Samuel More (1593–1662) was an English man at the centre of two historical incidents in 17th-century England. In the first, he arranged for the removal of his children to the New World aboard the Mayflower; later, during the English Civil War, a garrison under his command was massacred by besieging forces.
Samuel's father, Richard More, was master of Linley, an estate near Bishop's Castle close to the Welsh border. Samuel married his cousin Katherine More, whose father, Jasper More, was master of Larden, a 1,000-acre estate between Much Wenlock and Ludlow in Shropshire.
The mystery of why Samuel More sent his children on the dangerous journey on the Mayflower was not explained until 1959, when Jasper More, a descendant of Samuel, prompted by his genealogist friend, Sir Anthony Wagner, searched his attic and discovered a 1622 document which detailed the adultery of the children's mother, Katherine More. That admission led Samuel to believe that the children were not his offspring.[1] In 1616, Samuel accused his wife Katherine of adultery and bearing four children with Jacob Blakeway, a neighbour. Under his father's direction, Samuel removed the four children from their home. Four years later, without their mother's knowledge, they were transported to the New World aboard the Pilgrim Fathers' ship, the Mayflower, in the guardianship of other passengers. Only one of the children survived the hardships of the first winter in Plymouth.[2][3]