Family and Education

b. 9 Sept. 1594, 1st s. of Richard More of Linley Hall and Sarah, da. of Roger Harris of Shrewsbury, Salop; bro. of Thomas†. educ. Shrewsbury g.s. 1609. m. (1) 4 Feb. 1611, his cos. Katherine (separated 1620), da. and coh. of Jasper More of Larden Hall, 3s. (2 d.v.p.) 3da. d.v.p.; (2) by June 1625, Elizabeth Worsley (bur. 17 Nov. 1655), 3s. 3da. suc. fa. 1643. d. 3 May 1662.1

Offices Held

Servant to Edward Zouche, 11th Lord Zouche by 1617-25.2

Freeman, Hastings, Suss. 1621, Ludlow, Salop 1646;3 commr. defence, Salop 1643, sequestration 1644,4 assessment, Herefs. 1647-8,5 Salop and Mont. 1647-52,6 1657, 1660,7 militia, Herefs., Salop and Mont. 1648, Salop 1659, Herefs., Salop, Worcs. and N. Wales 1660;8 j.p. Salop 1649-62; 9 commr. scandalous ministers, Salop 1654.10

Capt. of ft. (parl.) by 1644, col. by 1645; gov. Hopton Castle, Hopton, Salop 1644,11 Montgomery Castle, Mont. 1645-7, Ludlow 1646-7, Hereford 1647-?9.12

Biography

More came from an old Shropshire family that was already holding the manor from which they took their name in the twelfth century.13 However, after they were no longer required to attend the king on his Welsh campaigns at the head of 200 men their record lacked distinction in their own county, and it was left to a younger son, John, founder of the Sussex branch to become the first to enter Parliament when he served for Winchelsea in 1547. More himself came from another cadet branch. His father, a puritan, reunited the family estates by marrying him off at the age of 16 to his cousin Katherine, eight years his senior. Unfortunately for More, Katherine already considered herself the wife of Jacob Blakeway, a tenant on the More estate and ‘a fellow of mean parentage and condition’, and in 1616 she applied to Hereford consistory court claiming false marriage to More. Unable to produce witnesses to substantiate her claim that she had entered into a pre-contract with Blakeway, her suit failed, leaving More free to prosecute Blakeway for adultery, both in High Commission and the Council in the Marches. Blakeway received a royal pardon in 1618, presumably on condition of giving evidence against his paramour, and in 1619 More was granted a separation from his wife. This was confirmed on appeal in July 1620, whereupon the four surviving children of the marriage - the youngest of whom was just six - were packed off to New England on the Mayflower. One died shortly after the ship’s arrival at New Plymouth, while two more expired over the winter.14

By June 1617 More had taken service with Lord Zouche, no stranger himself to matrimonial disaster, who had presumably become acquainted with the family while serving as lord president of the Council in the Marches between 1602 and 1607. As lord warden of the Cinque Ports, Zouche recommended More, ‘whose honesty and soundness in religion I have experienced’, to Hastings for the third Jacobean Parliament.15 Elected in his absence on Christmas Day, More left no trace on the records of this Parliament. It was presumably Zouche who secured More’s re-election for Hastings in 1624. Apart from attending two of the five meetings of the committee for the bill to relieve the London Feltmakers,16 More once again made no impact on the parliamentary records: the references to ‘Mr. Moore’ probably relate to John More II. Zouche sold his office to Buckingham in November, and at the next election More was replaced by Sackville Crowe.

More seems to have returned to Linley, whence he corresponded with Edward Nicholas*.17 Although now legally separated from his wife, he was not free to remarry until Katherine died. Her death seems to have occurred by the middle of the 1620s, for by June 1625 More had taken another wife, Elizabeth Worsley, a kinswoman of Lord Zouche,18 who bore him six children. His father was returned for Bishop’s Castle at both elections of 1640, and supported Parliament in the opening months of the Civil War. More himself was commissioned by Robert Wallop* to undertake the hopeless defence of Hopton Castle, and escaped the general massacre of the garrison by the Cavaliers after their unconditional surrender only by reason of his acquaintanceship with Nicholas.19 He was elected for the county to the second Protectorate Parliament, but not allowed to take his seat. He remained on the first commission of the peace after the Restoration, but his name was struck out by warrant on 20 Feb. 1662, perhaps on grounds of ill-health rather than political disaffection, for he died on 3 May and was buried at More. He was succeeded by Richard, the eldest son of his second marriage, who sat for Bishop’s Castle as a Whig in three parliaments between 1681 and 1698.20

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Peter Lefevre / Andrew Thrush

Notes

• 1. Frag. Gen. xiii. 134; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 366; J.B. Blakeway, Sheriffs of Salop, 216; Shrewsbury Sch. Regestum Scholarium comp. E. Calvert, 216; Shipton Par. Reg. (Salop Par. Reg. Soc. Hereford dioc. xxii), 19-21; Burke, Gentry (1952), p. 1819; More Par. Reg. (Salop Par. Reg. Soc. Hereford dioc. ii), 17-20, 27; Oxford DNB.
• 2. PROB 11/146, f. 294v; Hants RO, Kingsmill ms 1347.
• 3. E. Suss. RO, Hastings corp. bk. 1, f. 221; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), xi. 182.
• 4. A. and O. i. 126, 447.
• 5. Ibid. 967, 1084, 1091.
• 6. Ibid. 973, 979, 1097, 1184; ii. 41, 47, 306, 314, 475, 483, 673, 680.
• 7. Ibid. ii. 1078, 1087, 1377, 1384.
• 8. Ibid. 1237, 1243, 1247, 1331, 1432, 1441, 1444, 1448.
• 9. CJ, vi. 187; C220/9/4, f. 74.
• 10. A. and O. ii. 974.
• 11. HMC Bath, i. 29.
• 12. CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 622; 1645-7, pp. 441, 564; 1648-9, p. 14. He had been replaced as governor of Hereford by 10 May 1650: CSP Dom. 1650, p. 150.
• 13. Eyton, Antiqs. of Salop, xi. 285.
• 14. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 526; D. Brewster, William Brewster of the Mayflower, 97-101; Oxford DNB.
• 15. SP14/118/50.
• 16. C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 203.
• 17. CSP Dom. 1627-8, p. 512.
• 18. Oxford DNB.
• 19. HMC Bath, i. 36-7.
• 20. M. Keeler, Long Parl. 279; C220/9/4, f. 74; Frag. Gen. xiii. 134; More Par. Reg 30.