The Meeting of Sir Thomas More With His Daughter After His Sentence to Death

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William Frederick Yeames

(English, 1835-1918)

The Meeting of Sir Thomas More With His Daughter After His Sentence to Death, 1863

Oil on canvas

After the reading of his sentence, the constable escorted More to an awaiting barge, which carried him the short ways down the Thames toward the Tower of London.  The party disembarked the barge at Old Swan Stairs.  An armed guard led More, dressed in a coarse woolen gown, up Old Swan Lane and down Thames Street.  As More and his guards approached the Tower, his daughter Margaret knelt to receive his blessing, then embraced and kissed him.  More then was escorted through the large crowd back to his cell, where he would spend the last six days of his life.

Account found here.