Though not a great ecclesiastic, Moore was an amiable and worthy prelate, a competent administrator, and a promoter of the Sunday-school movement and of missionary enterprise. He appears to have dispensed his patronage with somewhat more than due regard to the interests of his own family.[3]
Moore was married twice, first to Jane Wright (1736[6] – about 1765[7][8]), the sister of Sir James Wright, Resident at Venice[9][10][7][8] on 29 April 1763 at Walcot St. Swithin, Somerset, England;[11] and secondly, on 23 January 1770, to Catherine Eden, daughter of Sir Robert Eden of West Auckland. He left children;[3] one son, Roger Moore, would go on to be a Canon of Canterbury Cathedral.[12]
More than 30 years after his first wife's death the Archbishop would officiate at the wedding of her nephew, the later Sir George Wright, 2nd Baronet, to Rebecca Maclane, on 3 June 1796.[13]
In 2017, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum,[14] which is housed at the medieval church of St Mary-at-Lambeth,[15] 30 lead coffins were found; one with an archbishop's red and gold mitre on top of it.[16] A metal plate identified one of these as belonging to Moore, with another being that of his wife Catherine.[17]
^The Reverend Mr. John Moore of Christ Church in the University of Oxford and Jane Wright were married on 29 April 1763 at Walcot St. Swithin, Somerset, England. The Revd Mr John Moore of Christ Church in the University of Oxford a Bachelor and Jane Wright of the Parish of Walcot a Spinster were Married in this Chapel by Licence this twenty nineth Day of April in the Year One Thousand and Seven Hundred and sixty threeby me W Davenport Rector of Bredon Worcestershire. This Marriage was solemnised between Us John Moore Jane Wright in the presence of Mary Wright Cathe: Wright
^See John Pearce, Seeking a See, (Standing Committee of the Diocese of Dunedin, 1984), 31.
^George Ernest James Wright and Rebecca Maclane were married on 3 June 1796 at St. Mary, Lambeth, Surrey, England. George Ernest James Wright Esquire of Ray House in the Parish of Woodford in the County of Essex a Batchelor and Rebecca Maclane of the Parish of Ham in the county of Surrey were Married in the Chapel belonging to Lambeth House by special Licence ; this third Day of June in the Year One Thousand seven Hundred and ninety six By me J. Cantuar. This Marriage was solemnized between Us George Ernest James Wright Rebecca Maclane In the Presence of Wentworth John Bradney ("Cantuar" is part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's formal signature).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rigg, James McMullen (1894). "Moore, John (1730-1805)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
