Trinity Church, New York City

by David Jeffreys - ©July, 2009
When I became interested in Moore genealogy back in 1976, I began looking to Stephen's ancestors, and in particular his father, Col. John Moore of New York City. Thus, I wrote to Trinity Church for information in 1977 and this was the reply:

(click on images to make them more readable)

With more research, I found:

John Moore, Esq. (1745-1828), the grandson of Col. John Moore of New York City, wrote on 29th April 1821:

“My Grandfather was . . . .born in South Carolina 11 August, 1686, and died at New York the 29th October in 1749, and was the first corpse interred in the Family vault, south side of Trinity church-yard. I had the stone with his name cut at full length placed over it. Uncle Lambert Moore paid the expense.”

During the Stephen Moore Reunion at West Point in 1991, some of us took a side trip into New York City, worshipped at Trinity Church on 28 July 1991, and walked around the area including Moore Street.

Also, I was able to gather some more information about the history of Trinity Church and the churchyard.

The John Moore vault is in the Sec. S.3.

According to the green brochure above "a city ordinance prohibiting any further burials in lower Manhattan . . . [about] 1843. During the first decades of the 19th century all of the city's burial grounds had become overcrowded and unsanitary as recurrent epidemics raged, and mortality soared yearly."

Approximately 1983, Terri O'Neill copied from the Trinity Burial Register the following information about the John Moore vault:

"John Moore Vault 11 feet south of L Reade vault, south side of Church"-
1) John Moore, Esq. died 29 Oct 1749...was the first corpse interred in family vault South side of Trinity Church.
2) His wife Frances Lambert died 1782 March
3) Rebecca Moore [daughter of John & Frances]
4) Susannah (Moore) wife of John Smyth of NY
5) Lambert Moore
6) Thomas Moore 1784
7) Elizabeth (Channing) Moore 1805
8) Daniel Moore, Capt of British man of war, killed at sea 1777
9) Judith (Livingston) Moore, daughter of James Livingston, Esq. of Poughkeepsie, 1813
10) John Moore died 1828
11) Magdalen M. Onderdonk, died Oct 1836. Moved from St. Ann's Ground, Brooklyn, 3/16/1860. [She was a daughter of Lambert Moore.]
12) Jane (Holland) Moore died 14 June 1767. [First wife of Lambert Moore]

The last burial in the vault, according to Trinity Church records, parish burial register, vol. 2:482, was the son of John Moore, Esq., Thomas William Channing Moore, d. 7 Dec 1872, burial-10 Dec.

The Organ

When we were in New York City in 1991 worshipping as the descendants of John Moore, we heard the magnificent 1823 Skinner Organ. Just ten years later and 600 feet away, the World Trade Center collapsed on 9-11-2001. See the first postcard picture of the church above with the World Trade Center tower in the background. The Trinity Church building and its facade were left relatively unhurt; however, the resulting dust all but destroyed the organ. The Aeolian-Skinner organ was taken apart and stored, perhaps awaiting restoration or perhaps replaced by a new pipe organ, either of which will be very expensive. For the interim, a digital organ, was built and installed there in 2003 by Marshall & Ogletree of Needham Heights, Massachusetts. For an electronic digital organ, it is at the cutting edge of technology especially with its sampling of organ notes. Owen Burdick, the organist, insists that as fine as this interim instrument sounds, a pipe organ will be back.

Portraits of the Col. John Moore Family

by David E. Jeffreys - ©July, 2009

In 1966, Margaret Simons Middleton wrote a book published by the University of South Carolina Press entitled Henrietta Johnston of Charles Town, South Carolina – America’s First Pastellist. The book has long been out of print and I first found out about it reading an article in the February, 1978 issue of Smithsonian magazine. The portraits themselves appear to be in the public domain. Upon my inquiry, the author of the article, Miriam Troop wrote to me:

I was lucky enough then to get one of the remainders from the press itself, as Ms. Troop suggested.
Included among the many portraits that Henrietta Johnston painted are four portraits of members of the Col. John Moore Family. Margaret Middleton writes:
Then in 1725, portraits were signed and dated in “New York.” Several depict the members of the family of John Moore, Secretary of South Carolina, who had moved to New York from St. Thomas Parish.¹
Perhaps there may have been some confusion regarding the two generations of John Moores – Hon. John Moore who had been the Secretary of the Province in Charles Town who later moved to Philadelphia, and his son, Col. John Moore of New York, whose family is depicted in the Portraits. Of interest since the elder Hon. John Moore had been Secretary of the Province is a drawing (which is not attributed) of the Office building:

John Moore, Esq. (1745-1828), the grandson of Col. John Moore of New York City, wrote the following account on his birthday the 29th April 1821:


My Grandfather was . . . .born in South Carolina 11 August, 1686, and died at New York the 29th October in 1749, and was the first corpse interred in the Family vault, south side of Trinity church-yard. I had the stone with his name cut at full length placed over it. Uncle Lambert Moore paid the expense.
FRANCES MOORE, his wife. Her maiden name was Lambert---they were married at New York the 9th of December 1713. She was descended from a respectable Family in France, which fled from that country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantz---born in New York the 17th April 1692, and died 21 March 1782 and interred in the Family vault.
Names of their children, beside which there were several premature births.
1st. Daughter Frances, born 1715 --- married Samuel Bayard; died at Throgs Neck.
2nd. Rebecca, born 1717, died unmarried; interred in family vault.
3rd. Son John, born 1719, died unmarried in Jamaica in early life.
4th. Daughter Susanah, born 1720; died in infancy before the vault was made.
5th. Son Thomas & 6th. Son Peter, Twins. Died 1721, as infants before the vault was made.
7th. Son Thomas, twin - My Father
8th. Peter, twin, This second Peter died also an infant before vault was made.
9th. Son Richard, born 1724, died at Barbadoes about 1784.
10th. Daughter Susanah, born 1725, married John Smyth died at N. Y. Interred in the vault.
11th. Son Lambert, twin born 1727, married twice; interred in vault.
12th Son Daniel, twin born 1727, Died an infant before vault was made.
13th. Daniel, born 1728. Died an infant.
14th. Daniel, born 1729, died unmarried at Jamaica, in advanced life
15th. William, born 1730, died unmarried at Coracoa in early life.
16th. Charles, born 1732, married Eve Hall, died in North Carolina
17th. Stephen, born 1734, married Grizzy Philips, died in North Carolina, aged [65]
18th. Ann, born 1738, unmarried and still living in perfect health and very active in the 85th year of age.
(spelling left intact--editor)

From this account, the reader finds that Col. John’s wife, Frances Lambert Moore, bore 18 children in 15 pregnancies over 23 years in which 12 lived beyond infancy. There were 3 sets of twins. She was pregnant almost every year after their marriage until she was 44 years old. Those years of childbearing seemed to have strengthened her, rather than weakening her, as she lived to be almost 90 years old.


