Margaret à Barrow (1500– 26 August 1560) was an English lady, well known for her learning. She is sometimes referred to as Margaret Aborough (a variant of à Barrow) or as Lady Margaret Elyot. Margaret was the daughter of Sir Thomas à Barrow (or Aborough) and she was one of a small group of children educated at the home of

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

. Her childhood studies, alongside More's daughter, Margaret, included "law, history, philosophy, and theology". Her links to More continued into adulthood and she was present at meetings at his home in which intellectuals discussed humanist theology. Around 1520, Margaret Aborough married the author

Thomas Elyot Sir Thomas Elyot (c. 149626 March 1546) was an English diplomat and scholar. He is best known as one of the first proponents of the use of the English language for literary purposes. Early life Thomas was the child of Sir Richard Elyot's firs ...

. Margaret and Elyot sat for portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger at the home of Thomas More. No oil paintings of these portraits survive. however the original drawings are held by the

Royal Collection Trust The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

. Although it is unknown how it came into her possession, Elyot owned the Yale Law School Manuscript of the Nova statuta Angliae and despite its value, she did not sell it. Instead she gave it as a gift to George Freville, a Cambridgeshire lawyer after her husband's death. Thomas Elyot died in approximately 1545 and Margaret would go on to marry, as her second husband, Sir

James Dyer Sir James Dyer (1510 – 24 March 1582) was a judge and Speaker of the House of Commons during the reign of Edward VI of England. Life Dyer was knighted at Whitehall on 9 April 1553, Strand Inn, preparatory 1520s, Middle Temple abt. 1530, ca ...

in April 1551. Dyer was a member of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

and scholarly lawyer who became Speaker of the House of Commons. She died on 26 August 1560 and is buried in St Andrew Churchyard,

Great Staughton Great Staughton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Great Staughton lies approximately south-west of Huntingdon. Great Staughton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abarrow, Margaret 1500 births 1560 deaths 16th-century English women People from Somerset