Sir Thomas “The Younger” More III

• Birth: July 02, 1538 in Chelsea,, London, (originally Middlesex), England (United Kingdom)
• Death: before July 22, 1606 in South Yorkshire, England
• Born on Tuesday 2nd July 1538. Usually known as Thomas More the younger. Became a Minister (Priest) in the Church of England, but no record of his ordination or place of ministry survives. It is known from his older brother‟s will (1606) that he married and had three children: Cyprian, Thomas and Constantine, and that he died before 1606.
• Thomas “The Younger” More III Find A Grave Memorial

History

Thomas More III: So called to distinguish him from his older brother Thomas More II (1531-1606) and his grandfather Sir Thomas More (1478-1535).Born at Chelsea on Tuesday 2nd July 1538. Sometimes referred to as Thomas More the Younger. Abandoned the Catholic faith of his ancestors and became a Minister (Priest) in the Church of England. Ordained in London on 11 August 1560. Church of England records are sparse and the only surviving record of where he served is when he was Vicar of Mitcham in Surrey from 11 May 1567-28 November 1571. The 'Cecil Papers' show that, on the orders of Lord Cecil, he swore his conformity to the faith, doctrine and practices of the Church of England and his submission to the Bishop of Norwich in 1578. This means that, by then, he must have been serving as a Minister in that Diocese, which covered the County of Norfolk, but records of where he served have not survived. We know from his older brother's will that he married and had three children, Cyprian, Thomas and Constantine. Cyprian and Thomas were born at Mitcham while he was Vicar there. The baptism of Cyprian took place on 15 June 1567 and that of Thomas on 6 January 1569. It is not known where Constantine was born. Thomas III's uncle, Cresacre More, writing between 1616-1620, said that Thomas III had brought up his children in no commendable profession. He also said that, at that time, the only son still living was Cyprian More.

No record of the name of Thomas III's wife has survived. Although found on a number of internet genealogy sites, the claim that she was Martha Brooks (born abt 1540), the daughter of Robert Brooke and his wife Dorothy Gatacre, and that they had a son Thomas William Moore, is totally without foundation. Any pedigree emanating from this claim should be placed among the Geni list of spurious pedigrees.

For further information contact Martin Wood, Author of: "The Family and Descendants of St. Thomas More". Published in the UK by 'Gracewing'. April 2008.

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MORE, Thomas II (1531-1606), of Hambleden, Bucks.; Barnbrough, Yorks.; Leyton, Essex and North Mimms, Herts.
Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

References

• “The Family and Descendants of St. Thomas More”. Martin Wood. Gracewing, 2008 - Religion - 290 pages.<GoogleBooks>
• https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdf/10.3366/more.2009.46.2-3.14
• Sir Thomas More: His Descendants in the Male Line, by Martin J. Blake. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Fifth Series, Vol. 36, No. 3, [Fifth Series, Vol. 16] (Sep. 30, 1906), pp. 223-230 (11 pages), Published By: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.

xfordshire, who was not otherwise related to the chancellor’s family. More’s executor was his nephew Robert Wyvill of Great Burton in Masham, Yorkshire.7

Thomas More appears with his wife and sons John and Cresacre in a composite family portrait of the Mores. For Cresacre his father ‘was a lively pattern unto us of his constant faith, his worthy and upright dealings, his true Catholic simplicity, of whom I have a purpose to discourse unto my children more at large, that they may know in what hard times he lived’.8

1. Huntington Lib. Hastings mss Parl. pprs. 2. Date of birth given in D. Shanahan, ‘The fam of St. Thomas More in Essex’, Essex Recusant, i. 66. This biography draws on a series of articles by Shanahan and others in Essex Recusant, i. 62-74; ii. 76-85; iii. 71-80; vi. 96-98. N. and Q. (ser. 8), ii. 121-2; Vis. Yorks. (Harl. Soc. xvi), 212.
3.CPR, 1569-72, p. 198.
4.N. and Q. (ser. 8), ii. 121-2; Corresp. More, ed. Rogers, 565.
5. KB27/1176, 1177; CJ, i. 40.
6.CPR, 1549-51, pp. 238-9; 1553-4, pp. 49-50; 1563-6, p. 469; J. J. Cartwright, Chaps. Yorks. Hist. 149; Glover’s Vis. Yorks. ed. Foster, 388; N. Harpsfield, Life of More (EETS clxxxvi), 249-6; Lansd. 89, f. 117; W. Roper, Life of More (EETS cxcvii), 112-13.
7. PCC 67 Stafford; C142/299/150, 300/171; Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 366.
8. R. C. Strong, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 345-8; c. More, Life of More, ed. Hunter, 292