1580, p. 877). More's second wife was Mrs. Bowes, a widow, whose maiden name was Burton; and his third was Alice Clarke, at one time widow of William Huntyngdon of Exeter, and daughter of John More of Loseley in Surrey (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1509-14, p. 292). He had issue only by his first wife. Two children seem to have died in infancy. Two sons, Thomas, the chancellor, and John, with two daughters, reached maturity. The younger son is noticed in Erasmus's correspondence as living in 1511, and as acting in the capacity of clerk to his distinguished brother (cf. Erasmi Epistolæ, ed. Le Clerc, Nos. 128, 139); Jane, born 11 March 1474-1475, married Richard Staffreton or Staidton; and Elizabeth, born 22 Sept. 1482, married John Rastell [q. v.] the printer, and was mother of Sir William Rastell [q. v.] the judge. More owned the manor of Gobyons in the parish of North Mimms in Hertfordshire, and left it to his wife for life, with remainder to his son. On Sir Thomas More's attainder in 1534 his stepmother was expelled from Gobions, and she died in 1544 at Northall in the same county. Gobions was restored to the widow of Sir John's grandson, John More, by Queen Mary.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Cresacre More's Life of Sir T. More, ed. 1828, pp. 1-14; Bridgett's Life of Sir T. More, 1891.]
MORE, JOHN (d. 1592), the ‘Apostle of Norwich,’ born in Yorkshire, was elected a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1562, and was shortly afterwards chosen fellow of his college. During his Cambridge career he appears to have been influenced by Thomas Cartwright [q. v.], in whose favour he and other divines signed a testimonial addressed to Cecil in 1570. On leaving the university he was appointed minister of St. Andrew's Church, Norwich, where he remained until his death, in spite of numerous offers of higher preferment. He preached three and sometimes four times every Sunday, and made numerous converts. In 1573 he refused to wear the surplice, on the ground that it gave offence to others, and he was convened before John Parkhurst [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, who told him that it was better to offend a few private persons than to offend God and disobey the prince. No severe measures, however, were taken against him. The bishop, indeed, appears to have regarded his ministrations with great favour. In a letter to Archbishop Parker Parkhurst says: ‘I have not known that he has at anytime spoken against her Majesty's book of Injunctions, nor can I find any manner of stubbornness in him. And surely he is a godly and learned man, and hath done much good in this city’ (Strype, Life of Parker, ii. 340). In the same year (1573) More confuted a sermon preached by Andrew Perne [q. v.] of Cambridge in Norwich Cathedral. The controversy ‘presently grew to some jars amongst the citizens, according as they stood affected’ (Strype, Annals, ii. i. 417, 418), and Dr. Gardiner, one of the prebendaries of the cathedral, asked the bishop to interpose. More accordingly was prevented from carrying out his intention of further confuting Perne.
On 25 Sept. 1576 More and other puritan clergy round Norwich presented to the council a humble supplication against the imposition of ceremonies, and he was shortly afterwards suspended by Bishop Freke. Two years afterwards (21 Aug. 1578) More and his friends signed a ‘submission’ to their diocesan, in which they ‘humbly crave favour to be restored to their preaching, upon submission to all those articles which concern the confession of the true Christian faith and doctrine of the sacraments, according to the words of the statute. And concerning ceremonies, order, and government, they acknowledge that they are so far tolerable, that for the same, no man ought to withdraw himself from hearing the word of God and receiving the sacraments; nor, on the same account, ought any minister to preach the word of God, or to administer the sacraments.’ It is not clear how long More remained under episcopal censure. In 1584, after the publication of Whitgift's three articles, More and upwards of sixty other ministers of Norfolk presented to the archbishop their reasons for refusing to subscribe.
More died at Norwich, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Andrew's on 16 Jan. 1592. He left a wife, afterwards married to Dr. Nicholas Bownde or Bound [q. v.], and two daughters. He is described as ‘incessu decorus, vestitu modestus, victu vinoque parcus, comitate severus, severitate comis.’ His wide learning included a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek (Holland, Herωologia, 1620, p. 209). So great was his reputation in Norwich that he was commonly called ‘the apostle’ of that city. Robert Greene [q. v.] is generally supposed to allude to More's preaching in his account of the manner in which he was influenced by a sermon he heard in St. Andrew's Church, Norwich (The Repentance of Robert Greene, 1592). Granger mentions three portraits of More (Biog. Hist. i. 217, 218, 228), of which that in Holland's ‘Herωologia’ is the best. He is said to have worn the longest and largest beard of his time, for which he gave as a reason ‘that no
