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Moore
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Moore

leased from the oath of secrecy. It is said that he was 'on intimate terms with Byng's family' (Keppel, Life of Viscount Keppel, i. 248). He was shortly afterwards moved into the Cambridge, and appointed commodore and commander-in-chief on the Leeward Islands station.

In January 1759, with a force of eleven ships of the line, besides frigates and small craft, he convoyed the expeditionary army under General Hopson, from Barbados to Martinique, reduced Fort Negro, and covered the landing of the troops in Fort Royal Bay. Hopson, however, worn with age and infirmities, seems to have been unequal to the exigencies of his position; and on intelligence from a deserter that the ground in front of the town was mined, he promptly abandoned the undertaking (Gent. Mag. 1759, 286-7). He proposed to attack St. Pierre, but on Moore's pointing out that after taking St. Pierre it would still be necessary to take Fort Royal before they could be masters of the island, it was resolved rather to attempt the reduction of Guadeloupe. On 22 Jan. the fleet was off Basseterre. During the early morning of the 23rd the ships took up their assigned positions, and at seven o'clock opened fire on the sea defences. Moore hoisted his broad pennant on board the Woolwich frigate, the better to see what was going on, and to consult with Hopson, who was also on board the Woolwich. For several hours the fire was extremely heavy on both sides, but before night the batteries were silenced, and the town, with its warehouses of rum and sugar, was in flames. The next day the troops were landed, and occupied the ruins. The French maintained their ground in the hill country, where they were secretly supplied with provisions by the Dutch. On 11 March, on intelligence that a strong French fleet had arrived at Martinique, Moore took up his post in Prince Rupert's Bay in Dominica, the better to flank any attempt that might be made to relieve Guadeloupe, and also for the health of his men, who were falling sick. On 1 May Guadeloupe capitulated, and with it the small islands adjacent, the Saintes and Deseada. In the following year Moore returned to England.

On 21 Oct. 1762 he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and for the rest of the war was commander-in-chief in the Downs. He was afterwards commander-in-chief at Portsmouth for three years. On 4 March 1766 he was created a baronet, was made vice-admiral on 18 Oct. 1770, K.B. in 1772, and admiral on 29 Jan. 1778. His health had for some time been failing; during 1777 he had suffered from violent attacks of gout. His last public duty was, in December 1778, to sign the protest against the holding a court-martial on Admiral Keppel, his signature coming second, immediately below Hawke's. He died on 2 Feb. 1779.

Moore married, about 1756, Penelope, daughter of General Matthews, and by her had issue a son, who died young, and four daughters, of whom the eldest, Catherine, married Sir Charles Warwick Bamfylde, bart., and the second, Penelope, married the Rev. Ralph Sneyd (see Burke, Peerage, s.n. 'Poltimore'). His portrait, by Gainsborough, is at Poltimore Park (information from Lord Poltimore).

[Charnock's Biog. Navalis, v. 250; Naval Chronicle, iii. 421; Gardiner's Account of the Expedition to the West Indies; Beatson's Naval and Military Memoirs; official letters and other documents in the Public Record Office.]

J. K. L.

MOORE, JOHN, M.D. (1729–1802), physician and man of letters, was the second child and eldest son of Charles Moore of the family of Rowallan (letter in the Caldwell Papers}, a presbyterian minister, and his wife Marion, daughter of John Anderson of Glasgow. He was born at Stirling in 1729, and was there baptised on 7 Dec. On her husband's death in 1737, his mother went to live in Glasgow, where, after education at the grammar school, he matriculated at the university. He was at the same time apprenticed to John Gordon, a surgeon in large practice, the surgical instructor of Smollett. Besides attending the medical courses, Moore devoted himself to literature, history, and philosophy. In 1747, having concluded his apprenticeship, he was made surgeon's mate in the Duke of Argyll's regiment, and his first service was at Maestricht, where the hospitals were filled with the wounded of the battle of Laffeldt. Mr. Middleton, the director-general of military hospitals, recommended him to George Keppel, third earl of Albemarle [q. v.], colonel of the Coldstream guards, and he became assistant to the surgeon of that regiment, attended its numerous sick at Flushing, and went into winter quarters at Breda in 1748 under General Braddock, with whom he returned to England when peace was made in the spring. He attended the lectures of Dr. William Hunter and then went to Paris with William Fordyce [q. v.] to continue his studies. He called on the Earl of Albemarle, then British ambassador, and was appointed surgeon to his household. This office introduced him to interesting society at the embassy, but with Fordyce he worked hard at the hospitals. In the summer of 1750 when