Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/103

 Moetheu was succeeded by his son John (1259–1310), who was summoned to parliament from 1293 to 1310. John was succeeded by three sons, Nicholas, Roger, and John, on the death of the last of whom, in 1338, the barony fell into abeyance between his two daughters.

  MOETHEU, THOMAS (1530–1620?), Welsh bard. [See Jones, Thomas (1530-1620?) (DNB00).]

 MOFFATT, JOHN MARKS (d. 1802), antiquary, was minister of a congregation of protestant dissenters at the Forest Green, Avening, Gloucestershire, at Nailsworth in the same county, and lastly at Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He died at Malmesbury on 25 Dec. 1802 (Gent. Mag. 1803, pt. i. p. 193), leaving a widow and seven children. His writings are: 1. 'The Duty and Interest of every private Person and the Kingdom at large at the present juncture,' 8vo, 1778. 2. 'The Protestant's Prayer-Book ... to which are added Hymns,' &c., 8vo, Bristol, 1783. 3. 'The History of the Town of Malmesbury and of its ancient Abbey,' 8vo, Tetbury, 1805, published posthumously for the benefit of the author's family.

 MOFFAT, ROBERT (1795–1883), missionary, was born at Ormiston, East Lothian, on 21 Dec. 1795. His father was a customhouse officer; the family of his mother, Ann Gardiner, had lived for several generations at Ormiston. In 1797 the Moffats moved to Portsay, near Banff, and in 1806 to Carronshore, near Falkirk. Robert went at an early age to the parish school, and when he was eleven was sent, with an elder brother, to Mr. Paton's school at Falkirk. In 1809 he was apprenticed to a gardener, John Robertson of Parkhill, Polmont. During his apprenticeship he attended evening classes, learned to play a little on the violin, and took some lessons at the anvil. In 1811 his father was transferred to Inverkeithing, and the following year, on the expiration of his apprenticeship, Robert obtained a situation at Donibristle, Lord Moray's seat near Aberdour, Fifeshire. At the end of 1813 he was engaged as under-gardener by Mr. Leigh of High Leigh, Cheshire. He had received much religious training at home, and while in Leigh's service he came under the influence of some earnest Wesleyan methodists, which determined him to devote his life to religious work. After attending a missionary meeting at Warrington, held by William Roby of Manchester, he decided, if possible, to be a missionary. On 23 Dec. 1815 he left Leigh's service for the nursery garden of James Smith, a pious nonconformist Scotsman from Perthshire, who had settled at Dukinfield, near Manchester. There Moffat contrived to study under the guidance of Roby, who interested himself on his behalf with the directors of the London Missionary Society. His master had married in 1792 Mary Gray of York, a member of the church of England, and two of their sons became missionaries. During his stay at Dukinfield Moffat became engaged to their only daughter, Mary, who, born in 1795 at New Windsor, now part of Salford, had been educated at the Moravian school at Fairfield, and had formed strong religious convictions. But her parents at this time objected to the match. In the summer of 1816 Moffat was accepted by the society as a missionary, and on 30 Sept. was set apart for the ministry in the Surrey Chapel, London. On 18 Oct. he embarked in the ship Alacrity, Captain Findlay, for South Africa, and arrived at Cape Town on 13 Jan. 1817. Moffat was destined for Namaqualand, beyond the border of the colony, but permission to go thither was temporarily refused by the governor for political reasons, and Moffat went to Stellenbooch to learn Dutch. On 22 Sept. permission to cross the frontier was given, and Moffat started for the interior with some other missionaries. Moffat went to the chief Afrikaner's kraal at Vredeburg. He stayed in Namaqualand a little over a year, living like a native. A long expedition with Afrikaner to the north convinced Moffat that there was no hope of forming a missionary settlement in that quarter. He also made a journey to the eastward, across the great Kalahari desert, as far as Griquatown and Lattakoo. On his return he found himself the only European in Namaqualand, as Mr. Ebner, a missionary who had accompanied him to Vredeburg from Cape Town, and was the only other European north of the Orange river, was leaving the country.

At the beginning of 1819 Moffat determined to take Afrikaner, who had become a true convert, to Cape Town. A few years before a price had been set by the 