Col. John Moore of New York City

After two years of writing, editing, rewriting and re-editing, the entire article on Col. John Moore and his wife, Frances Lambert, has been published. It appears in two parts, in the New York Genealogical and Biographical RECORD: Vol. 143, Number 3, July 2012, and Number 4, October 2012. I hope all of you who are interested in family history will seek out these two issues from your library. Quite a few new discoveries about our Moore lineage have been made in the last 5 years or so, and I crammed as much of it into the article as space would allow.

Some of you have asked how to obtain copies of the article published in two issues of the RECORD. If they are not available in your local library, you can contact the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society RECORD, 36 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036-8105. Single issues are $7.50 each. The website address is: www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org

The article is in Vol. 143, Number 3, July 2012, and Number 4, October 2012.

Terri Bradshaw ONeill

Colleyville, Texas

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.

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 ©