Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, John (d.1619)
MOORE, JOHN (d. 1619), divine, descended from the Moores of Moorehays, Cullompton, Devonshire, entered University College, Oxford, as a commoner in or before 1572. According to Wood he left the university without a degree (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 193). He may, however, be identical with John Moore who graduated B.A. on 16 Dec. 1573, and M.A. on 2 July 1576 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, p. 1023). He was engaged in 'some petite employments' until 1586, when he became rector of Knaptoft, Leicestershire. About 1610 he removed to Shearsby, Leicestershire. The enclosures in that county at the beginning of the seventeenth century aroused his sympathy with the customary tenants and the Labourers, and he denounced the greed and extravagance of the landlords, to which he attributed the substitution of pasture for arable land. He published: 1. 'A Target for Tillage, briefely containing the most necessary, pretious, and profitable use thereof, both for King and State,' London, 1612, 8vo; reprinted in 1613. 2. 'A Mappe of Man's Mortalitie. Clearly manifesting the Originall of Death, with the Nature, Fruits, and Effects thereof, both to the Vnregenerate and Elect Children of God,' &c., London, 1617, 8vo. He died in 1619.
His son, John Moore (1595 ?-1657), born at Knaptoft, is probably the John Moore who matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, on 9 May 1617, aged 22 (ib. p. 1024). He was living at Knaptoft in 1619, and he succeeded William Fallowes as rector of that parish in 1638. In 1647 the parliamentary sequestrators appointed him rector of Lutterworth. Moore was buried at Knaptoft on 29 Aug. 1657. Like his father, he was opposed to enclosures, and his attempts to prevent them in his own neighbourhood cost him upwards of 100l. He published: 1. 'The Crying Sin of England, of not caring for the Poor, wherein Inclosure, viz. such as doth Unpeople Townes and Uncorn Fields, is Arraigned, Convicted, and Condemned by the Word of God,' &c., London, 1653, 8vo. This pamphlet, which consists of two sermons preached by Moore at Lutterworth in May 1653, directed mainly against the enclosures at Catthorpe, Leicestershire, provoked a reply, 'Considerations concerning Common Fields and Inclosures, Dialoguewise, Digested into a Deliberative Discourse between two supposed friends, Philopeustus and Parrhesiastes,' &c. [by the Rev. Joseph Lee, rector of Cottesbach, Leicestershire], London, 1654 [1653], 8vo, in which the author ably refuted Moore's arguments. 2. 'A Reply to a Pamphlet intituled considerations,' &c., London, 1653. Lee continued the controversy in 'A Vindication of the Considerations,' &c. This pamphlet, though dated 7 March 1653-4, was not published till 1656, when it was accompanied by 'Εὐταξία τοῦ Ἀγρού; or a Vindication of a Regulated Enclosure, &c., by Joseph Lee, Minister of the Gospel,' London, 1656, 8vo. He married Eleanor, daughter of Kirk of Northampton, by whom he had issue (1) John, baptised 30 Jan. 1619-20, settled at Stamford, Lincolnshire, and died in 1698; (2) Thomas (1621-1686) became an ironmonger at Market Harborough, Leicestershire, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Wright of Sutton, in the parish of Broughton, Leicestershire, by whom he was the father of John Moore [q. v.], bishop of Norwich.
[Authorities quoted; Nichols's Hist, of Leicestershire, vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 83-99, 222-9, 265; Blomefield's Norfolk, ii. 42.]