PORTRAIT OF COL. JOHN MOORE of NEW YORK CITY

Pastel Portrait by Henrietta Johnston, 1725

Colonel John Moore (1686-1749)
Colonel John Moore, who portrait is signed and dated 1725, was born in St. Thomas Parish, South Carolina, the son of John Moore (c. 1659-1732) and Rebecca Axtell. John Moore, the father, was Secretary of the Province of South Carolina but about 1695/6, with his family, he moved to Philadelphia. From Philadelphia the son went on to New York City where he attained distinction as an alderman; a member of the Provincial Council; and of the legislature; he was also colonel of the New York City Regiment of Foot. He was a vestryman and warden of Trinity Church and is believed to be the first person buried in the graveyard of that Church. The story of of his homes is interesting. In New York City he owned Whitehall . . ., and in the country he owned Moore’s Folly on the Hudson River which was later purchased for the site of the United States Military Academy, now known as West Point.
The ownership of this pastel is not known and only the previous ownership can be given.
Owned for many years by the late Luke Vincent Lockwood, New York City.²


PORTRAIT OF MRS. JOHN MOORE

Pastel Portrait by Henrietta Johnston, 1725

Mrs. John Moore (1692-1782)
Mrs. John Moore was born Frances Lambert. She was of Huguenot ancestry and came to this country as a small child to escape persecution. She had many children besides the two whose pastels were drawn by Henrietta Johnston, and she lived to a good old are.
Mrs. Samuel Schwartz, the owner of this portrait, has given the following description: “Mrs. John Moore (Frances Lambert), has dark brown hair, and brown eyes. Her dress is yellow with orange highlights. The stole she wears over her left arm (on right side of the picture) is a lavender taupe.” ³


PORTRAIT OF FRANCES LAMBERT MOORE

Pastel Portrait by Henrietta Johnston: 1725

Frances Lambert Moore (1715-1805)
Frances Lambert Moore was the eldest daughter of Colonel John Moore and Frances Lambert Moore. She was born in New York in 1715. She married Samuel Bayard, Esquire, of Throg’s Neck, New York, the grand nephew of Peter Stuyvesant. Inscribed on the back of this pastel is: “Henrietta Johnston Fecit, New York. Ano 1725.” The subject was ten years of age when this pastel was done.
Also on the back of the pastel is a long list of ownerships, all of the Bayard family. Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Schwartz.⁴


PORTRAIT OF THOMAS MOORE

Pastel Portrait by Henrietta Johnston: 1725

Thomas Moore (fl. 1725)
This painting is usually referred to as “The Portrait of Bishop Moore’s Father, as a Child.” Several affidavits testify to the fact that this is the pastel of little Thomas Moore, so of Colonel John Moore and his wife Frances Lambert Moore. Thomas Moore became the father of Bishop Moore, the Right Reverend Richard Channing Moore, D.D., (1782-1841), Bishop of Virginia (1814-1841).
The pastel represents a very young child of perhaps four years and this description was furnished by Mr. George M. McClancy, Jr., of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: “The predominating dark-light effect of this portrait is immediately offset by the bright reddish brown sash, the red belt and the red feathers of the arrows. The flesh is mostly white, touched with pink, and with blue for shadows and modeling. The eyes are blue; the lips are red; and the hair is brown though greyed almost to a neutral. The dress is bluish-white and the background is black and white with faint suggestions of blue and brown. With the exception of the reds, the colors are very faint.”
This pastel of Thomas Moore was given by Alexander W. Weddell to The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia.⁵

Of course, these pastels were painted some 9 years before Stephen was born; therefore, he and a number of the other children are not included. More to come on Trinity Church, New York City, and the burial vault in a future post. Of interest also is that Stephen was named godfather of Thomas Moore’s (depicted above as a child) son and his nephew, Richard Channing Moore, and he returned to New York City from Quebec in August, 1762 for the baptism.

____________________________________

¹Henrietta Johnston of Charles Town, South Carolina – America’s First Pastellist by Margaret Simons Middleton, p. 47. University of South Carolina Press, 1966. Out of print.
²Ibid, p. 64.
³Ibid, p. 64.
⁴Ibid, p. 64-65.
⁵Ibid, p. 65.

Hon. John Moore (1659-1732) of SC & PA

Editor’s note: For so long, indeed more than a couple of centuries, we have relied on previous genealogists to believe that we are descended from the Moores of Fawley, Berkshire County, England. This research by Terri O’Neill corrects this mistaken lineage. A somewhat enhanced and different version appears in the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 44 (2005) entitled “A Corrected Lineage of Hon. John Moore of South Carolina and Pennsylvania” by Terri Bradshaw O’Neill.

Hon. John Moore (1659-1732) of SC & PA
By Terri Bradshaw O’Neill, © as previously published in the Moore/Stanford/Webb Chronicles, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1996

John Moore's memoirs report the ancestry of his great-grandfather, Hon. John Moore, as being descended from the Moores of Fawley in Berkshire, England. This lineage was repeated in various publications over the ensuing 175 years, and was virtually unchallenged until 1990 when an attempt was made to obtain the coat-of-arms of the Moores of Fawley from the College of Arms in London as a gift for a purported descendant of that family. Some explanation of the origins of the research conducted over the past five years is in order here. In the process of validating the lineage, the Lancaster Herald noted some discrepancies and set off a flurry of correspondence among several researchers and descendants of Hon. John Moore. The College of Arms in London, unlike the companies in this country that routinely produce generic surname, computer generated coats-of-arms on request, could not verify the lineage as it was presented. The question was, which was the correct coat-of-arms: ten crosses, crosslet (the only device used by the American Moores) or the moorcock of the Moores of Fawley? The Herald at the College of Arms asked for any proof that could be supplied from this country and wanted to know what sources were used to make the claim of connection to the Moores of Fawley. When I was contacted at that point, I had to admit that I had been relying on the information provided by David Moore Hall's book, Six Centuries of Moores of Fawley, published in 1904, and had never checked the sources or tried to obtain primary evidence to support the claims therein. I agreed to help in locating any proof available in this country to substantiate the reported ancestry of John Moore, which quest sent me to repositories of manuscript collections in North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York.
The emigrant ancestor and subject of this study is often referred to as Hon. John Moore, a title no doubt acquired as a result of some of his many appointments in Colonial Pennsylvania. He was Deputy-judge of the Vice-Admiralty and Attorney General of Pennsylvania.¹ The title also serves to distinguish among the several men of the same name in four generations: Hon. John Moore of South Carolina & Pennsylvania; his eldest son, Col. John Moore of NY; eldest son of Col. John Moore, John; and John Moore, Esq. of NY, the author of the Memoirs.

Discrepancies Begin to Surface
One of the strongest arguments for the connection between Hon. John Moore and the Moores of Fawley, other than John Moore's Memoirs, was Hall's Six Centuries. David Moore Hall had obviously used John Moore's Memoirs in compiling his work as well [as] information supplied by other family historians of Moore descent. He cited these sources as authorities and also included several editions of Sir John Bernard Burke's work, such as Extinct Baronetcies (1844), Peerage (1834), Peerage (18 52), Commoners (1833-38), Landed Gentry (1847 & 1886) and Extinct Peerage (18 3 1). Today, Burke's works are considered somewhat unreliable on their own, must be regarded with a degree of skepticism and substantiated with other records. One source in particular that Hall used, Horace Wemyss Smith's The Life and Correspondence of Dr. William Smith, D. D., is rife with errors regarding the Moore lineage and is the source of a particularly virulent piece of misinformation: that Hon. John Moore and Gov. James Moore of South Carolina were brothers. That they were not is proven by a letter (circa 1850) from Thomas William Channing Moore to Rev. Dr. Francis Lister Hawks, who was compiling a history of the Carolinas, in which he states: "I did not find any evidence to show that this John Moore was related to Gov. James Moore. He [John] was of English, and not Irish family."² David Moore Hall in his discussion of the differing coats of arms, states: "our descent .. is abundantly proved by the impalement of arms in Christ Church deeds in 1695 ... from the seal of the Hon. John Moore" and "In 1770, Captain Thomas William Moore, British Army, upon one of his frequent visits to England, brought from the Herald's College, a document containing the arms, crest and motto of Sir John Moore [of Fawley], the then baronet, and possibly the pedigree filed by Nicholas Moore in 1569, and Ashmole's Visitation of Berks, in 1664, used later by Mr. Burke. These arms corresponded in every detail with those already in use by the family in America, and the impalement in Christ Church deeds in 1695." That sounds thoroughly authoritative and convincing. However, neither the "impalement of arms in Christ Church deeds" nor the 1770 visit of Thomas William Moore to the College of Arms can be verified, despite extensive efforts to do so. I have personally inspected two of the original parchment deeds of Christ Church, Philadelphia, dated 1702. They contain the signature of John Moore as a witness to the conveyance, but there was no seal affixed by John Moore. The text of one of the deeds bears the dates of earlier transactions concerning the property, namely 1688, 1689, and 1695/6. There is no way of knowing if David M. Hall actually saw these deeds, but I suspect he did not. They are the only original deeds extant at Christ Church Archives. In addition to seeing those deeds in person, I have also read and transcribed the microfilmed copies of those deeds and several other conveyances of Christ Church property. The person selling or transferring the land affixes a seal with his signature. John Moore was never the seller in any of the conveyances, but was a witness and therefore only his signature appears. Mr. Hall apparently explained away the discrepancies of the coats of arms to his own satisfaction, but his documentation doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

