Richard Moore (b. ? - d.
1760)
MSA SC 5496-51574
Property Owner, London
Town, Maryland
Biography:
Richard Moore was a property owner in and around London Town. He was the third son of Dr. Richard Moore and Margaret Preston.1
His older brother, Samuel Preston (b. 1710), married Hannah Hill, the daughter of Dr. Richard Hill and his wife Deborah.2 The second oldest, Mordecai Moore, was married to Elizabeth Coleman, daughter of Dr. Joseph Coleman of Prince George's County.3 His two younger brothers, Charles and Thomas, were twins, both born on March 25, 1724. Thomas married Sarah Emlen in 1773 and Charles married Milcah Hill, another daughter of Dr. Richard Hill and his wife Deborah.4
Richard Moore married Mary West of "the Wood Yard" on the Eastern Shore.5 They had four children: Richard, Hannah, Stephen West, and Samuel Preston. However, Richard did not live to adulthood.6
Hannah (d. 1805) married Hugh Roberts (d. 1821).7 They had ten children: Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah, Catharine, Charles, Samuel Preston, Sarah, Martha Ann, Margaret Morris, and Allen. Mary, Catharine, Samuel Preston, and Sarah all died as infants. Elizabeth married John Davis of Philadelphia in 1794. Hannah married Charles Washington Goldsborough in 1802. Martha Ann married Andrew Caldwell Mitchell in 1810. Margaret Morris married Nicholson Marache from the West Indies in 1830. Allen married Jane Oakley in 1822.8
Richard and Mary Moore's third child, Stephen West, settled in Georgia.9
Samuel Preston Moore, Richard and Mary Moore's fourth child, fought as a soldier in the Revolutionary War.10 After the war ended, he married Susanna Pearson, daughter of Isaac Pearson of Darby, Pennsylvania. They had eight children: Stephen West, Thomas, Hannah, Richard, Pearson, Lamar, Sarah, and Mary Ann. Pearson died young. Thomas, Hannah, Richard, Lamar, Sarah, and Mary Ann all resided in Virginia.11 Stephen West married Eleanor Screven Gilbert of Charleston.12
Richard Moore was a planter "on the paternal estate in Anne Arundel Co., Md."13 He and his brothers sold a number of lots in and around London Town to James Dick in 1748.14 He also sold lot 20 in London Town to Joseph Hill, the brother of Dr. Richard Hill,15 in 1751.16
Richard Moore bought a horse from John Gassaway in 1753.17 He also found a couple of horses on his property. He found a "Red Roan Gelding" on his property near London Town in 175218 and he found a "Dark Bay Mare" in 1755.19
Richard Moore died in 1760. His inventory was valued at 950 pounds, five shillings, and three pence.20
He owned at least eighteen slaves (to see a complete list, click here).21 One of his slaves, Sam, ran away on October 13, 1756.22 In Moore's inventory, a slave named Samm is listed.23 There is a possibility that Samm was the same person as Sam who ran away in 1756, but that is not known for sure as the runaway advertisement for Sam did not list his age.
Moore wanted to be buried at the Quaker meeting at West River "in the manner and form used by said Society in their Burial of the dead."24
He wanted his personal estate to be sold at a "publick Sale" unless his wife, Mary Moore, executor of his estate, chose to "retain and keep back one Exact and equal third part for her own use during her natural Life."25 The rest of his estate was to be sold and the money used to "defray the Expence of Educating my four children: Richard, Hannah, Stephen, and Samuel Preston Moore.26
At his death, Richard Moore still owned lands given to him and his brothers by his father, Richard Moore. He desired that his portion of the land "remain the Equal Property" of his three sons provided they each pay their sister, Hannah Moore, "the sum of Fifty Pounds Currency."27
When his four children reached twenty-one, Moore desired that they each receive an equal "proportion of the monies made by sale of my personal Estate."28
Moore appointed his three brothers, Samuel Preston Moore, Thomas Moore, and Charles Moore, as his executors of his will and guardians to his four children.29
Endnotes:
1. Charles P. Keith, The Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania who held office between 1722 and 1776, (Philadelphia: W.S. Sharp Printing Co., 1883), 74.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 91.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., 92.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 91.
10. Ibid., 94.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 95.
13. Ibid., 91.
15. Mechelle Kerns and Mollie Ridout, Dr. Richard Hill of London Town: Economic and Social Perspectives on Life in Colonial America, (Maryland: London Town Foundation, 1998), 3.
18. "Taken up as a Stray," Maryland Gazette, October 12, 1752.
19. "Taken up as a Stray," Maryland Gazette, May 8, 1755.
20. PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) Richard Moore, 1760, Liber 79, folio 391, MSA S534-80, MdHR 1186.
21. Ibid.
22. "Ran away," Maryland Gazette, October 21, 1756.
23. PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) Richard Moore, 1760, Liber 79, folio 391, MSA S534-80, MdHR 1186.
24. PREROGATIVE COURT (Wills) Richard Moore, 1760, Liber 31, folio 77, MSA S538-46, MdHR 1310.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
Researched and written by Sarah Hartge, 2012.
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