Background
Henry Moore was born on February 7, 1713, in Vere, Jamaica, the son of Samuel Moore and Elizabeth Lowe, and grandson of John Moore, who settled in Barbados in the reign of Charles II and later removed to Jamaica.
Henry Moore was born on February 7, 1713, in Vere, Jamaica, the son of Samuel Moore and Elizabeth Lowe, and grandson of John Moore, who settled in Barbados in the reign of Charles II and later removed to Jamaica.
Moore received his education at Eton and the University of Leyden.
Then he returned to Jamaica, became successively a member of the Legislative Assembly and of the Council, and secretary of the island.
Later he became lieutenant-governor, and upon the departure of Admiral Sir Charles Knowles in June 1756, acting governor, serving in this capacity until 1762, with the exception of a short interval. During his administration he coped successfully with a serious negro insurrection which broke out on Easter Monday, 1760. While in personal command of the pursuing troops, he once narrowly escaped capture, and throughout the campaign displayed a "prudent intrepidity which compensated for the inexperience of his men".
On his return to England, the government created him a baronet, January 26, 1764, and in July of the following year appointed him governor of New York.
He arrived at his post November 1765, in the midst of the disturbances due to the Stamp Act, to find the province in the utmost confusion and the acting governor, Cadwallader Colden, confining himself to Fort George and refusing to meet the people. Failing to receive the support of his Council, Moore adopted a policy of watchful waiting, trusting economic pressure to bring the inhabitants to terms. In pursuance of this policy he refused to permit the courts to function and denied vessels permission to sail.
Moore devoted much effort to the settlement of boundary disputes with neighboring provinces, and in the case of Quebec was successful. Matters of Indian policy also occupied much of his attention, and in this connection he made two trips to the country of the Five Nations.
On the second of these, in 1768, he suggested the possibility of improving the navigation of the Mohawk River at Little Falls by a "canal on the side of the Falls with Sluices on the same plan as those built on the great Canal in Languedoc". His greatest difficulty, other than the Stamp Act disturbances, arose from his controversy with the Assembly over their failure to pass the quartering bill. This led to the prorogation of the Assembly in December 1766, and eventually to the signing by the King of the restraining act the following summer. Sir Henry Moore died on September 11, 1769, while in office at New York City.
Henry Moore married Catharine Maria Long, by whom he had several children.
