John Moore born November 4, 1738 at Jenny Jump Mountain, Sussex Co., New Jersey, United States of America to Edward Moore and Mary Nelles. John's father Edward was born in Northern Ireland immigrating circa 1720.
Reference "Langford Robinson's "History of the Moore Family of Grimsby"
John Moore's grandfather Denis Moore, an apprentice, along with others was responsible for the holding of the Bridge of Derry until King William of Orange came to break the siege at Londonberry defeating the French forces of James II.
At 21 John Married Dinah Robins Pettit, the year was 1763 in Sussex County, New Jersey, USA.
Dinah Robins Pettit born 10 Feb 1746 to parents Jonahtan Heath Pettit and Deborah Robins at Phillipsburg, Sussex Co., New Jersey, United States of America.
Documents show that John's trade was that of a "hatter" one it's kind/firsts in America.
John owned one of 3 lots on Jenny Jump Mountain while the others were owned by Samuel Green (father in law of my 6th great grandfather) and Edward Oatley.
During the outbreak of the American War of Independence John and Dinah endured hard time and in the book Pioneer Families of Northwestern New Jersey ...
“John was a man of decided political convictions. He lived in the Hardwick Patent during the entire Revolutionary War. He probably agreed with his neighbors that the acts of the English parliament were unwise and to some extent oppressive; but he did not think those acts justified treason and rebellion. He was a Loyalist. When the appeal was made to arms, he supported the rights of the British Crown. His neighbors called him a "TORY"; he was, and he gloried in it. He tried to help his King. John persuaded several men of his community to pass through the American lines and join the British Army. When we inquire as to what happened to several young men of his day, we see ‘gone off to join the British’. John Moore encouraged them to do so. His neighbors who supported the American cause suspected him of this. They arrested him and took him before the Council of Safety who judged him guilty and on August 22, 1778, required him to give bond for his good behavior.”
According to the United Empire Loyalist Association records (Loyalist Trails, 2009-10, March 8, 2009 Loyalist Trails Newsletter), John Moore was actually imprisoned at Log Gaol when the war broke out for hiding British supporters and sending troops to the front line. Log Gaol built by Samuel Green was the first jail built on the outskirts of York, Upper Canada. The jail was a log structure with 10 cells and a hanging yard. The first person to be executed at the jail was John Sullivan in 1798 for stealing a forged note worth about one dollar. See blog on Samuel Green and Logg Gaol
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War John joined the Colonial Guards of New Jersey and was made a junior officer. When the corps of New Jersey turned its coat, John stuck with the red tunic of his king and fought on the side of the British until the end of the war. The Revolutionary War lasted approximately from 1775 to1783. Any man born between 1730 and 1765 who lived in New Jersey is probably listed in some form of military record. If he supported the rebellion, he may be mentioned in records as a rebel, patriot, Whig, or signer of the Continental Association. Those who opposed the rebellion were Loyalists or Tories. (Source – New jersey Military Records website). John Moore was a member of the Colonial Guards and later joined Butler’s Rangers. Moore Family History indicates John was promoted to "Captain" the in Butler’s Rangers. Other later lists of officers include John’s name. A Colonel Caldwell, who was chief of staff at Ottawa in 1914 confirmed that the John Moore buried at Grimsby is THE Captain Moore who identifies in Butler’s Rangers.
More information on the Rangers is written in “Butler’s Rangers” written by Donald C. Holmes, President of the Sir Guy Carleton Branch, Ottawa, 1977.
Dinah Pettit my 6th great grandmother, was the daughter of Jonathan Pettit and Deborah Robbins (my 7th great grand parents). She was also the niece of Judge /Major Nathanial Pettit (my 8th great uncle). Nathaniel Pettit was a Judge in New Jersey during the reign of George III. He signed a petition that he was loyal to the British Crown. Judge Pettit was a “Member of Assembly” from 1772-1775. The minutes of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey say that Judge Pettit was arrested, fined, committed to jail and bailed. Judge Pettit was summoned before the ‘Committee of Public Safety’, a revolutionary tribunal and he was disarmed, fined, and removed from his judicial office. Later he signed an affidavit in Canada to Governor Simcoe which stated he concealed from the rebels the names of other Loyalist families. (see blog on Nathaniel Pettit).