What's Wrong With This Picture?
The Lancaster Herald of the College of Arms in London, Mr. Peter Gwynn-Jones, reported that the parish records of Fawley and several probate jurisdictions were searched for verification of the lineage. The result of those searches was that not a shred of evidence was found to support a connection between the families of John Moore in America and the Moores of Fawley. Additionally, the research led to the exposure of a glaring error in the lineage, namely the assertion of a marriage between one Francis Moore of Fawley and Mary Cary daughter of Edward, supposed to have occurred in 1655. This Francis Moore and Mary Cary were supposed to be the parents of our emigrant ancestor, John Moore, born in 1659. However, the Herald pointed out the impossibility of this marriage. The Cary lineage indeed shows a Mary, daughter of Edward, but she was born 50 years after the alleged marriage. This error along with the Herald's inability to reconcile the use of two different coats of arms in two branches of supposedly the same family indicated some serious mistakes had been made in the American Moore's genealogy. John Moore's memoirs state that "Sir John Moore was created Knight by King Charles the 1st on 21st May 1627". This is incorrect. The dignity of Baronet was conferred on one Henry Moore at that time and indeed, the Moores of Fawley were granted arms: Argent, a moorcock, sable, combed and warded, gules. However, the descendants of Hon. John Moore of South Carolina and Pennsylvania used as their coat of arms: ten crosses, crosslet. The Herald reported that "no Moores have ever been granted ten crosses, crosslet, leading to the speculation that the American branch simply assumed the use of that coat of arms without authority. As Mr. Gwynn-Jones put it, "...Thomas Moore [brother of Hon. John Moore] himself evidently made no claim to belong to that [Moores of Fawley] family, because when he erected the memorial to his wife in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey, he displayed on it not the arms of Moore of Fawley but a modified version (apparently) of those of a Lancashire family of Moore." This was an important discrepancy, the implications of which were completely lost on me at first, being unfamiliar with the protocols of Heraldry. Mr. Gwynn-Jones patiently and diplomatically pointed out that, if they were the same family, they would use the same coat of arms with a difference, marks used to denote different sons or different branches. Several attempts have been made to locate a family that was granted ten crosses, crosslet as their coat of arms and then link them to a Moore family, including the Lancashire Moore family mentioned, but none has been successful. No example of Hon. John Moore ever having used the device of ten crosses, crosslet has been located, but as noted by the Herald, his brother in England and subsequent generations in America did. And, of course, John Moore's memoirs mention that his grandfather's "plate" carried a coat of arms. These are the examples of Moores using ten crosses, crosslet as their coat of arms that have been located:
~In 1720, John's brother, Thomas, the Librarian at Westminster Abbey in London, used it on a monumental inscription for his wife, Elizabeth, which can still be seen in the Little Cloisters.
~In 1738, Richard Moore (c. 1709-1738), a son of John Moore and his wife Rebecca (Axtell) Moore, died in Jamaica. In St. Andrew's Parish, Kingston, Jamaica, there is a monumental inscription engraved with the names of Richard Moore, Frances Martin and her husband John Martin, and a coat of arms showing the ten crosses, crosslet impaled with the arms of Martin (3 bendlets, a chief erm.).³ John Martin died in 1710 age 32, and Frances died 1714 age 33. Who were John and Frances Martin, and why were they memorialized with Richard Moore? Until this monumental inscription was located, Frances was unknown to Moore family historians, but the inscription connects her to the family in two ways: the coat of arms is the same as that being used by the American Moores, and she is memorialized with a known son of John & Rebecca. The prevailing theory (as yet unsubstantiated with primary evidence) is that Frances Martin was the daughter of John Moore by a first marriage, and thus Richard's half-sister. There is evidence that John Moore arrived in the Province of South Carolina in 1683 with a wife named Katherine.⁴ It is presumed that she died shortly after their arrival and John subsequently married Rebecca Axtell in about 1685. There are no extant parish records to provide evidence of Katherine's death or the marriage of John & Rebecca, but the proof of their marriage is in the Wills of John Moore and Rebecca's sister, Ann Boone.⁵ The monumental inscription in Jamaica indicates that Frances was born circa 1681. Records have been searched in England and Barbados for a marriage between John Moore and Katherine, a baptism of Frances or a marriage between Frances and John Martin, without success. Barbados was included in the search because it is believed that John Moore may have been there some time before his arrival in South Carolina. Richard Moore was born in 1709, a mere 5 years before the death of Frances Martin, but when he reached adulthood and went to Jamaica to seek his livelihood as a merchant and trader, one may suppose his father asked him to see to the grave of his long-dead kinswoman. In the process, perhaps he saw to his own mortal remains in arranging for the monumental inscription.
~In 1758, William Moore (1699-1783) of Moore Hall, Chester County, Pennsylvania, son of John & Rebecca, used ten crosses, crosslet on a seal for letters and documents. His father used two different seals on documents that have survived, but they are both ornamental rather than heraldic, and they depict neither ten crosses, crosslet nor the moorcock of the Moores of Fawley.⁶
~Lambert Moore (1727-1805) and Stephen Moore (1734-1799), both grandsons of John Moore and sons of Col. John Moore of NY, each had engraved bookplates depicting ten crosses, crosslet.
~John Moore, Esq. (1745-1828), the author of the Memoirs, had the same device on his bookplate.

A Case of Mistaken Lineage, or The 225-Year-Old Hoax
The Lancaster Herald was asked to verify the visit of Thomas William Moore to the "Herald's Office" in 1770. His report was as follows: "...I can confirm that such visits were (and still are) recorded and the records preserved. I have examined those for 1770, but I find that only two enquiries were received that year relating to persons or families of the name of Moore: the first, in July related to one Giles Moore of Middleton, co. Westmorland, no record of whom could be found, and the second, in August, to the family of Moore of Appleby, co. Leicester, whose pedigree had already been registered.", and "...I have examined the Waiting Books for the period from July 1767 to December 1776 without however finding any record of an enquiry relating to the Moores of Fawley.". If Thomas William Moore ever visited the College of Arms, he didn't ask for or receive the ancestry of Hon. John Moore of South Carolina and Pennsylvania, or indeed, even the lineage of the Moores of Fawley.

Another Small Problem
In the course of studying the Moores of Fawley, it became clear that the Moores in America⁷ did not adhere to traditional naming patterns prevalent in the early 18th century, if indeed they were connected to the Moores of Fawley. While there were many males of subsequent generations named Francis and Henry among the Moores of Fawley, the names do not appear among the Moores in America. Conversely, John, Thomas and Charles were frequently used names by the American Moores that do not appear among the Moores of Fawley. This was a small detail, but one of nagging concern.

