Loseley Park (as the house is now called) stands about two miles outside Guildford in what is now the civil parish of Artington, although formerly part of St. Nicolas' parish, Guildford. Loseley manor also included lands in the neighboring parishes of Compton, Godalming, Haslemere and Chiddingfold. The earliest surviving Loseley deeds (temp. John) show the de Dol family in possession. After the death of Robert de Dol in 1356 the manor was divided between the heirs of his two daughters and was not reunited until 1508. Christopher More, who then bought both moieties (one from Humphrey Sydney and one from John Westbrook), was an Exchequer official of Derbyshire extraction. He rose to be King's Remembrancer, gained a knighthood, prudently invested the emoluments of office in real property, and by the time he died in 1549 was a substantial county gentleman who had twice served as sheriff.

As various inaccurate statements have been made in print about the relation of the Loseley family to the Chancellor Sir Thomas More, it is perhaps worth mentioning that the connexion was by marriage and the similarity of name coincidental. A pedigree in Sir William More's hand (no. 1327/6) shows that Sir Christopher's sister Alice was "maried to Clarke and after to John More, kt., Justice of ye King's Bench", thus becoming one of the Chancellor's stepmothers. There is no evidence of any blood relationship.

Christopher's son Sir William More (1520-1600), who built the present house and entertained Queen Elizabeth I there, was a Chamberlain of the Exchequer and held at one time or another all the offices appropriate to a prominent man in the county - J.P., M.P., sheriff, deputy lieutenant, Commissioner of Arroy, Collector of the Loan, Farmer of the Ulnage, Verderer of Windsor Forest, deputy Swan Master for Surrey, Vice-Admiral for Sussex, Treasurer for the Lottery. The correspondence at Loseley shows that he enjoyed the Queen's favor and the confidence of great men of the day. His son George, a man of similar stamp, was also highly regarded by Elizabeth I; James I made him Treasurer to Henry Prince of Wales, Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, and Lieutenant of the Tower of London. Sir William and his son both married heiresses as well as adding to the family estates by purchase; Sir George further strengthened his position as a local magnate by buying the manor and hundred of Godalming from the Crown. The secret marriage of Sir George's daughter Anne with John Donne gave rise to the famous letters (now in the Folger Shakespeare Library).

None of Sir George's descendants played a part in public affairs comparable to that of the first three Mores, although the second Sir William (1643-1684) was active as J.P., M.P., and sheriff during his short career. Robert, the last male of the line, died in 1689; one of his two sisters died soon after, and the survivor, Margaret, who had married Thomas Molyneux of Westhoughton, Lancashire, inherited the estate. The present family of More-Molyneux are descended from this couple.

The most celebrated of the external archives in the Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey are the papers of Sir Thomas Cawarden (d. 1559), which were retained by his friend and executor Sir William More. Cawarden is best known as Master of the Revels and of the King's Tents under Henry VIII and his three successors; he was also steward of several royal manors and palaces, a commissioner for Edward VI's surveys of church goods, a leading man in Surrey affairs, and a parvenu landowner whose share of monastic spoils included properties taken from Lingfield College, Kenilworth Abbey and the Black Friars in London. All but a few of the Revels papers and many of Cawarden's other official and personal papers are now in the Folger Library. Some are in the bound volumes of "historical correspondence" retained at Loseley. The most important of the Cawarden papers now at Guildford are (1) records of the Tents Office from 1542-1558, (2) surveys of chantries and inventories of church goods (published in the Surrey Archaeological Collections), (3) paybooks, inventories, etc. relating to Nonsuch and Hampton Court Palaces, and (4) some Blackfriars deeds with interesting topographical detail.

Sir William was also executor to William Sworder, Master of Eastbridge Hospital, Canterbury (d. 1575), and thus acquired papers belonging to the Sworder of Swerder family of Harlow, Essex. The collection includes many wills and inventories of other persons for whom the Mores acted as executors, ranging from John Twisilton (d. 1527), a wealthy London goldsmith, to Surrey yeomen and husbandmen.

(taken from a description of the Loseley Manuscripts prepared for the Historical Manuscripts Commission)