Author: Moore, John Henry
Biography:
MOORE, John Henry (1756-80: ODNB)
He is said to have been born about 1756 in Jamaica, the only son of Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet (1713-69), Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief, and his wife Catharine Maria Long (1727-1812). Since his parents married at St. Catherine’s, Spanish Town, on 12 Jan. 1751, there is a strong possibility he was born earlier. In 1769 he succeeded to the baronetcy while still at Eton and then proceeded to Emmanuel College Cambridge (matric. 1768, BA 1773, MA 1776). After Cambridge he served briefly in the 1st Regiment of Dragoons (Cornet 1774, Lieutenant 1776). He published The New Paradise of Dainty Devices: Consisting of Original Poems (1777). This was widely criticised for its vulgarities and commonplace occasional verse but contained an early parody of Gray: “Elegy Written in a College Library.” He lived for some time at Bath and contributed to the poetry of Lady Miller’s (q.v. Anne Miller) Batheaston circle. He died, unmarried, on 16 Jan. 1780 at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, leaving the Moore Hall Estate in Jamaica (including slaves) to his sister, Susanna Jane Dickson (1752-1821). His Poetical Works were collected twice and appeared in Thomas Park’s Works of the British Poets (vol. 41, 1808) and Richard Alfred Davenport’s The British Poets (vol. 73, 1822). (ODNB 25 Nov. 2022; familysearch.org; Kentish Gazette 13 Apr. 1774, 11 May 1776; LBS) AA