91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Person    | Male  Born 7/2/1478  Died 6/7/1535

Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More

Born Milk Street. In conflict with Henry VIII over religion he was imprisoned in the tower, found guilty of treason and beheaded on Tower Hill. Final words: "The King's good servant, but God's First." 

From his marriage in 1505 he lived in Bucklersbury in the City. In 1525 he moved from there to Chelsea to a house he had built, (later known as) Beaufort House. In 1529 he was made Lord Chancellor.

A very good friend of Erasmus who often stayed with More in Beaufort House.

As a traitor, his head was displayed on a pike at London Bridge for a month. His daughter, Margaret, later rescued the severed head and it is believed to rest in the Roper Vault of St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury.  Alternatively it may be buried within the tomb erected for More in Chelsea Old Church. A third, unlikely, story is that John Donne's mother, Elizabeth, who was a great-niece of Thomas More, carried his head around with her.

2025: confirmed that Margaret "was buried with the head following her death in 1544. It was moved with her remains when they were transferred to the Roper family vault more than 30 years later." And "The Church of England is weighing plans to exhume and enshrine the head of St. Thomas More ... it wants to exhume the skull so it can be venerated by pilgrims. ... to exhume and conserve what remains of the relic, which will take several years to dry out and stabilize. 'We could just put it back in the vault, maybe in a reliquary of some kind, or we could place the reliquary in some sort of shrine or carved stone pillar above ground in the Roper chapel, which is what many of our visitors have requested.' "

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Thomas More

Commemorated ati

Cheyne Walk heads - More and Erasmus

No inscription remains legible but we believe we've found the painting used a...

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

City of London School 0 - More

{On the statue's plinth:} More

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Lindsey House

Lindsey House, built 1674 by Robert Bertie 3rd Earl of Lindsey, incorporates ...

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Margaret Roper - Woolwich Town Hall

{On the stained-glass plaque:} Margaret, a pious & learned woman, the bel...

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Moravians / Gillick Pageant / Beaufort House

This unusual memorial was created by Ernest and Mary Gillick in their studio ...

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Show all 17

Other Subjects

John Warne

John Warne

Burnt at the stake in Smithfield for his Protestant beliefs. Upholsterer, husband of Elizabeth.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial
125 deaths on Tower Hill

125 deaths on Tower Hill

Wikipedia lists only 36 (in 2011).  Most of the victims that we have researched are recorded as having been beheaded but A London Inheritance, quoting John Stow (c. 1598), refers to "a large scaffo...

Group, Execution, Law

1 memorial
E. Gordon Brettell

E. Gordon Brettell

Flight Lieutenant Edward Gordon Brettell DFC was born on 19 March 1915, the eldest of the three children of Vivian Brettell (1882-1949) and Eileen Isabella Brettell née Carroll (1887-1979). His bir...

Person, Armed Forces, Execution, Poland

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
Thomas Reeding

Thomas Reeding

Lay brother at London Charterhouse. Taken Taken to Newgate Prison, chained and left to starve to death.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester

John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester

Born Yorkshire.  Opposed Henry VIII's self-appointment as head of the Church of England.  Result: decapitation on Tower Hill.

Person, Execution, Politics & Administration, Religion

2 memorials