Margaret Clement

Margaret Clement (1508–1570), born Margaret Giggs, was a highly educated woman of the Tudor era and the foster daughter of Sir Thomas More. She grew up with More's own daughter, also named Margaret, under his guardianship. Clement excelled in algebra, which interested More enough to keep her "algorisme stone" during his imprisonment. Devoted to Catholicism, she aided the Carthusian Martyrs, who were imprisoned for refusing to renounce their faith, and obtained the shirt Thomas More wore during his execution in 1535, preserving it as a relic.

Clement's education, provided by More despite gender norms of the time, focused on mathematics, medicine, theology, philosophy, and Greek. Scholars like John Clement and Nicholas Kratzer assisted her studies. She remained a Catholic throughout her life, leading to her exile in the Habsburg Netherlands after England's religious reforms. She died in Mechlin, Duchy of Brabant, on July 6, 1570. Her two daughters included Winifred Clement, who married William Rastell, and Margaret Clement, who led a convent in Leuven.