Mother Mary More

Who was Mother Mary More?

Mother Mary More O.S.A. was the ninth and last lineal descendant of Sir Thomas More and Prioress of the English Convent at Bruges.

Mary More was born in Barnborough, near Doncaster, to a recusant family. The daughter of Thomas More and Catherine Giffard. Her brother was Fr. John More, Superior of the English Jesuits.

She was sent to be educated at the Convent of Nazareth, Bruges where she was professed as a canoness in 1753. In 1766 she was elected to succeed Mother Olivia Darrell as seventh Prioress. Mother More helped English Jesuits and their pupils ejected from their school in Bruges by the Emperor Joseph II in 1772.

In 1791 Bruges was overrun by the French Revolutionary Army but Mother More and her community did not leave until July 1794 when they fled to England. Sir Thomas Gage, 6th Baronet, also a recusant, offered them the use of Hengrave Hall near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk where they stayed until 1802, when they returned to Bruges.

Mother Mary More died in 1807 and is buried in Bruges.