Parallel Search or, If Not Moores of Fawley, Then Who?
Meanwhile, another search was being conducted in England by Bridget Lakin, a genealogist. After the 1992 Moore Family Reunion at West Point, at which many Moore descendants met for the first time, I was privileged to do some research in the Special Collections of the USMA Library. There was a Moore genealogy and a copy of the JM Pyne version of the Memoirs, submitted by Mr. Richard C. Moore of Mt. Kisco, NY. No one of his line had been at the Reunion for the simple reason that the organizers were not in contact with that branch of the family. As soon as I found his genealogy papers, I wrote to him. Unfortunately, he had died in the year prior to the Reunion, but his widow, Marjorie soon replied to my letter and a gracious exchange of information ensued. Her husband had seriously pursued the Moore lineage for many years and had engaged professional genealogists in Pennsylvania and England for the study. Marjorie Moore put me in contact with Bridget Lakin in London and thus made about a four-way research bridge between Moore descendants in the U.S., the Herald and Ms. Lakin. Her painstaking search of the parish records of St. Bride's, Fleet Street and St. Margaret's, Westminster in London resulted in the reconstruction of a Moore family which was consistent with the known facts of the life of Hon. John Moore (1659-1732). The following baptisms were registered, all children of John and Dorothy Moore:
John-1659, St. Bride's
Mary-1660, St. Bride's
Thomas-1662, St. Bride's
Richard-1664/5, St. Bride's
Dorothy-1666, St. Margaret's
Somerset-1670, St. Margaret's
[Ann-c.1675] No record was found among the records of either parish for this child but later Wills establish her as a sibling. No Will or probate has been located for the parents, John or Dorothy Moore. Wills of Thomas Moore, Ann (Moore) Sear and her husband, Richard Sear probated in England all serve to establish John, Thomas & Ann as siblings.⁸ The child with the distinctive name of Somerset provided the key link of circumstantial evidence to connect this family of Moores in London to the family of Hon. John Moore of Philadelphia. The baptismal and burial registers of Christ Church, Philadelphia record the baptism of "Somerset Moor, 19 July 1711, aged 5 days, son to John Moor" and the burial of "Sommersett, 4 Oct 1712, son of John & Rebecca Moore". This slender thread indicates that John Moore of Philadelphia named a son after his younger brother, as indeed, he had named other children after siblings Mary, Thomas and Richard. While this is not considered irrefutable proof, all taken together these facts present a solid case of the preponderance of the evidence that Hon. John Moore of South Carolina and Pennsylvania was the son of John and Dorothy Moore of London, and not a Moore of Fawley, co. Berkshire.

Is That All There Is?
Since this recent research has resulted in the loss of a long and rather distinguished lineage, and the substitution of an ancestry that extends only one generation beyond the emigrant ancestor, Hon. John Moore, what is left to do? One would hope to be able to find further information relating to John and Dorothy Moore, whose maiden name remains a mystery, in order to take the family back several more generations. Several leads have been followed in that pursuit without any positive results, but it should not be abandoned as a hopeless cause. Going in the opposite direction, that is, filling in the blanks of bringing all branches of descendants into the present time is an on-going project, as well. But there are a few other minor misconceptions that should be addressed to clean up the family history.

Tying Up Some Loose Ends
John Moore states in his memoirs that William Moore of Moore Hall, Pennsylvania, had two daughters who married Drs. Phineas and Thomas Bond. It is true that one of his daughters, Williamina, married Dr. Phineas Bond, but no evidence has been found of another daughter marrying Thomas Bond. William Moore wrote at least three versions of his Will. In one version dated 1773, he names all his living children and the children of his deceased sons, John and James W., but nowhere is there a mention of a daughter married to Dr. Thomas Bond.⁹
The next item of interest is John Moore's uncertainty about whether his grandfather, Col. John Moore, had any sisters. He had two: Rebecca, who in 1709 married John Evans, Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania; and Mary, who married circa 1715 Peter Evans, a cousin of John Evans, and Sheriff of Philadelphia. Rebecca and John Evans eventually left Philadelphia and lived in England & Wales.
In writing about his grandmother, Frances Lambert Moore, wife of Col. John Moore of New York, John Moore states that he thinks she was born in France and brought to New York as an infant. Records of the French Church indicate that her maternal granduncle, Gabriel Minveille, was in New York by 1691. Her father, Daniel (or Denis-a possible mistake in transcription) Lambert, died in September of 1691. Frances was born posthumously to her father's death, in April 1692. Curiously, Frances's baptism is not recorded in the French Church records, but all indications are she was born in New York. The Barberie connection mentioned in John Moore's memoirs occurs when her widowed mother, Frances (Brinkman) Lambert marries John Barberie in 1694.¹⁰

While we're making corrections, we might as well take a look at some of the educational claims of our American Moores. It seems as if every generation after the Hon. John Moore claims to have two or three offspring attending Oxford. First, let's examine Hon. John Moore himself. He was obviously a literate man to have obtained the appointments of Secretary of the Province of South Carolina, Prothonotary of SC, Deputy Judge of the Vice-Admiralty, and Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Register of Wills of PA, and Collector of Customs of the Port of Philadelphia. The fact that he is listed in Martin's Bench and Bar of Philadelphia as one of the earliest lawyers in the Province (1698) and an Advocate for the Crown implies an education at the Inns of Court in London. But no such records have been located. Perhaps a clue lies in the appointment of Prothonotary, which is defined as a chief clerk of any of various courts of law. Alumni lists of Oxford and Cambridge contain no record of his having attended either institution. He appears to have had powerful patronage to have been appointed to so many responsible positions, but his education remains shrouded in mystery. Educational records for some Moores have been located:
At Westminster School (Prep)
Thomas Moore, son of John, lawyer of Philadelphia
Thomas Moore, son of Col. John Moore of NY, and father of the author of the memoirs. The information given in the school records is inconclusive as to the identity of this student. Making allowances for John Moore's imperfect recall, it's likely the record refers to his father.
At Cambridge-
Thomas Moore, son of John, lawyer of Philadelphia, admitted Trinity Coll. 1709, age 18; B.A.-1712-13; M.A--1716; D.D.-1733; incorp. at Oxford-1753.
Charles Moore, son of Rev. Thomas Moore (above), admitted to Trinity Coll. 1759, age 16
At Oxford-
John Moore, son of Daniel of Great Marlow, Bucks, Merton Coll. 1755, age 18 (This is a grandson of Hon. John Moore)
Lambert Moore, son of Daniel of Kingston, Jamaica, University Coll. 1808, age 17 (a great-great grandson of Hon. John Moore)
Thomas, son of Thomas of London, doctor, Worcester Coll. 1753, age 15 (nephew of Hon. John Moore)
Thomas William Moore, son of Thomas William of New York, Worcester Coll. 1788, age 19 (the son of the alleged 1770 visitor to the College of Arms & great-grandson of Hon. John Moore)

Notable by Their Absence
These Moores were said to have been educated in England but do not appear in the alumni lists of Oxford, Cambridge, Westminster School or St. Paul's (both prepatory schools): Daniel Moore, son of Hon. John Moore, and later Member of Parliament for Great Marlow, Bucks.
William Moore, son of Hon. John Moore
Stephen Moore, son of Col. John Moore of NY
Once again, it is obvious that both these men were well educated. William was a Member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania, Justice of the Peace and President of the County Courts of Chester. His Will, written in his own hand, is almost lyrical in his tribute to his wife, Williamina. As for Stephen Moore, his many extant letters show a literary style of writing as well as a beautiful hand indicating a classical education. I suspect that he was taught at home or privately tutored. Searches of alumni lists of the colleges in existence during the pertinent time period, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. have produced no record of his having attended any of those schools. There are certainly hundreds of other schools in England whose records are difficult to access, if they survive, so the search is by no means complete.

In Tribute to John Moore, Esquire, of New York
Using a variety of other sources, listed in the Selected Bibliography, many of the facts stated in John Moore's memoirs have been confirmed, while others have been found to be slightly off the mark. In my judgment, other than the English ancestry of Hon. John Moore, the majority of the memoirs are remarkably accurate & without exaggeration or embellishment. Nearly 175 years after John Moore, near the end of his life, penned the history of his family as he knew it, the descendants of Hon. John Moore must assuredly be grateful that he took the time to leave us this legacy. It is now incumbent upon us to make the alterations to set the record straight for future generations.
_____________________
^lPennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 3, p. 211n; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Cadwallader Collection, Bond Papers

