Elizabeth Dauncey

Elizabeth Dauncey (née More; 1506–1564), one of Thomas More's children, was part of a circle of exceptionally educated and accomplished women who exemplified "learned ladies" for the next two centuries. Early life and education Elizabeth More was the second child of Thomas More and his first wife, Jane Colte (1488-1511). Margaret (later Roper; 1505-1544) was the eldest; Cecily (later Heron; 1507-?) and John (1509-1547) were younger. Shortly after the death of his first wife, Thomas More married Alice Middleton and the family expanded to include her daughter Alice (1501-1563), as well as two young women whom Thomas More adopted: Margaret Giggs (who eventually married John Clement, a sometime tutor to the family) and Anne Cresacre (1511–1577; Cresacre eventually married Elizabeth's brother John). Elizabeth and her siblings were educated in the humanist tradition by More, their tutor, William Gunnell, and a series of notable intellectuals within Thomas More's orbit such as Nicholas Kratzer (1487? – 1550). The More household was a lively intellectual hub of activity, "a model of humanistic interests" and a "magnet" for Erasmus. "She was educated in the learned languages, and most of the sciences, by ... great masters ... in which she was a very great proficient," according to biographer George Ballard. "She corresponded with Erasmus, who applauds her for her pure Latin style, and genteel way of writing." Eighteenth-century poet Mary Scott wrote that the three More sisters "were all women of great talents and learning." Thomas More insisted upon giving his daughters the same classical education as his son, an unusual attitude at the time. He wrote that girls were "equally suited for those studies by which reason is cultivated and becomes fruitful like a ploughed land on which the seed of good lessons has been sown." And Margaret More, in particular, is considered to have been one of the most learned women in sixteenth-century England. Thomas More's humanistic ideas about the education of girls did not oppose existing ideas about gender roles, however, as he still felt that women should remain within the private sphere.