Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/24

 And indeed none of the many other writers of Sir Thomas's Life, can any way pretend to the same advantages and opportunities of knowing him which the author of this little history had, who not only married his beloved daughter, with whom Sir Thomas entrusted his secrets, but who lived sixteen years in the same house with Sir Thomas, and was his attendant and companion almost wherever he went. Accordingly he gives this reason himself for his committing to writing these Memoirs of Sir Thomas's Life, &c. that he knew his doings and mind no man living so well.

This gentleman was William Roper the son and heir of John Roper, Esq.; prothonotary of the King's Bench, and of an ancient and worshipful family at St. Dunstan's in the suburbs of the City of Canterbury. He married Margaret the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. This lady had all the advantages that could arise from great natural parts and very fine learning: she was a perfect mistress of the Greek and Latin tongues, and of all sorts of music, besides her skill in arithmetick and other sciences. For thus we are assured by a very learned friend of Sir Thomas, that he took a great deal of care to have his children instructed in the liberal disciplines or sciences; so that the fine things said of her and to her by the greatest men of that age and since, were more than complements or words of course, they were what she had a right to and very well deserved.