At his meals he was very abstemious, nor ever eat but of one dish, which was most commonly powdered beef, or some such saltmeat.  In his youth he abstained wholly from wine; and as he was temperate in his diet, so was he heedless and negligent in his apparel.  Being once told by his secretary Mr. Harris, that his shoes were all torn, he bad him tell his man to buy him new ones, whose business it was to take care of his cloaths, whom for this cause he called his tutor.  His first wife’s name was Jane Cole, descended of a genteel family, who bore him four children, and upon her decease, which in not many years happened, he married a second time a widow, one Mrs. Alice Middleton, by whom he had no children.  This he says he did not to indulge his passions (for he observes that it it harder to keep chastity in wedlock than in a single life,) but to take care of his children and houshold affairs.  Upon what principle this observation is founded, I cannot well conceive, and wish Sir Thomas had given his reasons why it is harder to be chaste in a married than single life.  This wife was a worldly minded woman, had a very indifferent person, was advanced in years, and possessed no very agreeable temper.  Much about this time he became obnoxious to Henry vii for opposing his exactions upon the people.  Henry was a covetous mean prince, and entirely devoted to the council of Emson and Dudley, who then were very justly reckoned the caterpillars of the state.  The King demanded a large subsidy to bestow on his eldest daughter, who was then about to be married to James iv. of Scotland.  Sir Thomas being one of the burgesses, so influenced the lower house by the force of his arguments, (who were cowardly enough before not to oppose the King) that they refused the demands, upon which Mr. Tiler of the King’s Privy-Chambers went presently to his Majesty, and told him that More had disappointed all their expectations, which circumstance not a little enraged him against More.  Upon this Henry was base enough to pick a quarrel without a cause against Sir John More, his venerable father, and in revenge to the son, clapt him in the Tower, keeping him there prisoner till he had forced him to pay one hundred pounds of a fine, for no offence.  King Henry soon after dying, his son who began his reign with some popular acts, tho’ afterwards he degenerated into a monstrous tyrant, caused Dudley and Emson to be impeached of high treason for giving bad advice to his father; and however illegal such an arraignment might be, yet they met the just fate of oppressors and traitors to their country.

About the year 1516, he composed his famous book called the Utopia, and gained by it great reputation.  Soon after it was published, it was translated both into French and Italian, Dutch and English.  Dr. Stapleton enumerates the opinions of a great many learned men in its favour.  This work tho’ not writ in verse, yet in regard of the fancy and invention employed in composing it, may well enough pass for