Jacob Moore (November 21, 1829 – December 13, 1886) was Attorney General of the state of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

from 1864 through 1869."JACOB MOORE: Sudden Death of One of the Leading Lawyers of the State", ''The Wilmington Morning News'' (December 15, 1886), p. 3.Delaware Department of Justice - Previous Attorneys General
Born in

Laurel, Delaware Laurel is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. The population was 3,708 at the time of the United States Census, 2010, 2010 census. Laurel is part of the Salisbury metropolitan area, Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistic ...

, Moore was the oldest of twelve children of Lowther Taylor Moore, a storekeeper. After taking a preparatory course, Moore entered

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, in 1846, and graduated after a full course in 1850. The following three years he spent at

Georgetown, Delaware Georgetown is a town and the county seat of Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town is 6,422, an increase of 38.3% over the previous decade. Georgetown is part of the Salisbury, Marylan ...

, in the office of the Hon. Edward Wootten of the Superior Court of Delaware, and in 1853 Moore opened a law office in Georgetown. Moore was initially a Democrat, having cast his first vote for President Franklin Pierce in 1852, but switched to the Republican Party after the Battle of Fort Sumter in 1861, and was thereafter a vocal organizer and advocate of the party. On September 3, 1863, Moore was appointed attorney-general of the state by the Governor

William Cannon William Cannon (March 15, 1809 – March 1, 1865) was an American merchant and politician from Bridgeville, in Sussex County, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party and later the Republican Party, who served in the Delaware General ...

, the only political office that Moore held in his life. Upon Moore's retirement, Chief Justice Edward Gilpin said: "He has made a good officer and has tried more important capital cases than any other attorney general in the state; and during his term of office the law of murder has been firmly settled". After his term as attorney general, Moore returned to his practice, giving much of his time to the affairs of the Junction and Breakwater and the Breakwater and Frankford Railroad Companies and the Old Dominion Steamship Company, whose local counsel he was. He frequently appeared before the United States District Courts in Delaware and Philadelphia, and before the Supreme Court of the United States. Moore died at his home at Georgetown after a short sickness. His trouble was of a gastric nature and he had only been ill a few hours. He had frequently been troubled with this ailment and he had apprehended for years that some time, sooner or later, it would result fatally, but his death was wholly unexpected, as he had enjoyed excellent health up to that evening.

References

Delaware Attorneys General 1829 births 1886 deaths {{Delaware-politician-stub