Tuesday, 16 April 2019

Moore of Motcombe - part 3

Having searched the internet for three keywords and found a prize clue (see Moore of Motcombe - part 2), I tried the same approach again, reviewing internet search results for a new combination of three words - Moore Motcombe Methodist.  My emotional high went up another level as I read, "John was born on 16 November 1807 at Motcombe to parents William and Anna. He was converted in November 1826 whilst attending a service at his uncle James Bartley’s farmhouse." (Moore, John (1807-1875)).

My great-great-grandfather William Moore had been baptised in 1805 in Motcombe to William and Anna, making him the older brother of this John Moore, Methodist convert.

A little more digging in the fertile swathes of the internet led me to a detailed biographical article about Rev John Moore.  Apparently he recorded the conversion event and stated it was "November 5, 1826, at half-past ten o'clock at night, while on my knees in the kitchen of my uncle James Bartley's farm-house".  (From Connexional Biography written by H.G. Button, Primitive Methodist Magazine 1876, page 297-299.)

Furthermore John Moore said, "My aunt Bartley was praying when I believed; but there were my brother, uncle Bartley, Walter, and Stephen on their knees at the same time. My brother and seven more had found the Lord at the meeting at Enmore Green the same night, where we had all been."

To my knowledge, John had one sister and one brother.  Consequently, I concluded that my great-great-grandfather William Moore found the Lord at a Methodist meeting in the hamlet of Enmore Green, Motcombe, during the evening of Sunday 5th November 1826 at about 20 years of age.

I was truly delighted and amazed to have found such personal and specific details about a relative from nearly 200 years ago.  However, once I had absorbed the article's biographical details about John Moore, and stared a picture of him in later life (see below), I immediately started wondering about the identity of Uncle James Bartley, Aunt Bartley, Walter and Stephen.  This hobby is a never-ending chain of mysteries - once new facts have been recorded then new loose ends beguile.

Image presented on "My Primitive Methodists" website page Moore, John (1807-1875)