Thursday, October 23, 2014

Allen line: John Moore 1740's to 1816

John Moore was another admirable man in our family line.  I like to think of him talking, for he was born in Ireland and probably had that Irish lilt in his voice to the end of his days.  Records differ as to whether he was born in 1741 or 1745, and he don't know the location other than somewhere in Ireland. His father may have been Thomas Moore, and it is possible that his wife was Christina Bishop, but there are so many Moores in the records that I haven't been able to determine whether either statement is fact or not.

Family lore states that he had enrolled to study for the priesthood in Ireland, but changed his mind and became a physician. We don't know whether that was before or after he came to the New World.  He arrived in Philadelphia in 1770 on board the ship "Caroline".  Again, a family story states that when the Revolutionary War broke out, he offered his services as a physician to the Patriots but was turned down, for whatever reason.  He is listed as having been a private in the war, but it is not known which John Moore he is, in the records. It is possible that his role was in the latter part of the war, protecting the frontier from Indian incursions.

He married Hannah Armstrong, daughter of Adam Abraham Armstrong and Margaret Nixon. (This couple were ancestral to astronaut Neil Armstrong, so we are his very distant cousins.) The Moores had 3 sons and five daughters, and of course there may have been infant or childhood deaths.  John owned at least two tracts of land in what became Washington and then Greene County, Pa, and farmed there. It appears that he also taught school. It is unknown whether he practiced his physician skills in his new home. 

Hannah died December 2, 1814, and John died nearly two years later, on December 1, 1816. They are buried in the Armstrong Cemetery, 3 miles east of Carmichaels, Pa.

I wish we knew more about the stories, and could find some documentation for them. I wish we knew more about John's Revolutionary War service, and why his physician's skills were not accepted. I'd love to know what church they may have attended.  And of course, I wish we knew his parents, and where in Ireland they were from. 

The line of descent is:

John Moore-Hannah Armstrong
Catherine Moore-Alexis Jackson
Eleanor Jackson-Vincent McCoy
Nancy McCoy-George Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Allen descendents

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