The picture shows Sir Thomas More awaiting trial in the Tower of London, accompanied by his daughter Margaret Roper. It is probably a reduced version of (rather than a sketch for) the picture in the Tate Gallery (no.425, ex Vernon Collection) which Herbert exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 (no.364). The catalogue carried a quotation from William Roper's Life of More: 'One day, looking from his window, he saw four monks (who had also refused the oath of supremacy) going to their execution, and regretting that he could not bear them company, said, "Looke, Megge, dost thou not see that these blessed fathers be now going as cherefully to their deathes, as bridegrooms to their marriage?..."' The subject had an obvious appeal for Herbert, who was a convert to Roman Catholicism and a close friend of A.W.N. Pugin.

Another reduced version, dated 1850, was sold at Sotheby's Belgravia, 22 April 1975, lot 190.