The History of the Fanshawe Family by H C Fanshawe 1927 Chapter 1 Fanshawe Gate. The conjecture at p. 264 of the Memoirs, that Henry ffanshawe the younger, the first of the nine of his family to hold the post of Queen's or King's Remembrancer of the Exchequer, found his way to London from a remote Derbyshire village, through the good services of Sir Christopher More (King's Remembrancer, 1543-1549), is confirmed by various slight indications. In Wotton's Baronetage, though that is not a very reliable authority, it is stated that John Wolstenholme (b. c. 1520) was nephew of Henry Fanshawe and great-nephew of Sir - More¹, which statement is however corroborated by Glover, the Derbyshire Historian. In addition to this link between the Fanshawe and More families there must have been some closer relationship as well. Henry Fanshawe, the Remembrancer, in his draft will of 1561, refers to William More, Esq.,* and to John More (undoubtedly the sons of Sir Christopher) as cousins; while Sir Christopher's daughter Margaret "Fynes,"' widow of Thomas Fiennes (the brother of Lord Dane) mentions a Fanshawe cousin; and Sir William More s daughter Alice, widow of Rickard Polstead, calls both the younger Henry Fanshawe's daughter Anne, and John Fanshawe's son Thomas, "cousin." If, as appears from this, Sir Christopher's children and grandchildren were cousins of the children and grandchildren of Henry Fanshawe the elder there must have been some More-Fanshawe relationship above the generation of Henry Fanshawe the Remembrancer, and his brother John; and their father (d. 1523) must, it seems, have married a More unless Sir Christopher's mother were a Fanshawe².

Note 1. Sir William More was afterwards Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and was succeeded in that post by his son Sir George More in June, 1601.

Note 2. The More family was of Norton, and Sir Christopher's grand-father, Thomas More of Greenhill, is recorded as having married Elizabeth Parker of the Parker family of that place, from which the Earl of Macclesfield, Lord Chancellor, 1720-25, was descended. A More (de Mora), of Norton, is mentioned as far back as 1384, and John More of Greenhill left to the Abbot of Beauehief, in 1533, two silver spoons, though, as the Abbey was surrendered the year before the will was proved in 1537, the poor Abbot got none. It is probable that the family was the same as that of Mower of which many branches existed round Dronfield in the XVI.XVII. centuries. There can be little doubt that Sir Christopher was called to London by one of the Blyth Bishops of Salisbury, and Lichfield³, sons of William Blyth of Norton and his wife Saffery Austen, half sister of Archbishop Rotherham of York (d. 1500), and daughter of John Austen of Birley, in Beighton (see family of Blyth by Edward L. Z. Blyth, 1901). The Blytli family acquired a footing in Norton from William Chaworth in 1376: the arms granted to it in 1485 were: Ermine, three roes trippant, gu., armed or; the motto adopted by it being "Veritate Victoria." John Blyth, Master of the Rolls' 1492-94, and Bishop of Salisbury 1491, was the third son of William and Saffery; he was also Chancellor of Cambridge University in 14S5, and died on 23 August, 1499. His chantry tomb with his effigy sadly mutilated, now stands at the s. end of the South transept of Salisbury Cathedral. The 4th son, Geoffrey, became Bishop of Lichfield in 1503, was Lord president of Wales 1512-24, and died in 1530. He gave to King s Hall, now Trinity College, Cambridge, the cup presented to him by King Ladislaus of Hungary on the occasion ot the King's marriage in September, 150S. His tomb lias entirely disappeared from Lichfield Cathedral; but the chantry tomb which he erected to his father and mother 'in Norton Church still exists, and is said to have been the original cause of inspiration of Sir Thomas Chantrey. It is worthy of note that the small village or Norton gave to England two Bishops, a Master of the Polls, and a Lord Chancellor, "a Remembrancer of the Exchequer (an office in the XV / XVI centurv almost equal to that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer), and one of the greatest of English Sculptors, who lies buried under a massive slab of granite in the pretty graveyard of the parish in which he was born. It may be noted further, regarding the Blyth family, that Richard the youngest son of William and Saffery, married Catherine Birchett, of Birchett Hall, half way between Norton and Dronlield, and became Lord of the Manor of the latter place, and their descendant Charles, son, of Anthony Blyth, sold the manor of Norton to John Bullock, in 1622, the husband of Katherine Fanshawe; and that Geoffrey Blyth, grandson of William and Saffery, succeeded his uncle as Master of Kind's Hall, in 1524, dying in 1542 several of the Abbots of Beauchief [Map] had the name of Norton, being no doubt of Norton origin. John Sheffield, Abbot from lo26, surrendered the Abbey to the" Crown on 4 February, 1536-his predecessor from 1516 John Greenwood, would have been the Abbot under whom Henry Fanshawe was educated. On the surrender of the Abbey, its income from property was valued at £157, of which about one-fifth was derived from four farms in Dronfield, which ultimately came into the endowment fund of Dronfield Grammar school, throuhg the gift of Henrv Fanshawe.

Sir Christopher More, like most of his immediate descendants, is buried in the Loseley Chapel of the Churchy of St. Nicholas, Guildford. His age at his death, on 16 August, 1549, is not stated, but as his son William was born ca. 1518-9, and he himself had aquired half of the Loseley estate in the parish of Compton in 1515, it can hardly have been later than 1480, in which case he was nearly 70 when he died. In 1532 he acquired the remainder of the Loseley property and received permission to impark it: in the same year lie was Sheriff of Surrey, and again, six years later. He was knighted in 1537, and became King's Remembrancer m 1543. A sister of his was 3rd wife of Sir John More, the Judge, father of the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas More. Sir Christopher was married first to Margaret Mudge, who was mother of his son Sir William and secoX to Constance, daughter of Richard Sackville, widow of William Heneage. Sir William More (who rebuilt Losely and died in 1600) was succeeded in turn by his son Sir George More (d. 1632), Lieutenant of the Tower, Treasurer of Prince Henry, and Chamberlain of the Exchequer - also father of that Anne More whose wooing and wedding was so nearly fatal to John Donne. Sir William's eldest daughter, Elizabeth or Alice married first, in 1567, Richard Polsted, of Albury, Thomas Fanshawe contributing some hogsheads of wine and some fat, doose (does), to the wedding festivities: this lady is mentioned in the will of Anne (daughter of Henry) Fanshawe in 1584: Mrs Polsted married, as her second husband Sir John Wooley, Latin Secrtary to the Queen Elizabeth; and as her third, Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, whose last wife was the Dowager Countess of Derby, Milton's "Cynosure of neighbouring eyes" while she resided at Harefield, near Denham.

Note 3. This was the common practice for securing reliable assistants in the XV. and XVI. centuries. Thus we find Robert Maryat "now attending with Mr. Fanshawe his majesty's Remembrancer in the Exchequer" was son of Richard Maryat, of Chesterfield, in which place Henry Fanshawe, and his brother Colyn, both owned lands.