MOORE, George (1604-65), of Horsleydown, Southwark, Surr.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1661 - Dec. 1665

Family and Education

bap. 28 Oct. 1604, 1st s. of George Moore, carman, of Southwark by Miliicent, da. of Richard Metcalfe of Suff. m. lic. 10 May. 1628, Hannah (bur. 21 Sept. 1653), da. and coh. of John Wainwright, woodmonger, of Lambeth, Surr., 7s. (2 d.v.p.) 3da.1

Offices Held

Member, Hon. Artillery Co. 1640; capt. of (?)militia ft. Southwark by 1643; j.p. Surr. July 1660-d., commr. for assessment, Surr. Aug. 1660-d., Southwark 1661-4, sewers, Surr. and Kent Aug. 1660, loyal and indigent officers, Surr. 1662.2

Biography

Moore’s father seemingly affords a striking example of social mobility on the Jacobean south bank. A carter at the time of Moore’s baptism, four years later he was described in St. Olave’s parish register as a woodmonger, and by 1623 he was laying claim to gentility, though this was disallowed by the heralds. In March 1643 ‘Capt. George Moore’ was assessed at £200 by the parliamentary committee for the advance of money, but the collectors could not find enough in money or goods in his house to distrain on. He was serving on the board of governors of Camberwell grammar school in 1648, when he was bound over in £500 as a suspected Royalist by the Derby House committee.3

Moore Moore was returned unopposed with Thomas Bludworth for Southwark at the general election of 1661. They were described by a court supporter as ‘both right and honest men’. An inactive Member, he was named to 20 committees in the first three sessions of the Cavalier Parliament, none of which was of major political importance. On 3 Mar. 1662 he was appointed to a committee on a bill to regulate abuses in the packing of butter. In 1663 his committees included those for the bills to prevent butchers from selling live cattle, and to regulate the marshalsea court, the grant of London offices, and the collection of excise. In March 1664 he was appointed to committees on the bills to prevent the surrender of merchantmen to pirates and for the Wey navigation. His last committee on 11 Feb. 1665 was on another local bill, to enable Lord Loughborough to construct a canal from Brixton to the Thames. He probably did not attend the Oxford session; he signed his will on 15 Oct., listing debts of £1,000 and leasehold property in Southwark and its neighbourhood, and the Bridewell. He was buried at St. Olave’s on 12 Dec., and no other member of his family is known to have entered Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. Greater London RO, R655/66, 656/15 (St. Olave Southwark par. reg.); Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. lx), 83; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 936; W. H. Blanch, Parish of Camerwell, 177.
  • 2. Ancient Vellum Bk. ed. Raikes, 51; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 134; C181/7/31; Surr. Q. Sess. Recs. (Surr. Rec. Soc. viii), 251.
  • 3. Vis. Surr. (Harl. Soc. xliii), 196; Surr. Arch. Colls. xviii. 218; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 134; VCH Surr. ii. 213; CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 291.
  • 4. HMC 5th Rep. 181; CJ, viii. 280; information from Miss P. Allderidge; PCC 157 Hyde; Greater London RO, R20/65.