Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/226

 make a very small present who sent the whole tree, nor a cheap one who presented a tree so eloquent. He was not, he said, used to kill many birds with one stone, but yet it would look candid in him, and he himself should appear less ungrateful, if this nut, whose fruit nature had made divisible into four parts, he would please to let be in common among his most agreeable sisters Margaret, Elizabeth and Cecilia, and their happy companion Gige who so often teazed him with their letters, which he was persuaded were their own by their good sense and chast Latin. He added, that it was to no purpose to exhort him either to the study of letters or the practise of vertue, since he was himself so well disposed and had at home such a father. Erasmus likewise inscribed to him his account of Aristotle's works, by which it should seem as if he understood Greek as well as Latin. This he concluded with putting the young man in mind of his parentage, and exhorting him to continue his endeavours to appear worthy of such a father.

He was married sometime before he was 19 years old to Anne Crisacre, daughter and sole heir of Edward Crisacre of Baronburgh in Yorkshire, who was not 15 years old. Mr. Roper tells us, she was an heire in possession of more then an hundred pounds land by the yeere. By her, Mr. More, it is said, had issue five sons. The eldest of these was named Thomas and had 13 children, the first of which was named Thomas; who being a most zealous Roman Catholic gave the family estate to his younger brother and took orders at Rome, whence by the Pope's command he came a missionary into England. He afterwards lived at Rome, where and in Spain he negotiated the affairs of the English clergy at his own expence, and wrote the life of his great grandfather Sir Thomas, which after his death was printed with the following title.

The Life and Death of Sir Thomas Moore, Lord High Chancellour of England, written by M. T. M. It was dedicated "to the High and Mightie Princesse our most gracious Queene and Soveraigne Marie Henriette Queene of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, Ladie of the Isles of