William Roper

William Roper (c. 1496 - January 4, 1578) was an English lawyer and MP. The son of a Kentish gentleman, he married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas More. He wrote a highly respected biography of his father-in-law. The second, William Roper, was the eldest son of John Rooper (d. 1524), Attorney General Henry VIII, and his wife Jane (died 1544), daughter and associate of Sir John Fain, chief judge of the royal bench. The Ropers were an ancient Kent family, the owner of the estate of St. Dunstan outside the West Gate of Canterbury, as they were called the Gateway of the Roper. He was educated at an English university and studied law at Lincoln's Inn, having been drafted into a bar in 1525. He was appointed clerk of the royal bench, a post previously held by his father in this position. until shortly before his death. At the age of about twenty-three years, he is believed to have entered the family of Sir Thomas More and married Margaret, the eldest daughter of More, in 1521. They lived together at Well Hall in Eltham, Kent.