By his first wife, Jane, eldest daughter of John Colte of Newhall, More left three daughters, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Cecilia, and a son, John (1510-1547), the youngest child. His second wife, Mrs. Alice Middleton, by whom he had no children, survived him, and received an annuity of 20l. for life on 16 March 1536 (Pat. Rot.} Of the son More is reported to have said that his wife had prayed so long for a boy that now she had one who would be a boy as long as he lived. Wood says that he was ‘little better than an idiot’ (cf. , Life, ed. Hearne). But his father praised his elegance and wit as a correspondent in Latin; and just before his death he wrote ‘His towardly carriage towards me pleased me very much.’ Erasmus styles him a youth of great hopes, and dedicated ‘Aristotle’ to him in 1531 (Epist. 1059), while Grynæus paid him a like compliment in his edition of ‘Plato’ (Basle, 1534), when he credited him with the highest accomplishment. On his father's death he was committed to the Tower and was condemned for refusing the oath of supremacy, but was set free, and probably retired to Yorkshire. He had married in 1529 Ann (1511-1577), the wealthy heiress of Edward Cresacre of Barnborough, Yorkshire. A book of hours, now belonging to Baron August Edward von Druffel of Münster, Westphalia, supplies notes in his autograph of the births of his children (Notes and Queries, 8th ser. ii. 121-2). After his death in 1547 his widow received from Queen Mary a re-grant of his grandfather's confiscated property at North Mimms; she afterwards married (13 June 1559) a Yorkshire neighbour, George West, nephew of Sir William West, but he died in June 1572, when she conveyed her property to her son, Thomas More (1531-1606). He had married in 1553 Mary Scrope, daughter of John Scrope of Hambledon, Buckinghamshire, and niece of Henry, lord Scrope of Bolton. Thomas's will was proved in 1606. He seems to have been an ardent although concealed catholic. Of his three brothers, two, Edward [q. v.] and one also named Thomas (b. 1538), left children; but the latter's sons fell into poverty and have not been traced. Of the elder Thomas's thirteen children—eight daughters and five sons—the eldest, John, who figures in the Cockthorpe picture, died young. The second,