²New-York Historical Society Library, manuscript section, microfilm
³Phillip Wright, Monumental Inscriptions of Jamaica (Society of Genealogists, 1966), p. 64; Capt. J.H. Lawrence-Archer, Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies (London: Chatto & Windus, 1875), p. 252-3.
⁴Alexander S. Salley, Ed. Warrants for land in South Carolina, 1680-1692, Vol. 2, p. 194 (1915)
⁵Hon. John Moore's Will-Register of Wills, Philadelphia-W272 (Will Book C, p. 201); Ann (Axtell) Boone's Will-Records of Probate Court, Charleston, SC, Book 1747-52, P. 460.
⁶Documents containing the seals of Hon. John Moore and his son, William Moore at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Manuscript Section, Cadwallader Collection, Bond Papers.
⁷In referring to the Moores in America, I refer only to the descendants of Hon. John Moore of SC & PA.
⁸Public Record Office, London-Thomas Moore (d. 1733) Prob. II-663; Ann (Moore) Sear (proved 1758) Prob. 11-839; Richard Sear (proved 1743) Prob. 11-726.
⁹HSP, Cadwallader Collection, Bond Papers, Wm. Moore folder
¹⁰Alfred V. Wittmeyer, ed. Registers of the Births, Marriages, and Deaths, of the "Eglise Francoise a la Nouvelle York" from 1688 to 1804 (Baltimore, GPC, 1968)

Selected Bibliography and Resources
England
Joseph L. Chester, ed. The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster (London: 1876)
G.F. Russell Barker and Alan H. Stenning, compilers The Record of Old Westminsters, Vol. 11, Chiswick Press (London: 1929)
Joseph Foster, ed. Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, multiple volumes, Krause Reprint Unlimited (Liechtenstein: 1968)
John Venn and J. A- Venn, compilers Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge University), multiple volumes, Krause Reprint (Liechtenstein: 1974)
Parish Records of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London, 1653-1714, microfilm #0380155 ordered from the LDS Family History Library, Salt Lake City
Lawrence E. Tanner, ed. The Register of St. Margaret's, Westminster, 1660-1675, printed in Publications of the Harleian Society, Vol. 64 (1934)
West Indies
Capt. J. H. Lawrence-Archer, comp. Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies, Chatto and Windus (London: 1875)
South Carolina
Records in the British Public Record Office Relating to South Carolina printed for The Historical Commission of South Carolina, Foote & Davis Co. (Atlanta: 1928) Vol. 1-1663-1684, Vol. 11-1685-1690, Vol. 111-1691-1697
South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vols.1 through 42 (1900-1941)
A. S. Salley, ed. Warrants for Land in South Carolina (np, 1915)
A. S. Salley, ed. Journal of the Grand Council of South Carolina The State Company (Columbia: 1907)
Agnes L. Baldwin, First Settlers of South Carolina, 1670-1700 Southern Historical Press (1985)
South Caroliniana Library, Manuscript Collections, University of SC, Columbia (for Colleton/Moore correspondence)
Anne King Gregorie, ed. Records of the Court of Chancery of South Carolina 1671-1779 American Historical Assoc. (Washington, DC: 1950)
M. Eugene Sirmans, "Politics in Colonial South Carolina, The Failure of Proprietary Reform, 1682-1694", William &Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 23 (1966)
Pennsylvania
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Manuscript Section, various collections-primarily the Cadwallader and Gratz Collections for Hon. John Moore and William Moore of Moore Hall documents.
John Frederick Lewis, The History of an Old Philadelphia Land Title: 208 South Fourth
Street (Philadelphia: 1934)
Scharf & Westcott, History of Philadelphia, Vol. 3
Charles Keith, Chronicles of Pennsylvania (1917)
Charles Keith, "The Founding of Christ Church, Philadelphia", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 54 (1930)
Christ Church Archives, Philadelphia-Registers of Birth, Marriage, Burial; original Deeds; microfilm of early Church records & Vestry minutes. Surviving Registers date from 1709, Vestry minutes date from April 1717.
Edward L. Clark, A Record of the Inscriptions on the Tablets and Grave-stones in the Burial Grounds of Christ Church, Philadelphia, Collins, Printer (Philadelphia: 1864)
William H. Egle, Early Pennsylvania Land Records Minutes of the Board of Property of
The Province of Pennsylvania, reprint (1976)
Lawrence Lewis, "The Courts of Pennsylvania in the Seventeenth Century", Pennsylvania Mag. of Hist. & Biog., Vol. 5 (188 1)
John Hill Martin, Bench and Bar of Philadelphia, Rees Welsh & Co. (Philadelphia: 1883)

...And Moore
These books contain valuable genealogical data but must be read very carefully to separate fact from fancy.
David Moore Hall, comp. Six Centuries of Moores of Fawley (Richmond: 1904)
Horace Wemyss Smith, The Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith, D. D., S. .A. George & Co. (Philadelphia: 1879)

______________________________________

To the Reader: Since the information I have presented in this issue is contrary to what has always been believed to be true of the ancestry of Hon. John Moore of South Carolina and Pennsylvania, I encourage comment, questions, debate and thoughtful criticism. Any carefully documented challenge to the lineage as I have presented it will be considered, verified and published in a future issue of the Chronicles.

Stephen Moore, scribe

Stephen Moore’s birth, 30 Oct 1734, is noted in daughter Mary Moore Stanford’s bible but little else is known of his early childhood or adolescence until the death of his father, Col. John Moore, when Stephen inherited the West Point property bequeathed to him at the age of fifteen. The memoirs of John Moore, Esq., Stephen’s nephew, recount that Stephen was “brought up in business” by the Hon. John Watts. This apprenticeship may have spanned Stephen’s mid- to late teen years. Stephen Moore’s name does not appear in the alumni lists of Oxford or Cambridge. He may have been tutored for his early education. But well-educated he assuredly was, as evidenced by his many letters, ledgers, petitions, memorials and account books. His handwriting is beautiful, legible and quite distinctive, making it instantly recognizable.

While searching for the deeds to all the properties mentioned in the last will and testament of Col. John Moore of New York City, I came across a deed for a house and lot that Col. John Moore sold to Elizabeth Johnston before he made his will. New York City deeds are recorded in three different record groups: NYC Conveyances 1654-1866, includes deeds for New York City and New York County; Deeds in the Secretary of State’s Office, 1659-1846; and Patents of the State of New York in the Secretary of State’s Office, 1708-1973. These are all accessible on microfilm, available in various repositories or through Family History Centers of the LDS Church (Mormons). A fourth record group is presently only available at the New York Municipal Archives in NYC: City Grants Libers 1686-1907. Liber B 1701-1752, pages 109-113, records the grant/deed for the lot on which Col. John Moore built his “mansion” called Whitehall. This was not the same Whitehall that belonged to Peter Stuyvesant almost a century before. That Whitehall was destroyed by fire in 1717. Presumably, Col. John Moore named his house Whitehall because the lot was very near Whitehall Slip. The house was hardly a mansion by today’s standards but when it was built, it would have been considered grand. It was a three story house on a lot measuring 31’ 6” by 168’. It served as the Custom House from May 1769 until the fire of September 1776.

The search for deeds to properties owned by Col. John Moore entailed reading deed books from the above named records groups, aided by indexes for the most part. In the Secretary of State Deeds, Vol. 16:42, is a power of attorney recorded for Lambert Moore, Stephen Moore’s brother, dated 1757. It was written in the familiar, distinctive hand of Stephen Moore himself. Subsequent study of other deed books revealed that Stephen was the scribe on all or part of 3 different Secretary of State Deed volumes, and 3 of the Secretary of State Patent Books spanning dates from about 1757 to 1786. But how had he accomplished this? He had been in New York, Quebec and North Carolina during that span of years. Apparently, Stephen Moore began his work as a scribe or clerk as a young adult or while he was apprenticed to Hon. John Watts. He joined the New York Provincial Troops as a Lieutenant in 1757, possibly retaining his position with John Watts who served as a provision contractor for the Army. Eventually, Stephen was appointed Deputy Paymaster for the British Army in Canada about 1760. He remained in Canada until 1770, but made frequent trips to New York. He resided at his West Point estate from 1770 until sometime in late 1775 or early 1776, when he moved his family to North Carolina. In December, 1779 Stephen Moore first petitioned Congress, sitting at Philadelphia, for compensation for the loss of income as well as damages done to his West Point estate. This was the first of many petitions and memorials that ultimately led to the sale of the West Point estate to the US government in 1790, requiring Stephen to make many trips to New York to press his case. The explanation for how he accomplished the task of transcribing the records spanning all these years when he was residing elsewhere is found in the Patent Books. Volumes 5, 6 & 7 were all transcribed entirely by Stephen Moore. At the beginning of each of the volumes is “An Act for transcribing Certain Records of Patents passed the 23rd February 1786” detailing the need to copy all the old deed and patent books that were deteriorating from use. Stephen Moore used the time he was in New York well and supplemented his income, too. Some of the volumes have notations in the margin of the dollar amount each transcription was worth.

