by faith only to the followers of George Whitefield.
The address presented to him by his college in 1708 on his first visitation of Cambridge as bishop of Ely refers to his munificent gifts to Clare library, and to the help which he had given in the rebuilding of the college. The library which Moore collected and retained was famous throughout Europe. At his death he had accumulated nearly 29,000 books and 1,790 manuscripts, and Dibdin did not exaggerate in calling him 'the father of black-letter collectors in this country.' The scandalous stories repeated by one gossiping antiquary after another as to the means by which he formed his collection may be dismissed from consideration. Bagford was the chief assistant in its formation, and in return the bishop obtained for him at the close of his life a place in the Charterhouse. The library was offered to Lord Oxford in 1714 for 8,000l., and on his refusal was sold for six thousand guineas to George I, who gave it, on the instigation of Lord Townshend, to the university of Cambridge. The letter of thanks for this service is in the Townshend MSS. ('Historical Manuscripts Commission,' llth Rep. App. pt. iv. p. 341), and the gift occasioned the two well-known epigrams referred to under Sir William Browne. Some particulars of this famous library are in Bernard's 'Catalogus Lib. MSS. Angliæ et Hiberniæ,' 1697, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 361-84, 390, 393-9, and from the insertions in the copy of that work in the Cambridge University Library the additions to 1714 may be ascertained. [See also the notes of Oldys and Bagford on London libraries, which appeared in 'Notes and Queries' for May and June 1861, Hartshorne's 'Book Rarities at Cambridge,' pp. 18-24, Cambridge University Library MSS. Nos. 3236 and 3247, and Additional MSS. British Museum 5827, 6261-2.] The rarest volumes in the collection are frequently mentioned by T. F. Dibdin in his edition of Ames's 'Typographical Antiquities.' The bishop's unpublished diaries, numerous letters to him, and his private accounts are also preserved in the library at Cambridge.
A half-length portrait of Moore when bishop of Norwich was painted and engraved by R. White, and a reproduction by T. Hodgetts of the same print was prefixed to the second volume of Dibdin's Ames. A second portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller was engraved by W. Faithorne, and sold by E. Cooper at the 'Three Pidgeons' in Bedford Street. This picture is at Lambeth Palace, and copies are in the Cambridge University Library, in the lodge at Clare College, and in Ely Palace. In the combination room at Clare College is another portrait of him when bishop of Ely and advanced in years, which may have been painted by Kersseboom. His arms are given in Bentham's 'Ely' (ed. 1812), App. p. *47.
[A life of the bishop by the Rev. Cecil Moore appeared in the Bibliographer in 1884, and was published separately, with the date of 1885. A supplement from the same pen appeared in Book-Lore, i. 75-82, and the writer designed a larger volume with letters and fuller particulars. Consult also Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 483, 502-3, vol. iv. pt.i. pp. 53, 63, 222; Newcourt's Repertorium Lond, i. 275, 288; Bentham's Ely, ed. 1812, pp. 207-208, 242-3, 287; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 345, 355, ii. 473; Blomefield's Norfolk, 1806, iii. 589-92; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation, ii. 259-60, vi 178, 200; Whiston's Memoirs, pp. 25-6, 41, 123, 150; Dibdin's Bibliomania, ed. 1876, pp. 318-319; Hearne's Collections (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), vols. i. and ii. passim; Willis and Clark's Cambridge, iii. 29-34, 75-7; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 542-7, ii. 465, viii. 360-1, ix. 611; Monk's Bentley, vol. i. passim; Western Antiquary, v. 247; information from the Rev. Dr. Atkinson of Clare. College, Cambridge.]
MOORE, JOHN (1642?–1717), dissenting minister, was born about 1642 at Musbury, Devonshire, and was educated at Colyton. In July 1660 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where John Prince [q. v.], author of the 'Worthies of Devon,' was a friend and fellow-student. He received episcopal ordination and became curate of Long Burton, Dorset, with the chapelry of Holnest, in 1662. His daughter Margaret was baptised at Long Burton on 2 Aug. 1667 Making the acquaintance of certain dissenting ministers, among them 'T. Crane of Rampesham,' he declared himself of their number, and was in consequence silenced in 1667 under the Act of Uniformity. He retired to a small paternal estate at Ottery St. Mary, and there preached occasionally to the people, but a second persecution obliged him to move again into Dorset. In 1676 he became pastor to a large dissenting congregation at Christ Church Chapel, Bridgwater, Somerset, and remained in charge there for thirty-six years. The union of the Somerset followed by that of the Devonshire, dissenting ministers, in imitation of the work already begun among the London ministers, was initiated by Moore, 'Mr. Weeks of Bristol, and a Mr. Sinclair.' In his later years, from 1688, he also kept an academy at Bridgwater, which enjoyed some repute. Moore died on 23 Aug. 1717, leaving two sons, of whom the elder, John (1673–1747), graduated B.A. from Brasenose, 1695, succeeded his father at
