WILLIAM MOORE OF MOORE HALL
William Moore was a son of John Moore, collector
of the port of Philadelphia, and was born in that city on
the 6th day of May, 1699. In his early youth he was
sent to England to be educated, and he graduated at the
University of Oxford in 1719. His wife is said to have
been a descendant of the Earl of Wemyss, and this
tradition receives support from the fact that in his will he
refers to the noble and honorable family from which she
sprang. His father having become interested in the
Pickering tract in Charlestown township, Chester Co. Pa., in
1729, gave him a lot of 240 acres on the Pickering
creek, adjacent to the Schuylkill, on which he had been
living for some years, and there he passed the remainder
of his long and eventful life. On it he erected a frame
house which was later superseded by a stone mansion
overlooking the river. The latter is still standing and
has ever since borne the name of Moore Hall. He also
built a saw mill and the Bull tavern, a famous hostelry in
the colonial days. He lived in considerable style, and had
a number of slaves and other servants. In the Weekly
Mercury for February 28th, 1737-8, he advertises for
sale “a young man who understands writing and
accounts, and lately kept school.” He was an enthusiastic
churchman, and at different times was a vestryman of St.
James' Episcopal Church, on the Perkiomen, and of
Radnor Church, in Delaware County. He was Colonel of
one of the Chester County militia regiments during the
time of the troubles with the Indians. As became a