John More (judge)

More with his son Thomas and family

More was the son of William More (d. 1467), a London baker, and Joanna Joye, daughter and heir of a London brewer, John Joye, and granddaughter and heir of a London Chancery clerk, John Leycester.[2]

More entered Lincoln's Inn in either 1470 or 1475, was called to be a Serjeant-at-law in 1503, a Justice of Assize in 1513, a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1518, and finally to the King's Bench in 1520, where he remained until his death.[3]

More inherited the manor of Gobions in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, and tenements in London, and also purchased more land in Hertfordshire.[4] He was granted a coat of arms during Edward IV's reign.[5] He also helped to fund his son-in-law John Rastell's attempt to reach and settle the New World in 1517, which got only as far as Waterford before the sailors abandoned Rastell and sold his cargo.[6]

More made his will on 26 February 1527, naming his son, Sir Thomas More, as one of his executors and asking for his remains to be buried in the City of London church of St Lawrence Jewry. The will, proved on 5 November 1530, included provision for prayers for the souls of family members and for the soul of King Edward IV.[7]

On 24 April 1474, at St Giles-without-Cripplegate, More married Agnes Graunger (d.1499), the daughter of Thomas Graunger, a London tallow-chandler[8] and alderman,[9] by whom he had three sons and three daughters:[10]

• Joanna More, born 11 March 1475, who married Richard Staverton, a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn.
• Sir Thomas More (6/7 February 1478 - 6 July 1535).[11]
• Agatha More, born 1479, died young.
• John More, born 6 June 1480, died young.[12]
• Edward More, born 1481, died young.
• Elizabeth More, born 22 September 1482, who married the printer, John Rastell (1475-1536).

After his first wife's death in about 1499, More married secondly, Joan (d. 1505), the widow of John Marshall, mercer; thirdly Joan (d. 1520), the widow of another London mercer, Thomas Bowes; and fourthly Alice More, the sister of Sir Christopher More of Loseley, Surrey, and widow of William Huntingdon of Exeter and of John Clerke. Alice survived him and died at North Mymms in 1545.[13]

• Barron, Caroline M. (2011). "The making of a London citizen". In Logan, George M. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 9781139828482.
• Brayley, Edward Wedlake (1841). A Topographical History of Surrey. Vol. I. London: Tilt and Bogue.
• Burke, John and John Bernard Burke, eds. (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England. London: Scott Webster and Geary. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Ives, E.W. (1983). The Common Lawyers of Pre-Reformation England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 469–70. ISBN 9780521240116.
• Ives, E.W. (2004). "More, Sir John (c.1451–1530)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19183. Retrieved 22 February 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) (subscription required) The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: "More, John (1453?-1530)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Robison, William B. (2004). "More, Sir Christopher (b. in or before 1483, d. 1549)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/77080. Retrieved 21 February 2013. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) (subscription required)

• Principal Line of Descendants Through Thomas More’s One Son, John, Centre for Thomas More Studies Archived 20 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• Will of Sir John More, National Archives
• ‘’More Hall, Brookmans Park, North Mymms, Hertfordshire’’, Richard III Society
• Portraits of Sir John More at the National Portrait Gallery, London