Submitted by Terri B. O’Neill, 2009 ©

Letter from J.B. Moore to Uncle Gilbert dated 6 Feb 1865

by David Jeffreys - July, 2009 ©

Like all families, the War Between The States impacted the Moore Family. Members of our family have researched and written stories about this devastating civil war.

In my possession, passed down from my great-great grandfather, Gilbert Moore, is a letter from his nephew, J. B. Moore in Tennessee, who discusses is some detail the war's impact. Gilbert was Robert's son, and his brother, Yancey, had moved to Tennessee.

In the letter, J. B. apologizes for not visiting his NC relatives and says General Sherman got in the way. Later in the letter, he says, "Uncle, you don't know how glad I was to get home and find things in as good condition as they wer. The Yankees have raided & plunderd this country a great deal but father has escaped finely so fare very well."

Here is the letter itself which is now quite fragile, but I have scanned it for you. It is written on both sides of faintly ruled paper, which is 7.5" x 12." Transcribing the letter seems unnecessary since J. B.'s handwriting is so legible and beautiful. Clicking on the images themselves will enable much easier reading of the document.

The Ante-Bellum Mount Tirzah Plantation

By David E. Jeffreys, written in July, 2009 ©
The ante-bellum period is defined as being that time between the Revolutionary War and the War Between The States or from 1800-1860. What was life like during this period at Mt. Tirzah? Though Stephen had died at the very end of the previous century (29 December 1799), his widow, Grizey, lived well into the new century, along with her brother, Thomas, and her sister-in-law, Ann. Most of the children still lived at the plantation, although some of the grandchildren would start to move away and even out of North Carolina, beginning the spread of the descendants.

Charles was listed as the postmaster of the Mt. Tirzah post office. Phillips, along with his uncle Thomas Phillips, would manage the store.

[Southern Historical Collection]
Phillips son, Stephen, would move to Hillsborough where he owned a shoe store. Many letters between Phillips and his son are collected in the Southern Historical Collection in Chapel Hill.

Also preserved are many letters between Ann Moore, Grizey Moore and Throg’s Neck, N.Y., where much of the rest of the Moore family resided, as they remained in touch with the greater family at large. An example:

[Southern Historical Collection]

A wonderful book about this period, Ante-Bellum North Carolina – A Social History, by Guion Griffis Johnson was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1937. Vicky Wells of the UNC press has kindly given me permission to quote sections of the book, which has long been out of print. Contained in this book are many excellent references about the Mt. Tirzah plantation life, as Johnson used Moore collections in the Southern Historical Collection extensively:

THE OVERSEER
Upon the skilful management of the slaves often depended much of the success of a plantation. Surly hands could defy an overseer, break a vast amount of equipment, and otherwise interrupt the plantation routine without seeming to do so.
Most of the large plantation owners employed overseers to assist in the management of the Negroes and the crops. . . .
An excellent overseer, or superintendent, as he was sometimes called, was difficult to find. The work was strenuous, the pay small, and the requisite personal qualities usually above those of the person willing to engage in such a profession. It was customary to furnish an overseer lodging and to pay him in one of three ways: a money wage payable in notes which might be converted into cash at a discount, a smaller money wage supplemented with a specific amount of provisions, or a share in the crop and certain specified provisions. The customary money wage in the last half of the ante-bellum period varied from $125 to $250.
The relation between Phillips Moore of Mount Tirzah in Person County and his overseer, Nathaniel Smith, during the planting year of 1819-1820 was typical of conditions on many a small plantation. In November, 1819, owner and overseer entered into the following agreement:

Said Smith undertakes to perform the duties of Overseer for said Moore under his particular advise & direction, to take charge of the hands, the work with them diligently, to assist in feeding the stock of every kind, with all care of the same that is requisite in all seasons of the year, to see that there is plenty of fire wood always provided at the door for the house fires, to take care of all the farming utensils of every description, and have them housed except when immediately in use, to repair fences, take care to prevent any damage or loss of any kind whatever, and to make up all loss time whatever, & find himself.

And said Moore for this part to pay unto said Smith two hundred Dollars or its value for the term of one Year.

To this agreement Smith added a proviso of his own, to which the owner agreed:

And we further agree that if any dispute does arrise which cannot be mutually settled we bind ourselves to leave it to three persons to be chosen by ourselves. . . .

Accustomed to keeping strict accounts at his country store, Moore also kept strict account of his overseer’s activities, charging him at the end of the year with having lost twenty-two and a third days from work. He set down each offense as it occurred so that at the end of the year he had an imposing list with which to confront the overseer: “Nathaniel Smith lost this day, his wife being sick. This day away about your pork. . . . Went away at a time I wanted you to work at tobacco . . . fatening hogs got out, you unconcerned, came & set down by fire. No care taken of tobacco stript the other night, at night a horse verry sick, paid no attention to him. Went to the Court house. . . . Went to muster. . . . Went to Mother in Law’s. . . . . Went fishing, left the plow & horse, & neglected the hands (corn verry foul .ch.d you $1). . . . . Thursday went to the Election . . . went to sale . . . went to General Muster. . . .” Taking out $14 for lost time, about $12 for provisions advanced, chiefly brandy, shoe repairing, and a barrel of flour, Moore discharged his part of the agreement by giving the overseer three notes for $58 each, and set about looking for another manager.
But the new overseer was little better. He was sick much of the time; he went to town on court days and attended elections; often he neglected to go to the remote fields when the people were at work there; and he finally moved away ten days before the expiration of his contract, leaving “my fences down in several places”
[Phillips Moore Papers, November 13, 1819 – December 20, 1821]
[Above taken from Ante-Bellum North Carolina, pp. 489-492]

In the same vein, Richard Stanford wrote on 15 February 1815 from Washington, DC to his wife, Mary, at Mt. Tirzah:
“Can you make some arrangement with your mother for the succeeding crop-I want to do something in that way, but I want an even, & equal one. I pay a large rent, you know, for the place.
Suppose I send down 2 or 3 hands & repair the fences, trim the orchard, etc. & then have a hand with Scipio to go on with the crop, what will be right in the division? If I had an overseer I would rather, but if a suitable overseer cannot be had, I would rather have none.”
[Richard Stanford Papers, North Carolina State Archives]

[Southern Historical Collection]

LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE SLAVES
“Negro cloth” was either plain, homespun, cotton for summer and wool for winter, dyed blue or brown and made on the plantation, or blue checked, osnaburgs bought from a local merchant or in Petersburg, Norfolk, or some northern city. . . .
On some plantations, the spinning, weaving, and sewing were done by slave women unable to do field work, but on others the master employed white women to do the work and the mistress herself sometimes helped. Phillips Moore of Person County regularly employed a white woman to spin, weave, and sew for his Negroes and a man to make their shoes. In 1803, for instance, he paid a Mrs. Hogue £3 for making Scipio “overalls and Jacoat.”
[Phillips Moore Papers: Memorandum Book, December 2, 1803]
Most Negroes were not content with the simple clothes their masters provided, and sought, whenever possible, to obtain a “Sunday best” with their own money. . . .
The Negro cabins, grouped together in a single or double row back of the master’s house, were made of clapboards or of poles chinked with clay. Each had a large fireplace and stone hearth where the family cooking was done, a table, some shelves, and perhaps a rude bed, a chest, and a few plantation-made chairs. It was a common practice for Negroes to sleep in a heap of rags or on a corn shuck mattress on the floor, or on a plank or chair.
[R.W. Gibbs, “Southern Slave Life,” North Carolina Standard, June 30, 1858.]

