Person:William Moore (227)

Disambiguation

Advisory: (Warning) Note: There was another Revolutionary War Soldier with the name William Moore who was also married to a Margaret Patton. This has caused a little confusion. That other William Moore was born 11 Feb 1765 in Lancaster Co, PA and died 16 Jun 1835 in Davidson Co, NC. He married his Margaret Patton on 13 Sep 1784 in Rowan Co, NC. Margaret was born ca 1771 and died after 1851 in Davidson Co, NC. The Revolutionary War Pension File (W5389) contains some data on them. When Margaret applied for the Pension she sent for a marriage record from Rowan County, and the clerk sent a copy of the marriage bond for the other William and Margaret dated 1774. He crossed out 1774 and wrote in 1784, evidently thinking it was a typo, not realizing there were two couples with these names, married 10 years apart. So the confusion started a long time ago! This other William and Margaret are considerably younger than mine.

Notes

Biography of Capt. William H. Moore (Captain William Moore and the Battle of Kings Mountain, By Glen J. Gujda) is located at the following site:

http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/moore.html

http://www.martygrant.com/gen/moore/moorenc/moore-william-buncombe.htm

William H. Moore (1726-1812) and Ann Cathey and Margaret Patton of Rowan, Mecklenburg, Burke and Buncombe Co, NC

William H. Moore was born ca 1726 (per age of 86 given on his tombstone) in "the north of Ireland" (per 1903 letter). Some researchers say Ulster, Ireland, but I don’t know what source they have used for that.

I do not know who William’s parents were, but I’ve seen other researchers list his father as "William Moore", but I have no clue what sources were used, nor if this is correct. We do know that William H. Moore and his brother Charles Moore (per 1903 letter) came from Northern Ireland to America.

According to the 1903 letter William and Charles probably settled first in Pennsylvania then moved south. Charles settled on the Tiger River in Upper South Carolina, now Spartanburg County, while William settled for awhile in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on Muddy Creek (now Burke County). He moved from there to Hominy Creek (now in Buncombe County) and remained in that area. The letter does not give the dates of his various moves, but we can speculate about that. We know from his marriage record (1774) that he was also in Rowan County at least long enough to marry a local resident there (Marriage bonds were filed in the county where the bride resided).

William served as a county Militia officer and was involved in several expeditions against hostile Indians in western North Carolina (according to 1903 letter). There is some debate about whether these military records pertain to this William Moore or to some other man of the same name (there were several men named "William Moore" around in those days).

William H. Moore married 1st to Ann Cathey, sometime prior to ca 1765, presumably in old Rowan County. The 1903 letter only says "his first wife was a Cathey." Other researchers have shared that his wife was named "Ann Cathey". I am a Cathey researcher also, and Ann is a cousin of mine. It is thought that she is the same Ann Cathey who was baptized on 3 Apr 1743 at Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church in Augusta County, Virginia, daughter of George Cathey, Esquire, and Margaret — Cathey. Although some proof may exist, I have not seen any direct evidence that this Ann Cathey was the same Cathey who was wife of William H. Moore, but numerous other researchers have listed it this way. I’d like to see some hard evidence though. The name "Ann" may be a confusion with another William H. Moore who did marry an Ann Cathey. This William was William Hamilton Moore (17??-1852) and his wife Ann Cathey (1783-1867). I have no primary data on them except that they moved to Cooper Co, Missouri.

William and Ann had at least 5 children as noted by other researchers, but once again I’ll have to note that I’ve seen no direct evidence proving any of these children as belonging to William H. Moore. The list may be absolutely correct, but I don’t know what proof there is. The 1903 letter is the earliest source I have for them being part of this family.

William’s wife Ann died sometime prior to mid 1774. On 4 Aug 1774 William Moore obtained a marriage bond in Rowan County, North Carolina to marry Margaret Patton. Daniel Little was bondsman. He may be somehow related to one family or the other. Margaret’s mother Charity Patton gave permission on 28 Jul 1774 for her daughter to marry (thus showing she was under 21). Her tombstone (died 1814) gives her age at death as 65, which puts her birth at ca 1749, which may be correct, but it so, she would have been about 25 when she married, and would not have required her mother’s permission. Perhaps the permission was just a formality and not actually required. The census records only prove she was born before 1755 (per 1800 census). In any event, this proves that Margaret Patton was a child of Charity (—) Patton. Other researchers show that Charity was widow of Robert Patton. I have not looked into this yet.

William H. Moore served during the American Revolution (according to the 1903 letter). Betty Hayes shared several documents with me showing William Moore in the War. One documented dated 7 Nov 1776 is a letter from William Moore to General Rutherford with details of an expedition against the Indians. In it he states he enlisted men on Oct 19, 1776 (apparently he himself enlisted or was commissioned before that date) and marched to various Indian towns and detailed events of those couple of weeks.

William Moore was listed on the 1790 census in Burke County, North Carolina. There were 2 William's listed there that year, one in the 6th Company, one in the 10th. I believe he was the one in the 6th Company. He was the only Moore in that company.

Children William H. Moore and Ann Cathey had four children, and William and Margaret Patton Moore had seven children. All of the children were named in the 1903 letter, and are proven in that manner. Some other researchers include a couple of additional children, but I've seen no evidence to support their claims, so I'll leave those out. Here is the list as given in the letter: "He had several daughters; Rachael, who married George Penland, Polly, who married Robt. Penland, Alice, who married John Penland, Charity, who married Jesse Ballew, Peggy, who married James Rutherford, Sally, who married John Montgomery, Nancy, who married Jonathan McPeters and Elizabeth, who married Ben Tutt. He also had three sons; Thomas, William and Charles." I've segregated the children according to their ages, assigning all those born before 1774 to the first wife, and the rest to the second wife. In a few cases, I have no birth dates to use, so they could belong to either wife. Other than the 1903 letter, I've seen no documentation proving any of these children. Something primary would be nice to expel any doubt.

Nancy Moore (1755/65)

Margaret Moore (1755/65)

Sarah Moore (1765/74)

Thomas Moore (1765/74)

Alice Moore (c1770)

Charity Moore (1774/84)

William Moore (1774/84)

Rachel Moore (c1782)

Mary "Polly" Moore (c1786)

Elizabeth Moore (c1789)

Charles Moore (1791)