Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/291

 12 S. V. Nov., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

285

His career in the Church was long and prosperous. He was evidently acquainted .with Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, who made him his domestic chaplain in 1597 and presented him to the rectories of Milbrooke <and Dipdene at the same time. In 1600, -not 1597 as in the 'D.N.B.,' he was pre- sented to the well-endowed rectory of West- Meon and received permission to hold that of Chilcombe also. 'Apparently he retained both until his death in 1640. He preached Before and was received in audience by King James in 1607 and again in 1609, and Moore notes in his diary the cordial nature of his reception. In 1613 he was installed prebendary of Winchester, and in the following year took his degree of D.D. James appointed him a Court chaplain in 1623, and Charles continued him in that office on his succession. According to Gardiner, 'History of England,' vol. vii. pp. 50-56, he was called before the Commons 'to give evidence as to the doings of Laud -and Neile.

By his first wife Constant]' a, the daughter of Dr. Sprint, he had six children, of whom a daughter, Arnica, married Dr. Twisse, the nephew of Bishop Bilson. There is a slight error in the ' D.N.B.' account of Twisse. It states that he married the daughter of Robert Moor before 1615 ; but she was not born until 1602, and the diary tells us that the ceremony took place April 18, 1626, and that the lady was 23.

By his second wife Francesca Loving, Moore had five children, one of whom, Barbara, married Dr. Edward Meebkirke, another wealthy Hampshire divine.

In 1640, being then in his 72nd year, Dr. Moore was evidently nearing his end, for his son Robert takes up the diary to record his mother's death. It is probable that he was not so good a classical scholar as his father, for after this first entry the remainder are in English. On Feb. 20, 1640, he writes : " Satcly. about 9 of the clock in the morning my most deare and loving father Robert Moore Dtr. of Divinity departed this life setatis suse 72 following my mother just six -weeks to an howre. ' ' He was buried at West - Meon two days later, and " Dr. John^Harris did preach his funeral."

Nearly all the remaining entries by the younger Robert are records of the birth and baptism of his nine children, none of whom seem to have distinguished themselves. It is, however, practically certain that it was his youngest daughter Anne who married into the Edgell family, and became the

mother of the William Edgell who inherited Milton Place in 1750.

The date of the death of the younger Robert is unknown, but it was after 1657, the date of the last entry in the diary.

Dr. Moore, in accordance with the fashion of his time, was fond of chronograms, and among others we have the familiar one on the Duke of Buckingham. There is also a reference to the ill-fated expedition to the Isle of Rhe. He also notes that on Jan. 31, 1622, there were three tides in the Thames, and that the same occurrence took place in 1413 and 1574. At 7 S. viii. 348 and 433 will be found references to the same subject.

The younger Robert lived through the troublous times of the Civil War and the Protectorate ; but there is not a single reference to the public events of that stirring time. The family was a Puritan one, but their sympathies do not appear to have led them to take any active part in the struggle.

Dr. Moore had an elder brother Adrian, a London merchant who leased the manor of Milton from C.C.C., Oxford. He died in 161 8, at his house on Tower Hill, and from the State Papers Domestic we learn that in 1634 his widow, reputed a rich woman, refused to subscribe to the repairs of St. Paul's, the matter was brought to the notice of the King, who "was greatly incensed and directed the Dean and Chapter not to renew her lease of the house on Tower Hill. They were also charged to register his letter as "a monument of her unthankfulness." The Egham property had descended to her son Adrian, who died in 1672. His son, another Adrian, died before his father, and Robert Moore the younger had prudently christened his fourth and only surviving son Adrian. Family reasons also seem to have dictated the advisability of being on the spot when anything happened, so he left Hamp- shire and settled at Thorpe Lee, Egham. This Adrian was born there in 1654 and succeeded to Milton Place in 1672, as already mentioned. He also acquired the crown lease of the manor of Egham, and married a fortune of 30,OOOZ. He died in 1740 at Milton Place, aged 86, and not " upwards of 90," as stated in contemporary obituaries. As a famous editor of ' N. & Q.' would have observed, this is the way centenarians are made. His son, another Adrian, followed him. He was childless, and apparently quarrelled with his heir-at-law Robert Moore of Hammersmith, as he left his estate to a more distant cousin William Edgell.