ALEXANDER GOODMAN MORE. 



CHAPTER I. 



BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 



[1830-1842.] 



ALEXANDER GOODMAN MORE was born in London on 

 the 5th. of September, 1830. Both his father and grand- 

 father bore the name of Alexander More. The latter, who 

 was Collector of Customs in Aberdeen, was son of Gilbert 

 More, of Readen, in the same county, and grandson of the 

 Rev. Andrew Moir, of Ellon, also in Aberdeen, who died in 

 1770. The family of Moir (as earlier generations spelt it) 

 had long been of consequence in Aberdeen, in whose Eccle- 

 siastical Records for 1659 it: is curious to find "John Moir, 

 burges," recording his " disasent " against a " pretendit" 

 nomination to the ministry of Ellon, held a century later 

 by one of his line. The Moirs of Ellon adhered to the 

 Jacobite cause, and were proud of their sufferings on its 

 behalf. 



On his father's side A. G. More's extraction was almost 

 exclusively Scottish. His paternal grandmother was daugh- 

 ter of Alexander Innes, of Breda and Cowie, whose ancestor 

 Berow^ald had in the twelfth century received a Charter 

 from Malcolm the Maiden. The wife of Gilbert More of 

 Readen belonged to the Aberdeenshire family of Shepherd, 

 and Andrew Moir, father of Gilbert, married Jane Forbes, 

 great niece of the first Earl of Aberdeen. Through the 

 marriage of Jane Forbes' grandfather, Sir John Forbes, 

 with Dame Jean Gordon, the Mores traced relationship 



B 



