Mar. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



W 



LONDON. SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1835. 



ARTHUR MOOKE AND THE MOOBES. 



(^Concluded from p. 178.) 



I omitted in my first paper to notice what 

 Bishop Burnet says of Arthur Moore, that he 

 " had risen up from being a footman, without any 

 education," because Burnet's authority for a 

 chance assertion in a matter of so little import- 

 ance was no better than that of the old ballads ; 

 and because, for our purpose, footman or groom 

 was the same thing, or equivalent. But Onslow's 

 note is important ; for though he does not directly 

 confirm Burnet's assertion, he does not contradict 

 it, which I think, from the tone and temper of his 

 comment — his personal knowledge, and his evi- 

 dent personal regard for the man, — he would 

 have done, had there been a doubt on his mind 

 as to its general truth. He appears, indeed, to 

 argue on the assumption that it was true : 



" Mr. Moor had very extraordinary talents, with great 

 experience and knowledge of the world, very able in par- 

 liament, and capable of the highest parts of business, 

 with a manner in it, and indeed in his general deport- 

 ment, equal almost to any rank. He knew every body, 

 and could talk of every body, which made his convers- 

 ation a sort of history of the age. He was generous and 

 magnificent; wrote and spoke accurately and politely; 

 but his figure was awkward and disadvantageous. If he 

 had raised himself by a course of virtue, he would have 

 justly been deemed one of the greatest among those who 

 have wrought their own fortunes. But ' vendidit hie auro 

 patriam' — to Spain at least, if not to France, in our com- 

 mercial transactions at the Peace of Utrecht." 



Pope, I suspect, circulated the footman story, 

 for in the Grub Street Journal there is a letter 

 professedly addressed by Moore the Worm Doctor 

 to " Cozen Jemmy," wherein the doctor upbraids 

 Jemmy with neglect, since he had been pleased 

 to call himself " Esq.," though he adds, " you did 

 not, indeed, all at once seem to forget your father, 

 or the house of your father, for you made the hero 

 of your Play a footman." 



But whatever may have been the antecedents of 

 Arthur Moore, it is obvious that he must have been 

 a prosperous gentleman long before the Tories 

 came into power. In 1702, as I have shown, he 

 was elected one of the Managers of " The United 

 Trade to the East Indies," and in 1705 I find him 

 one of the Controllers of Army Accounts. He 

 was member for Grimsby in the first Parliament 

 of Great Britain, 1707; and in the second, third, 

 and fourth Parliaments. In 1715 he lost his elec- 

 tion; petitioned, withdrew his petition, and retired 

 from Parliament. He appears thenceforth to have 

 directed his attention to the improvement of an 

 estate which he had purchased at Fetcham ; where, 

 according to the History of Surrey, he enlarged 



the house, and enclosed and planted a park. We 

 read indeed, in the "Letter" before referred to, 



of his "mountainous waterworks of Le d" 



[Leatherhead], which vie with those of "the 

 French king," and were paid for " with his own 

 money." 



Arthur Moore married before 1698 — inferred 

 from the age of his eldest son — Theophila, daugh- 

 ter and heiress of William Smythe (described by 

 Collins as of the Inner Temple) by Elizabeth, 

 eldest daughter of George, first Earl of Berkeley ; 

 by whom he had three sons, William, Arthur, and 

 James. His will is dated Nov. 6, 1729; and 

 was proved May 30, ,1 730, 



I must now write from notes made from me- 

 mory : for such is the liberality of our ofiicial 

 Registrars of Wills that literary inquirers are not 

 at liberty to make a single extract, even after they 

 have paid for leave to examine a will. Arthur 

 Moore, then, according to my notes, bequeathed 

 his estates in Surrey, Gloucester, and Middlesex, 

 to his eldest son William Moore, in tail-male, with 

 remainder to his sons Arthur and James. The 

 will recites that under his marriage articles he 

 was bound to lay out the sura of ten thousand 

 pounds in the purchase of land, and to settle the 

 same on and for the benefit of his wife and chil- 

 dren ; and he therefore charges his real estate 

 with an annuity to his widow Theophila, of 400?. 

 per annum. He bequeaths to his younger sons, 

 Arthur Moore and James Moore, 2,500?. each ; 

 but directs, that in case either should succeed to 

 his real estate, the money is not to be paid to such 

 son, but to be invested in land to be added to 

 the entail : farther, I think, that if either of his 

 younger sons should marry a person of inadequate 

 fortune, or without the consent of his executors, 

 they should forfeit the 2,500Z. There are other 

 bequests : amongst them, to his sister Jane En- 

 glish, and to the children of his sister Mary Parr. 

 He speaks of the prosecutions and persecutions 

 which he has suffered for the faithful discharge 

 of his duty to the public ; of the consequent 

 possibility that his personal estate may be insuf- 

 ficient to defray his pecuniary bequests, and gives 

 instructions accordingly, which are I think to sell 

 part of the real estate ; and he appoints his bro- 

 ther Thomas Moore one of his executors. 



We learn from the History of Surrey, that in 

 1722 Arthur Moore bought Polesden (long after 

 the property of Richard Brinsley Sheridan), 

 which in 1729 he sold to his brother Colonel 

 Thomas Moore ; and from a monumental tablet in 

 Great Bookham Church, that this Colonel Thomas 

 Moore "commanded a regiment of foot in the 

 service of Queen Anne ; and was in the year 1713 

 created Receiver and Paymaster to take care of 

 the pay of her Majesty's land forces in the island 

 of Minorca, and garrisons of Dunkirk and Gi- 

 braltar, &c. He died, unmarried, in the sixty- 



