Cresacre More

Doncaster, 1572 - 1649, Madley

BiographyCresacre (Christopher) More (1572-1649) was an English landowner and author who wrote a biography of his great-grandfather Sir Thomas More.[1] [2][3]

The thirteenth and youngest child of Thomas More (1531-1606) and his wife Mary Scrope (1534–1607),[4] he was baptised at Barnburgh in Yorkshire on 7 July 1572 with the name Cresacre.[5] This name was in honour of his grandmother Ann Cresacre but he was always known as Christopher, for example in his father's will as well as on the "Burford picture”.[6]

The family moved to Leyton in Essex in March 1582 and in 1584 he was sent to a Jesuit school in France. By 1593 he was studying for the Catholic priesthood at Douai but was called back to England by his family, because he had become the heir on the death of his eldest brother. By 1605 he had married Elizabeth Gage, daughter of Thomas Gage and his wife Elizabeth Guilford, and in 1606 he inherited his father's lands in Yorkshire and Hertfordshire. He carried on living at Leyton, but as an overt Catholic was barred from public positions and subject to financial penalties. His wife died in 1610, leaving three children, and in 1617 he moved to his estate of Gobions at North Mimms in Hertfordshire.[1]

Between 1616 and 1620 he wrote The Life and Death of Sir Thomas More, which was published in Europe without name or date by 1631. In 1629 he passed his Hertfordshire lands to his son and when he died was living on a rented farm at Chilstone in the Herefordshire parish of Madley.[1]

His children were:

Helen More (1606-18 Aug 1633), a Benedictine nun at Cambrai.[1]
Thomas More (abt 1608-1660), only heir to his father and to his great-great-grandfather Sir Thomas.[1]
Bridget More (abt 1609-11 Oct 1692), a Benedictine prioress in Paris.[1]

From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/More-360; accessed 3/30/23, NW

Person TypeIndividual

Last Updated8/7/24

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