George Moore (9 April 1806 – 21 November 1876
George Moore
/ref>) was an English lace merchant and philanthropist. He was born in Mealsgate
Mealsgate is a village in Cumbria, England, historically within Cumberland.
Location
Mealsgate is situated on the old Roman Road between Carlisle and the Roman fort of Derventio at Papcastle . This road is now known as the A595. Mealsgate i ...
, Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...
. Moore accumulated great wealth and built a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens
Kensington Palace Gardens is an exclusive street in Kensington, west of central London, near Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. Entered through gates at either end and guarded by sentry boxes, it was the location of the London Cage, th ...
. He then moved to Mealsgate.
Life
He was the son of John Moore and Peggy Lowes.
He was born at Mealsgate
Mealsgate is a village in Cumbria, England, historically within Cumberland.
Location
Mealsgate is situated on the old Roman Road between Carlisle and the Roman fort of Derventio at Papcastle . This road is now known as the A595. Mealsgate i ...
, Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...
, on 9 April 1806.
His ancestors were 'statesmen,' who for more than three centuries had lived upon their own land at Overgates.
After receiving some education at village schools, Moore, at thirteen, determined to begin life for himself.
It was against family precedent, but at last his father agreed that the boy should be bound apprentice to a draper at Wigton
Wigton is a market town in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just outside the Lake District in the borough of Allerdale. Wigton is at the centre of the Solway Plain, between the Caldbeck Fells ...
, Cumberland, and the self-reliance which would not allow him to remain a labourer in the country ultimately drove him to London, where he arrived in 1825. His first success was won upon the day after his arrival, when he came off victorious in some wrestling at Chelsea.
It was less easy to succeed in business.
Work of any kind was for a time sought in vain, and it was to the clannish goodwill of a Cumberland man that he at last owed a modest place with Flint, Ray, & Co., drapers.
He made little progress, but, with characteristic resolution, determined to marry Ray's daughter.
In 1826, he entered the service of Fisher, Stroud, & Robinson, then deemed the first lace-house in the city, with whom he wore down prejudice by steady industry.
The turning-point in Moore's life came when in 1827, he was made town traveller.
He prospered at once.
At twenty-one he was sent to the north, and worked with such extraordinary success as to be called 'The Napoleon of Watling Street.'
At twenty-three, a rival firm of lacemen, which began in a small room over a trunk shop in Cheapside, and became one of the largest in London, offered Moore a partnership, and the firm became Groucock, Copestake, & Moore.
By his own capacity and toil Moore contributed much to its success, and in 1840, after suffering one refusal, he was able to marry Eliza Flint Ray.
In 1841, Moore gave up the active life of a traveller.
City work at once told upon him.
He tried hunting; and in 1844 went to America for three months.
Philanthropy
In the retirement occasioned by ill-health his religious opinions became pronounced, and on his return from America he plunged into philanthropy with the same zest that he gave to business.
A list of the institutions for which he worked shows that he distributed his charity impartially.
The first charitable institution in which he interested himself was the Cumberland Benevolent Society.
Then he threw himself into the cause of the Commercial Travellers' Schools, for which he secured the interest of Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
. An article in ''Household Words
''Household Words'' was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare's ''Henry V'': "Familiar in his mouth as household words."
History
During the planning stages, titles origi ...
'' for August 1850 moved him to help in establishing the British Home for Incurables.
He was the chief promoter of a reformatory for young men at Brixton, the only work, Moore used to say, he had 'begun and given up.'
The Warehousemen and Clerks' Schools virtually had their origin on the premises of Moore's firm in Bow Churchyard.
The Porters' Benevolent Association also owed its existence to his encouragement.
For the Royal Free Hospital
The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...
, over the general committee of which Moore presided, he collected large sums of money.
He was a governor of Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...
, a warm friend of such societies as the London City Mission, the Reformatory and Refuge Union, the County Towns' Mission, Field Lane Ragged School, and the Little Boys' Homes, and a liberal donor to Cumberland charities.
Much of such work was necessarily public ; much was only known after his death.
When Paris was opened after the siege, in January 1871, he started at a few hours' notice to carry food and money from the Mansion House Committee.
Moore was indifferent to honours.
When elected sheriff of London, he escaped by paying the fine.
Six times he refused to stand for parliament, although invitations came from the city of London, from Middlesex, from Nottingham, and elsewhere.
The devotion to philanthropy to which Moore at first gave himself as a relief from the cares of business continued to the end of his life.
On his way to speak at a meeting of the Nurses' Institution at Carlisle he was knocked down by a runaway horse, and died on the following day, 21 November 1876, in the inn where he had slept on his way to London in 1825.
Family
Moore's first wife, Eliza Flint Ray, died on 4 December 1858 ; on 28 Nov. 1861 he married Agnes, second daughter of Richard Breeks, who survived him.
There were no children of either union.
References
;Attribution
Further reading
*James Burnley, ''Sir Titus Salt and George Moore'', London, Cassell & Co., 1885. ("The World's Workers" series)
*Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His prim ...
, ''George Moore, Merchant and Philanthropist'', London & New York, 1878.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, George
1806 births
1876 deaths
English merchants
English philanthropists
People from Cumberland
19th-century British philanthropists
19th-century English businesspeople