SLAVE HEALTH
On most plantations the young and the sick received special attention. Enceinte women usually worked at half task until the last few months of pregnancy when only a fourth task was required of them. Phillips Moore, of Person County, employed a Mrs. Bumpass in Chatham County to attend his slave Annica. He paid the midwife her expenses and 10 shillings. As a rule, no work was required of the mother until the infant was a month old. From that time until the child was two or three months old the mother returned to the quarters to suckle the infant. Later the nurse, usually a child, carried the baby into the field to the mother.
[Waste Book, January, 1796-December, 1803, in Phillips Moore Papers.]

THE SLAVE AND HIS MONEY
Since the slave had money in his pocket, he was a potential buyer, and slave money was as good as master’s money. Indeed, unless the planter kept his own store and required his slaves to buy of him, as did Ebenezer Pettigrew of Phelps Lake, the slave was more likely to patronize the small tradesman than was the planter, who frequently bought his supplies in large quantities at a distant market. The accounts of merchants frequently show, as did those of Phillips Moore of Person County, that the neighborhood slaves were in the habit of buying small articles. The Moore Account Book, 1810-1816, records, for instance, that “on the 26th. of Sept. Old Jim had little better than ½ pint of [of liquor] for white onions” and that on April 17 Scipio had “Shoe Leather, supposed to be abt. a balance for Tobacco bot. of him.”
[Moore Account Book, 1810-1816, in Phillips Moore Papers.]

SLAVE FAMILY LIFE
As important as money in the pocket in building up a wholesome morale among slaves was the master’s observance of family life among his black people. He gave each family a place to live; he issued rations by families; he encouraged slave marriages and respected the grief of a family when a member died. Some families built up a strong feel of solidarity and loyalty. . . .
In 1823 L. V. Hargis of Point Pleasant in Person County wrote the following note to Phillips Moore, giving permission for Ben to marry:
D.r Sir Your note by Ben the 25th Instant is before me stating – Ben had communicated to you his desire to take a wife among your negro women. If it meets my approbation. As it appears the boy wants a wife I make no objections & if he undertakes I hope he will not disgrace his Station.
[Phillips Moore Papers: L.V. Hargis to Phillips Moore, August 27, 1823.]

When slaves decided to marry, they went to their master, or to the overseer in the absence of the master, and signified their intention. The master might immediately ask the couple to join hands while he pronounced them man and wife or he might set a day for the ceremony. The wedding might take place in the quarters, the yard, or in the master’s kitchen, and the master might himself perform the ceremony or yield his place to a minister or to a religious leader from among the slaves. After a simple celebration with sweetened water and a meat stew, singing and dancing, the couple went to their new home, a cabin which the master assigned them.
Separation was equally casual. The marriage might be dissolved at the pleasure of either party or by the sale of one or both, being dependent, therefore, upon caprice or the necessity of their owners. The master, however, found it to his advantage to encourage marriage stability and to insist that his slaves abandon their African tradition of polygamy in favor of monogamy. After a certain slave named Samuel of a near-by plantation had lived with Mina, the slave of A. M. Lea of Caswell County, and had had five children by her, he quarreled with her, and bundling up his clothes, he started away, saying that he intended to part with her. Lea, however, compelled Samuel to leave the clothes until he obtained a written permit from his master sanctioning the separation.
[Above taken from Ante-Bellum North Carolina, pp. 524-525, 527, 532-536]

Much more information on slave life on the neighboring Stagville Plantation to the south on the Flat, Little and Eno Rivers is available at http://www.stagville.org/. Examples of two-story, four-room slave dwellings in Horton Grove can be toured as well as the Bennehan home. By 1860, the Bennehan-Cameron family owned almost 30,000 acres and nearly 900 slaves.

During the ante-bellum period, a free Negro named Thomas Day lived in nearby Milton, which is near the Person County – Caswell County – Virginia line. He was renowned far and wide as the best furniture and cabinet maker. For more information on Thomas Day, see the website:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ncccha/biographies/thomasday.html.

SANITATION AND HEALTH: NATIVE SIMPLES
The average ante-bellum family called a doctor only in an emergency or when every other curative means had failed. In 1832, for instance, when a certain child became ill Monday “with a puking and a severe pain in her head, I had her bled and sweated,” wrote her mother. But she still complained of a severe pain in her head and her mother put a blister on the back of the child’s neck. When the blister did not draw well and the child fell into a coma, her parents became alarmed and called a doctor Saturday afternoon, five days after her first attack.
Many a head of a family knew as well how to bleed or draw a blister as did a physician, and his wife, as has already been pointed out, was usually well informed in the knowledge of household remedies. Almost any account book of the ante-bellum period shows that the owner kept on hand a supply of the usual medicines. The Phillips Moore Account Book kept between 1805 and 1811 shows that the following medicines were purchased in Petersburg at various times: two bottles of essence of mustard, a asafetida, senna, opium, two ounces of sal ammonia, blistering plasters and salve, two bottles of sweet oil, and two pounds of copperas. Here was a variety of medicines sufficient to cure almost any ante-bellum complaint.
A great many families, however, could not send abroad for medicines; neither did they obtain them from the supply which every doctor always kept on hand. They relied, instead, upon herbs which grew in the fields and woods. Every granny and a great many housewives, as well, knew the various plants and their properties; knew how to gather and dry them, brew them into decoctions or pulverize them to be taken as powders. These were the “native simples,” so called because of the belief that every country produced a simple remedy for its diseases. A knowledge of their use still exists in a great many families today, especially among the Negroes and the rural whites. Almost any adult can recall having seen his grandmother gathering sage to be used in a tea to cure winter colds or catnip to brew for the baby’s colic.
[Above taken from Ante-Bellum North Carolina, pp. 752-753.]

Of course, we know that Stephen’s son, Portius Moore, was a physician. More research needs to be done to find out if he, too, used the medicines that were stocked in the Moore store and if he used the “native simples.” We do know that the Moores consulted with the famous Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia on several occasions, particularly regarding the paralysis of Ann Moore.

MOORE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Doing research always leads to questions as well as answers. Below you will find questions that we would like the answers to. If you have an answer or a source, please leave it in the comments section below or email the answer to me (see Email your editor in the left sidebar). I will be pleased to enter additional questions you may have to this list, if you email me.

