Proof that Richard Moore is the son of John Moore and Jane Cureton

I sent out several messages on Ancestry today as participants had added information giving Richard Moore wife of Sarah Jenkins and then actually added parents for Sarah as well.  I was hoping to find someone who had some proof of the maiden name of Richard's wife, Sarah.  The first message back had a researcher who had clearly mixed up several families.....dead end.

The second man offered no proof but wanted to know if I knew if Richard Moore's parents were John and Jane Cureton Moore.  I told him that indeed I had that connection in my data base, but I would have to think if I had proof.

This post is about proof of that connection.  First I found the birth of Richard Moore to parents, John and Jane Moore:


This document is from the Radnor MM and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.  It is said to be in Delaware County.    I found the copy of the register on Ancestry's amazing collection of the original Quaker records.


You will notice that the date of birth is said to be the 20 day of the 12th month of 1697.  Ancestry interprets that date to be 20 February, 1697.  I know that in that period of time, Quakers often used numbered months as they found the names of the months to be Pagan.  But if I take time to confirm that Ancestry has interpreted correctly, I will loose my train of thought.

So yes, we have proof that John and Jane Cureton Moore did indeed have a son named Richard.
And next I am thinking about proof that this is the Richard Moore who moved to Berks County around 1740 and then on to Orange County, NC around 1755.  The dates work well for a man born in 1697.  And all of the information say that he was an old man when he moved to Wrightsboro.

As I looked for documents of removal for Richard, I found the following.  I am not clear if this is MY Richard, but I suspect it is:



Again, I interpret this to be Richard's effort to become a part of the East Sudbury MM in 1733.  This document is also found on Ancestry's collection of original Quaker records.  I had trouble finding East Sadbury and find that our modern records refer to this MM as Sadsbury.

And then this next document seems to be the same Richard Moore being readmitted to Radnor MM from Sadsbury: (Sorry I had to blow it up this large in order to be able to read it....you may have to manipulate the image)



Again this image is from Ancestry's collection of Quaker records.  I did not see a date on this page, but Ancestry has labelled this image for Richard as follows:



I am not clear at this time if this is an actual move by Richard and Sarah or if this is just preparation for their move to Berks County.  But it would seem that if they received a certificate of good standing it should have been from Radnor MM.  Phooey!  There is not a list of Certificates of Removal issued as early as 1730.  They do not start for Radnor until 1784.  Ok....next look to see if there is a Certificate of Removal received in Berks County.

I could not find a certificate accepted in Berks County for Richard Moore.  The records were just not kept early enough.  So I am thinking that I should look at the men who moved to the Robeson area together to see from where they moved.

"The third settlement of Friends was in Robeson township, on the west side of the Schuylkill River about the year 1740. Moses Embree, Owen Humphray, John Scarlet, Sr., John Scarlet, Jr., Thomas Thomas, Robert Long, Peter Marsh, Richard Moor, Evan Thomas, David Cadwallader, David Jenkins, John Wells, David Morris and Ephraim Jackson were the earliest Friends in this territory. “

While looking at the early minutes for Robeson, I saw many entries for the Scarlet family and the Thomas Thomas family and the David Morris family and Ephraim Jackson and his wife as well ( I am thinking it was death dates for both of them, but I am doing that from memory.  Using Hinshaw's Quaker encyclopedia, it would seem that Robeson is not included in his volumes.  There is no record of any sort of Ephraim Jackson.  Only one for John Scarlet.  It is that he was accepted at Cane Creek in 1758.  So he continued to move with Richard Moore.  Moses Embree is mentioned quite a bit in Hinshaw, but this Moses Embree is in Virginia.  So it is possible that it is the same man but that he did not move to NC with Richard's group.  The only mention of a David Cadwallader is a different man unless he moved by 1759 to Fairfax MM in Chester County.  This is a possibility if when others moved south, he moved back to Chester County.  Remember I wrote a blog that explained that there were Indian Troubles in the area around Berks County which I believe caused the Quaker families to move.  They were peace loving and the facts that neighbors were being murdered must have been quite frightening.  Could not find Owen Humphrey.  Could this Evan Thomas be the same Evan Thomas who settled at Hopewell?  When I get a chance I need to check the date for the settlement at Hopewell.  I can not find definitive proof of John Wells....but there is a Wells family at Cane Creek.

I found an entry in the Exeter Monthly Meeting Book A in which David Jenkins is admitted to the Quaker faith 26th day of 4th month of 1753.   It does not mention his having a certificate from somewhere else.  This document is found among the Ancestry Quaker document collection.  David Jenkins is also mentioned in the Cane Creek MM records.

For Richard and his family, Hinshaw gives this:



So, Richard and his wife, Sarah are received with a certificate 1757, 6, 4.  Son, John, is received as well.  Prudence is the first one that gives us the evidence that they are moving from Exeter and that she is bringing her certificate from that Monthly Meeting.  Perhaps I have been looking at the wrong MM for Richard and his family....or perhaps Robeson is not a MM at this time but only a preparative meeting.

The only thing that I have in my data base about Prudence is that she is named as Prudence Ryan in Richard's will.  Mordecai is my ancestor.  I am guessing that he is dis for marrying out of unity.  I am a bit confused as to his wife.  I will look at that another time.  Abigail married Nehemiah Thomas.  She is one of my favorite non-ancestors.  She and Nehemiah remained childless.  They moved to Newberry County, SC rather than Wrightsboro.  When she was ready to move, she asked for forgiveness and was reinstated as a Quaker.  Abigail remained in the Quaker faith until her death in Warren County, Ohio.  The next entries are almost certainly in preparation for the move to Wrightsboro....there was probably not a MM at Wrightsboro when they first moved, this certificates were for the closest MM to the area.

But this pretty much firms up my belief that Richard and his family moved from Berks County to Cane Creek MM.  I believe that they were connected with the Eno preparatory Meeting that answered to Cane Creek.  I wrote a blog post about Eno.  If you would like to read it, use Eno as search word.

I found it!  I found the record in which Richard Moore presented his certificate from Sadsbury!  Again, in order to make it easy to read, I had to make the image original size.  You may need to manipulate it to read.  So it is no Robeson nor Exeter that he takes his certificate.  It is Oley!  A google search shows:

Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting established Oley Monthly Meeting in 1737. In 1742, its name was changed to "Exeter".

My note on these next pages is that they are probably easier to read on Ancestry.  But I wanted to add a few notes on some of the pages.

Oh, these pages are where Joseph found the complaints against Richard Moore for owing money.  I am looking at pages found on Ancestry Quaker records.  The heading is

Pennsylvania  Berks  Reading Monthly Meeting Minutes 1737-1765.  I found them by a search for Richard Moore.  But the very interesting thing is that these minutes are indexed by the original author.  Thus he has listed all of the pages on which Richard Moore is named.

And here is the application made by Richard Moore to obtain a certificate for his wife and children and his son John who must be the oldest child.



This is in 1755 as he is preparing to move to Orange County, NC.

And here is the page that documents the fact that the meeting is considering drawing up a certificate for Richard and his family to take with them to NC.  And this names the underage children.

And the very next page has a note that John Embree wrote from NC that he condemns his Fornification.  And that he is frequenting the Eno preparatory meeting.  The note says that there are also some lines written from others who are a part of Eno.  The MM will consider what to do...

And next the certificate has actually been made and signed:



I am fairly certain that the below is MY Mordecai, son of Richard Moore.  Mordecai is not named among the children of Richard and his wife, so I assume that he is grown.




And this next page makes it clear that John and Mordecai are indeed sons of Richard: