Previously, we saw that William Moore, blacksmith, and his wife Hester (Ester) had a son baptised in an Anglican church in Motcombe, Dorset in April 1830. Then four years later they had two children baptised in a Methodist Chapel in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
The record of William and Hester's marriage had not mentioned occupation or parents. However, after her death when he remarried in 1840 that registration recorded William Moore as a blacksmith of Motcombe and his father was also William Moore, blacksmith.
A few years later there was a marriage registration for Meshach Moore, a blacksmith of Motcombe with his father named as Meshach Moore, blacksmith. I assumed that with the same surname, sharing the same specialised occupation, in a village of about 1,500 inhabitants (1841 data quoted in Hunt's Trade Directory of 1851), these men were likely to be related to one another.
There was some support for this idea - Meshach was a witness at William's marriage. However, looking at the parish register as whole, it is striking that the name Meshach Moore appears as a witness on nearly 25% of 700 or so marriages there over a 34 year period of time (data from "Parish of Motcombe Marriages 1837 - 1875 transcribed from parish registers by Jan Genge Kennedy 2003"). According to the 1851 local trade directory Meshach Moore was "blacksmith and parish clerk".
Searching the internet for the three keywords - Moore Motcombe Blacksmith - I was delighted to find a page called "History of Motcombe Forge". It says, "From 1822 three successive generations of the same family at Motcombe Forge were parish clerks and blacksmiths, all having the same name of Meshach Moore." So the 150 or so marriage registrations from 1837 onwards were probably not all witnessed by the same Meshach Moore.
Reading on, the History of Motcombe Forge page also declares, "work was obviously plentiful
as there were two other forges in the village, although one of the
new blacksmiths was a dissenter (a Primitive Methodist) and he did
not get any work from the Lord of the Manor or the Church!" So could this be a description of my great-great-grandfather - a religious non-conformist who lost customers in his home village? William Moore's link to Salisbury may have been to find work as well as to connect with fellow Methodists there.