More, Dame Gertrude

(1606-1633)

   Born Helen, she was the daughter of Cresacre More and granddaughter of Sir Thomas More "The Blessed" (1478-1535), lord chancellor of England. In 1625 Helen pronounced her vows as a Benedictine nun of the English Congregation of Our Ladies of Comfort in Cambray, France, and changed her name to Gertrude. She died of smallpox. The Spiritual Exercises of the Most Virtuous and Religious D. Gertrude More were published from her manuscripts in Paris in 1658 and in London in 1873. She is known to have written only two poems: "A Dittie to the Same Subject," in which she dwells upon the Cruxifiction; and "A Short Oblation of This Smal Work by the Writer Gatherer Thereof to Our Most Sweet and Merciful God," in which she dedicates herself to God, possibly written when she took her vows.

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Early Modern Women Poets (1520-1700). Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson, ed. Oxford University Press, 2001. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org).