The pathetic story of More’s wit was never so touchingly illustrated as on the day after he resigned the Great Seal. He went to Chelsea Church as usual with his wife and family, none of whom he had yet informed of his resignation. During the service, as was his custom, he sat in the choir, in a surplice. After service it was the custom for one of his attendants to go to her ladyship’s pew, and say, “My Lord is gone before.” But this day the Ex-Chancellor came himself, and making a low bow, said, “Madam, my Lord is gone.” Then, on their way home, to her great mortification, he unriddled his mournful pleasantry by telling her his lordship was gone, in the loss of his official dignities.
Sir Thomas had four children, three daughters and one son; the latter was the youngest. His first wife wished very much for a boy; at last she brought this son, who proved to be of slender capacity; upon which he said to her, “You have prayed so long for a boy, that now you have got one that will be a boy as long as he lives.” The good lady walked away from him.
By indefatigable application, More cleared the Court of Chancery of all its causes. One day, having ended a cause, he called for the next, and was told there was “no other depending in the Court.” He was delighted to hear it, and ordered it to be inserted on the records of the Court. It gave rise to the following epigram, not the worst in the English language:—
“When More some time had Chancellor been
No More suits did remain;
The same shall never More be seen
Till More be there again.”
The pitiful story of More’s daughter, Margaret, parting with her beloved father, on the morning of his cruel execution, is truly affecting. She followed him to the scaffold—embraced him, implored his blessing, wept upon his cheek, bidding him in anguish adieu. A second time she went forward to him, clung round his neck and kissed him, when at last, notwithstanding his apparent gravity, tears fell from his eyes * * * and soon afterwards she was severed from him for ever! It appears that his original intention to be interred in the Old Church, was unhappily not fulfilled. Dr. King states that “his body was buried in the chapel of St. Peter, in the Tower, and his head, after some months, was bought by his daughter, Margaret, and taken down from London Bridge, where it was fixed upon a pole, and was buried,” probably as stated, in St. Dunstan’s, near Canterbury. Aubery, however, asserts that “after he was beheaded, his trunke was interred in Chelsey Church, near the middle of the south wall, where was some slight monument erected, which being worne by time, Sir John Lawrence, of Chelsey, at his own proper costs and chardges, built to his memorie a handsome one, with inscription, of marble.” This statement, as regards the interment of Sir Thomas More’s body, does not accord with the opinion of most other writers on the subject.
After the death of More, his mansion was granted in the 28th of Henry VIII. to Sir William Paulet, afterwards Marquis of Winchester, to whom Edward VI. granted in fee both that and all other premises in Chelsea and Kensington, forfeited by his attainder.
The Marquis of Winchester, who was so much of a courtier as to accommodate himself to princes as well as to subjects of very different characters, was, from his natural and acquired abilities, perfectly qualified to act with propriety in the highest offices of the state. In the reign of Edward VI. he was made Lord High Treasurer of England. It is said that by his councils, in a great measure, the Duke of Northumberland’s design of setting the Lady Jane Grey on the throne was prevented; for which good office of loyalty to them, the Queens, Mary and Elizabeth, continued him in the Treasurer’s Office, which he enjoyed for thirty years; and on being asked how he preserved himself in that place through so many changes of government, he answered, “By being a willow, and not an oak.” He died in 1572, aged 97 years. The marquis greatly enlarged and improved the house, and, according to Norden, “adorned Chelsea with stately buildings.” His eldest son, John, second Marquis of Winchester, died at Chelsea in 1576. The widow of the first marquis died in 1586.
Gregory, Lord Dacre, soon afterwards had possession of Sir Thomas More’s house. He was the son of Thomas Fynes Lord Dacre, who succeeded his grandfather in the 26th of Henry VIII.; and who, in 1541, was engaged with some other persons in chasing the deer in Sir Nicholas Pelham’s park, when a fray arising between them and the keepers, in which one of the latter was killed, he was found guilty of being accessary to the murder, and suffered death accordingly; but his children were restored to their honours in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Gregory, Lord Dacre, died at Chelsea in 1594, without issue; and his sister Margaret, the wife of Samuel Lennard, Esq., claimed the barony, and was allowed it in the second of James I.
Lady Dacre survived her husband but a few months, and bequeathed her house at Chelsea, with all its appurtenances, to the great Lord Burleigh, with remainder to his son Robert, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, and Lord High Treasurer. “I have seen,” says Lysons, “among the records at the Rolls Chapel, a pardon of alienation to Sir Robert Cecil, dated June 21, 39th Elizabeth, for acquiring these premises of Thomas Lord Buckhurst.” This distinguished nobleman, afterwards Earl of Dorset, was brother to Lady Dacre, and resided frequently with his sister at Chelsea, but it is not known whether he had any interest in the estate.
The Earl of Salisbury is supposed to have rebuilt Sir Thomas More’s house, as the initials of his name were to be seen on the pipes and in several of the rooms.