As More's royal duties frequently required his attendance at the king's Thames-side palaces in both Richmond and Greenwich, it was convenient to select a riverside property situated between them (the common method of transport being by boat) for his home. In about 1520, for £30 (equivalent to £24,000 in 2023) he purchased a 27-acre (11-hectare) parcel of land stretching from the Thames in Chelsea to the present-day King's Road; the east and west boundaries are represented by the present-day Old Church Street and Millman's Street.[1] There he built a dignified red-brick mansion (known simply as More's house or Chelsea House). As well as a family chapel within the building, More had built a separate, small chapel in the grounds for himself for solitary prayer and penance.[2]
More moved in by 1525, as is shown by the bawdy poem The Twelve Mery Jestes of Wyddow Edyth, written by a member of More's household (or even by More himself) using the pseudonym of "Walter Smith" and published in March of that year: the widow arrives by boat at "Chelsay[…]where she had best cheare of all/in the house of Syr Thomas More."[3][4]
By 1620 the property had passed through the hands of the Earl of Lincoln into the possession of the earl's son-in-law Sir Arthur Gorges, who sold it to Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex. In 1627, Cranfield surrendered the estate to the Duke of Buckingham, when it became known as Buckingham House. In 1674, it was acquired by the Earl of Bristol, whose widow Anne sold it to the Marquess of Worcester, the future Duke of Beaufort. In 1682 the property was renamed Beaufort House after its new owner.[9] It gave its name to the present-day Beaufort Street.[7]
The final owner, from 1737, was Sir Hans Sloane, who demolished the building in 1739.[7] The north (Kings Road) gate to the property, designed by Inigo Jones, was saved and transported to Chiswick House.[10]
References
^Wood, Martin (2008). The Family and Descendants of St. Thomas More. Leominster, England: Gracewing. p. 54. ISBN9780852446812.
^Ackroyd, Peter (1998). The life of Thomas More. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 235. ISBN1-85619-711-5.
^Bibliographer William Carew Hazlitt in his Shakespeare Jest Book Volume III (OCLC690506548) assigns publication of the work to More's brother-in-law John Rastell, with a date of 23 March 1525.
^Stone, Lawrence (1961). "The Fruits of Office". In Fisher, F. J. (ed.). Essays in the Economic and Social History of Tudor and Stuart England. Cambridge University press. p. 105. ISBN978-0-521-02552-2.
^Beaver, Alfred (1892). Memorials of Old Chelsea. London: Elliot Stock. pp. 118–138. OCLC499072940. In…1682…Chelsey…was sold to…the first Duke of Beaufort…and henceforth bore [the] name.