1-What is the origin of the Stephen Moore in uniform miniature?
2-Who was Julia, the actress, who may have been the mother of Robert?
3-Information on Dr. Portius Moore, the physician. Details about his education and practice. Supposedly, the chimney of his office has survived.
4-What was family life like among the children and grandchildren of Stephen Moore, Charles Moore, and Thomas Phillips from 1800 on, and did they live in a community still working together around Mt. Tirzah? We have some clues from the ledgers of the store. Was there also a community around Moore’s Mill, which had previously been Gibbons’s Mill, as folks tended to gather around a mill for news, help, and shared experiences? A lot of the answers to these questions may still be found in the Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Library on the UNC Chapel Hill campus.
5-Who were the families around Mt. Tirzah that interacted with the Moores? For example, the Reades and the Dickins. There was an Osborne Jeffreys, and a Paul Jeffreys that frequently traded at the Mt. Tirzah store recorded in the ledgers; who were they?
6-How many slaves lived on the Mt. Tirzah plantation after 1800? What jobs did they perform? Where did they live? Who were they, by name, and were any given their freedom early?
7-Does anyone have a copy of the presentation that Dr. Bailey Webb gave on Ann Moore, who was the invalid sister of Stephen, that she gave at the 1991 Moore Reunion at West Point?
8-Is there a member of the Webb family that was sufficiently close to Dr. Bailey Webb that they could give us a biographical sketch? I remember her practicing in Durham when I was a child. Did one of you inherit her effects or papers? If not, do you know what happened to them?
ANSWER: I have found the papers in the Special Collections at Duke Univerisity Perkins Library. The papers have not been cataloged and are not available on microfilm. At the present time the collection is closed, pending cataloging. The collection is huge consisting of 5416 items (9.7 lin. ft.). David Jeffreys, 7-28-2009.
Author Webb, Bailey Daniel. Title Bailey Daniel Webb papers, 1845-2001 (bulk 1950s-2001) Location/Request Special Collections Library: Manuscripts 6th 24:B Location/Request Special Collections Library: Library Service Center, Manuscripts (Reading Room only) Library Service Center LSC
9-When was Moore’s mill operated by the Moores? Was it after Stephen’s death in 1799 and during the antebellum period? The Stephen Moore plantation did NOT extend far south enough to be on the Flat River, where the mill was located. Research project: Search deeds where mill was located between 1780 and 1850 to determine owners of the mill site at the Person County Courthouse Register of Deeds office.
10-Stephen Moore has hundreds and maybe thousands of descendants by now; there were several hundred in attendance at the West Point Reunion in 1991. The descendants live all over the country and perhaps the world, and certainly there are a number still in Person County. However, I am not aware of any descendants that live today on the original Stephen Moore Plantation property as it was in 1799. Perhaps some of the Reade family members still live on the northwestern part of the property, but I’m not sure. The Reade family occupied the Mt. Tirzah house into the 1970s and maybe the 1980s, before it was sold to Stephen Cox, the present owner, who has renovated it. QUESTION: Does any blood descendant live on the original plantation TODAY?
11-Was Stephen Moore, his estate, or members of his family ever paid for the West Point Property by the United States government and/or the North Carolina government?
12-Regarding Stephen Moore, I had written in 1983 "At the end of the century, on December 29, 1799, he died at Stagville at the home of Richard Bennehan. It is interesting to speculate why he was there when he died. Had he gone there during the festive season between Christmas and New Year’s and fallen suddenly ill? Was he there on business? Or perhaps Stephen was already ill and had gone to Stagville in search of a doctor since Stagville was a larger plantation than his own and may have had a doctor in residence." This may be true or it may be family folklore, but I've always thought it rang true. So far, I don't know of any documentation in the Bennehan-Cameron Papers around 1799, that are located in the "Southern Historical Collection" and the "North Carolina State Archives" or anywhere else for that matter, as proof.
13-Would you and/or other members of your family be interested in learning more about our Moore ancestry using DNA testing? If so, let me know, and perhaps we could get together for a lower cost group rate. For example, it might solve the question: did Robert have a different mother from all the other children of Stephen Moore? You might remember the recent interest inquiry and interest by the descendants of Thomas Jefferson. For more information, see: http://dna.ancestry.com/learnMore.aspx. There are other services for DNA heritage testing as well.

Active Moore research continues among several of our family members leading to new discoveries and knowledge. Won’t you join them?

David E. Jeffreys

Stanford Family Cemetery in Orange County

STANFORD (MARY MOORE STANFORD) FAMILY CEMETERY

Location - In Bingham Township west of White Cross Road (SR #1951) in a remote and heavily wooded area on private land. On a rise 500 ft west of a field on the Atwater farm, which is at 804 White Cross Road. The cemetery is listed on the Orange County GIS system as PIN 9737-73-9241.Coordinates: 35d 52m 28.0s N; 79d 12m 35.0s W (See location map below.)

Survey - Date of 1970s visit not given. Milton Forsyth visited and photographed the cemetery in February 2005 courtesy of Don and Warren Atwater who allowed him access across their land and provided directions.

Graves, Marked [1970s]

- There were 3 or 4 marked graves.

Graves, Unmarked [1970s]

- There were 7 or 8 unmarked graves.

Status [2005]

- The cemetery originally stood near an old house, the remains of which was not readily evident in the current heavy woodland, but it is to the east of an old, now overgrown, roadbed. It had at one time been enclosed by a barbed-wire fence which is now almost gone. Unattended and covered with periwinkle, pinestraw and leaves with some small trees growing on the cemetery. A fine monument and some new stones were erected in the mid-1900s.

Comment: In 2009 Terri Bradshaw O'Neill of Colleyville, TX provided information that the cemetery was established by a 1909 deed from Thomas A. Atwater & wife, Isa, to James O. Webb, Trustee, and his successor for a consideration of $1.00, setting off 6/100's of an acre "for the purpose of preserving the Burial Ground of his ancestors." The description says, "This Cemetery is situated on Great Uncle Saurin Stanford's place." [Orange Co. Deed Book 107:220] She noted that the monument was dedicated on 17 July 1949 and was probably arranged for by Ralph H. Stanford of Burlington, NC. She furnished several photographs of the ceremony.

Above information courtesy of http://cemeterycensus.com/nc/orng/cem275.htm. Go to the website for the names of those interred and the photographs of their tombstones and monument.

Map Location of Stanford Family Cemetery

Editors Note: Honorable Richard Stanford, member of Congress, and husband of Mary Moore Stanford, died in office in Washington, DC on April 9, 1816, and was buried there in the Historic Congressional Cemetery.

The Richard Stanford “Silver Dollar” Story

Analysis of a Family Tradition:
The Richard Stanford “Silver Dollar” Story
by Terri Bradshaw O’Neill, 1999 ©

The story has been passed down in one branch of the family from the time of Mary Moore Stanford (1778-1851), daughter of Stephen Moore and wife of the Hon. Richard Stanford (1767-1816). Some of the salient points of the story are that Congressman Richard Stanford, having been elected to the first Congress, was Chairman of the Finance Committee and as a result, was instrumental in the design and first coining of the U. S. silver dollar, and determined the weight of the silver content by collecting specimens of the Spanish milled dollar in circulation from all thirteen colonies. He had them weighed and the average silver content was found to be 374 1/4 grains of silver and that is what he decided the weight of our silver dollars should be, though others argued that evening out the weight to 370 would simplify matters. The story continues to relate that, being a Quaker, Stanford’s principles caused him to declare, “Pay what thou owest”, and his estimation of the worth of the dollar prevailed.

The problems are in the time line.
· The First Congress was held in New York City in 1789.
· The Mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792. No silver dollars were struck until 1794.
· Richard Stanford was first elected to the House in 1797, and he took his seat in the Fifth Congress in May, 1797, at Philadelphia. While the Senate had what was called a Finance Committee, the House had a Ways and Means Committee. Richard Stanford’s name does not appear on that committee in the Annals of Congress. It seems unlikely that a freshman congressman would attain such a position.

In addition to the problems of the time line, there is the assertion that Richard Stanford was a Quaker. While he must surely have counted Quakers among his friends, acquaintances and constituents, it is not likely that he was a Quaker himself, for these reasons:
· Richard Stanford left many letters, some of which discussed his religious beliefs and even his doubts regarding religion
· It was the practice of Quakers to use the pronouns “thee” and “thou”; they also expressed dates by saying “the 4th day of the 3rd month...” rather than using the name of the months. Richard Stanford never did this.
· He was a slave owner
· He gave sworn testimony as a member of Congress, Quakers affirmed
· His will begins “In the name of God, Amen...”, a form not used by Quakers

I suspect that the story is apocryphal and was used to illustrate the fundamental integrity of our honorable forebear, Richard Stanford. If we consider the time and place that Congressman Stanford took his seat in the House of Representatives, and recall the names of his contemporaries and the leaders of government, we can begin to understand how such a family legend could have been polished and embellished over the ensuing generations. The mere mention of the names of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and so many others of the galaxy then assembled in Philadelphia in those early years of Richard Stanford’s career in the House, would have struck awe in his listeners. They must have been enthusiastically discussed and celebrated in every generation following him. Congressman Stanford’s tales of Philadelphia and Washington would have been told and retold with the pride of knowing that their father or grandfather had been there in those formative years. He had known, worked, socialized and had mutual interests with the most important and influential men of their time. He grew in experience and statesmanship and reputation in his own right. It was surely at the time of his first term of office in Philadelphia that Richard Stanford made the acquaintance of Dr. Benjamin Rush, from whom he later sought medical advice for his sister-in-law, Ann Moore. Dr. Rush was a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and had treated another member of the Moore clan in 1793. During Philadelphia’s Yellow Fever epidemic of that year, Dr. Rush treated Rebecca Moore Smith, daughter of William Moore and wife of Rev. William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia. From 1797 until his death in 1813, Benjamin Rush was the treasurer of the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia. Is this obscure connection the grain of sand that became the pearl of family lore?