Seven families from Sussex under the leadership of Judge Nathanial Pettit decided to leave New Jersey. They were called The Forty. These families included Judge Nathanial’s niece, Dinah Pettit, and her husband, John Moore as well as Jacob Glover.
In the spring of 1787, John with the other loyalist families began the long trek to Canada. There were a large band of loyalists, forty families in all; some from Pennsylvania. The men, women, and children totaled one hundred and ten persons including all the goods they could carry and livestock of 68 horses and 7 cows. They began the long journey to Niagara, Canada. Active and reliable young men led the way followed by men and boys driving the herds, next came the pack horses carrying children who were too young to walk and household equipment, and then the pedestrians who made up the rest. A few men were assigned to guard the rear as they traveled through dangerous country, where they were liable to attack from hostile Republicans or marauding Indians. Their route lay along the valley of the Delaware River to the Delaware Water Gap, across the mountains of Pennsylvania to the valley of the east branch of the Susquehanna River, where a short generation before, the settlement of Wyoming had been destroyed by Indians. They traveled past the Finger-Lake District of New York State; home to the Seneca Tribe, whose warriors had wiped out a British Colony in Niagara some twenty years before.
John Moore decided to stop at the Mill Seat Tract in upper New York and it was from there he hired a bateau (A bateau or bateau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade) to convey the family and goods to Niagara. As stated in the “History of the Moore Family of Grimsby” by Langsford Robinson “the family and part of their possessions were conveyed by water to Niagara…..but when Captain Moore returned he found not only his wagons, cattle, and goods gone, but the slaves as well.” Around the first of July, 1787 they arrived at the fort in Niagara and saw the old red crossed banner flying on top of the fort there. Having stayed in Niagara for a while, the Moore family made the trek to Grimsby settling near the lakeshore. In a history quoted from the husband of John’s daughter, Elizabeth, his son-in-law, Robert Nelles, stated that he “left the road to follow a track through the pines and soon he came to their (John’s) camp. It was much like his own, a lean-to with possessions stacked around it under the trees beside a widening creek.” Then the ‘Year of Great Want’ struck and famine hit the area. John Moore’s signature is among those who petitioned Colonel Hunter at Niagara and pleaded for food, seed, pigs, etc. in order to survive the extreme life threatening circumstances in which they found themselves.
John was a founding member of the First Township Council in Canada in 1790. It is possible that John had been involved in setting up his community in New Jersey when the continental congress had authorized the formation of local government. John now used these skills in his new community in Canada. John was granted land in Grimsby Township Lot A, Grimsby Gore, Lot 1, Concessions I and II, and 300 acres in Concession 7, Grimsby Township and 400 acres in Plainum. John was clerk of the town council for three years and also in 1792 joint overseer of the roads. In 1793 he was Warden of the Town, which office he held until 1796. His name headed the subscription list for the building of the plank church in 1800 – St. Andrews Episcopal Church. When he came to Canada he found farming unsuited to his temperament and he resumed hat making. He opened a shop in the settlement. There he made little money as the turnover was too limited. He was also a member of the Masonic Lodge in Grimsby in 1799.
John Moore died in 1803 and was buried at the lake on the west side of the creek. Later he was interred in St. Andrews Churchyard. Although unable to make his previous enterprise of hat-making profitable and finding himself unsuited to farming, John helped make a place in the history of Canada. Grimsby was the first Municipal Council in April, 1790 and is assumed to be the cradle of Municipal Government in Ontario.
Dinah Pettit Moore died November 9, 1804 at the age of 68 years. Both John and Dinah are buried together at the St. Andrew’s Anglican Cemetery at Grimsby, Ontario. Their names are inscribed on one headstone which is construed to mean that “their remains were reburied here from an earlier yard nearer the lake”. Ten children were born to John and Dinah Moore
MARRIAGES OF CHILDREN:
MARRIAGES OF CHILDREN:
William married Caroline Lana Herkimer Skinner
Pierce, (Captain) married Orpha Woolverton dau. of famed Jonathan Woolverton and Mary Barcroft
Jonathan married Martha Carpenter
Charles married Elizabeth VanDuzen
Dinah married Levi Mayhew
Margaret married Joseph Smith
Mary married Alan Nixon
Deborah Jacob Glover
Elizabeth who married Colonel Robert Nelles
Rachel married Henry Hixson.
MY QUESTION / RESEARCH IS NOW ... Is Alan Hixon and Henry Hixson brothers?
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