Legal actions and removal of the children
In 1616, Samuel More accused his wife Katherine of adultery with Jacob Blakeway, a neighbor. Following this accusation, under his father's direction, he initiated legal proceedings concerning the paternity and custody of the four children.The adultery was supposedly committed with Jacob Blakeway, a young man near in age to Katherine who lived close by and whose family had been More tenants for several generations. In 1608, Jacob Blakeway and his father Edward, a yeoman, had renewed a lease on a parcel of land owned by Katherine More's father, Jasper More of Larden Hall. The manor of Larden Hall was about half a mile from Brockton, where the Blakeway family lived. By a deed dated 20 April 1616, Samuel cut the entail on the Larden estate to prevent any of the children from inheriting. During the lengthy court battle, Samuel denied that he was the father of the children borne by his wife, Katherine, and claimed they were children of an adulterous relationship instead. Katherine did not deny her relationship with Jacob Blakeway, stating that there was a former betrothal contract with him, and therefore he was her true husband. This would have made her marriage to Samuel invalid. Samuel quotes her words in his declaration, "though she could not sufficiently prove by witnesses yet it was all one before god as she sayed". At that time, any of the usual witnesses would have been dead.
In that same year, by his own account, Samuel went to his employer and a More family friend, Lord Zouche, Lord President of the Council of Wales, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Privy Counselor, to draw up a plan for the disposition of the children. Zouche had been an active member of the Virginia Company. In 1617, he invested £100 in an expedition to the Colony of Virginia, where the Mayflower originally intended to land. His actions were instrumental in putting the More children on the Mayflower. At that time, children were routinely rounded up from the streets of London or taken from low-income families receiving church relief to be used as labourers in the New World colonies. Any legal objections to the involuntary transportation of the children were overridden by the Privy Council, namely, Lord Zouche. Most people thought it a death sentence, and indeed, many did not survive either the voyage or the harsh climate, disease, and scarcity of fresh food, for which they were ill-prepared.
Additionally, in 1616, Samuel More, under his father Richard's direction, removed all four children from Larden and placed them in the care of some of Richard's tenants near Linley. The removal was shortly after the youngest child had been baptised, which was on 16 April. According to Samuel's statement, the reason he sent the children away was "as the apparent likeness & resemblance … to Jacob Blakeway", quoting from "A true declaracon of the disposing of the fower children of Katherine More sett downe by Samuell More her late husband together with the reasons movinge him thereunto accasioned by a peticon of hers to the Lord Chief Justice of England and it is endorsed, Katherine Mores Petition to the Lord Chief Justice ...the disposing of her children to Virginia dated 1622". Samuel goes on to state that, during the time the children were with the tenants, Katherine went there and engaged in a struggle to take her children back: "Katharine went to the tenants dwelling where her children had been sequestered, and in a hail of murderous oaths, did teare the cloathes from their backes." There were at least twelve actions recorded between December 1619 and 8 July 1620, when it was finally dismissed.
The statement details that soon after the denial of the appeal on 8 July 1620, the children were transported from Shipton to London by a cousin of Samuel More and given into the care of Thomas Weston, "…and delivered to Philemon Powell who was intreated to deliver them to John Carver and Robert Cushman undertakers for the associats (sic) of John Peers (Pierce). for the plantacon (sic) of Virginia…" in whose home they would be staying while awaiting ship boarding. Thomas Weston and Philemon Powell were both poor choices and Thomas Weston especially was quite disreputable. In later years, Weston would become an enemy of the Crown. As the agent of the Merchant Adventurer investment group that was funding the Puritan voyage, Bradford states that Weston caused them many financial and agreement contract problems, both before and after the Mayflower sailed. Weston’s Puritan contacts for the voyage were John Carver and Robert Cushman, who jointly agreed to find the children guardians among the Mayflower passengers. Carver and Cushman were agents from the Puritans to oversee preparations for the voyage, with Robert Cushman's title being Chief Agent from 1617 until he died in 1625. Within several weeks of the More children's arrival in London, and without their mother Katherine's knowledge or approval, they were in the care of others on the Mayflower, bound for New England.
After the Mayflower sailed, Katherine made another attempt to challenge the decision through the courts. This legal action in early 1622 before Chief Justice James Ley led to Samuel's statement explaining where he sent the children and why, the historical evidence for his parents' history.
