Family and Education

b. 1536, 1st s. of Robert Moore of Bewick by Elizabeth, sis. of Sir Edward Darell. educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1555, BA 1556; L. Inn 1560, called 1569. m. 1569 Katherine (d.1634), da. of John Holme of Paull Holme, wid. of Marmaduke Constable of Wassand, s.p. suc. fa. 1581.1

Offices Held

J.p. Yorks (E. Riding) from c.1577, q. 1579; commr. oyer and terminer, north parts 1577.2

Biography

Although the eldest son of a landowner of some substance in Holderness, John Moore was an active lawyer and remained so even after succeeding to the family estates in 1581. After being called to the bar he practised in York, where he was closely connected with the council in the north. His loyalty was beyond question and in 1592 he was one of the East Riding magistrates deputed to impose the oath of supremacy in the county. Not long before his death, in December 1597, he was one of three lawyers recommended by the council at York as fit to succeed William Paler, the Queen’s attorney in the north—and a previous Member of Parliament for Hedon—who had just died.3

Details of Moore’s life remain obscure, partly because of the confusion which has arisen between him and a namesake also living in York, a serjeant-at-arms in attendance upon the council in the north. Both apparently had married ladies named Katherine. The serjeant-at-arms, however, was buried in St. Michael-le-Belfry in 1595, while the lawyer, who died on 21 Dec. 1597, was buried in the Lady Chapel of the minster. Here his wife joined him in 1634 after, as her monumental inscription tells us, having lived a widow for 36 years. It seems likely that it was the lawyer, a native of Holderness, who married the widow of Marmaduke Constable, herself a native of that district. If so, his return to Parliament for Hedon in 1572 becomes intelligible. Constable’s widow remarried within the year and she and her second husband remained closely associated with the Wassand estates during the minority of her children. Thus, as a neighbour in Holderness, as a servant of the council in the north, and as a family connexion, Moore would be recommended to Sir John Constable, a patron of the borough.

Little further is known of Moore, except what can be learnt from his conventional epitaph, which describes him as learned in the law and of upright life; distinguished by agreeableness and integrity, willingly sharing his resources with the poor; devoid of vice, and placing his reliance upon faith in Christ.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

• 1. Yorks. Peds. (Harl. Soc. xcv), ii. 288-9; Dugdale, Vis. Yorks. iii. 48; Foster, Yorks. Peds. ii.
• 2. SP12/121.
• 3. Black Bk. L. Inn, i. 366, 458; APC, xxiii. 257; HMC Hatfield, vii. 493, 506.
• 4. York Wills (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xxiv), 72; Notices of Scoreby and Fam. of Blake (Yorks. Arch. Jnl. x), 101-2; Wills and Inventories (Surtees Soc. xxxviii), 142; Monumental Brasses in York (Yorks. Arch. Jnl. xviii), 33; Drake, Eboracum, 514.