A Scottish Middle-Class Family and Patronage: The Ancestors of Sir John Moore

Abstract

A Scottish Middle-Class Family and Patronage: The Ancestors of Sir John Moore HENRY L. FULTON This paper proposes to describe the extent to which the careers and fortunes of a middle-class Scottish family were assisted from 1650 to 1800 by its connections and friendships with more influential fami­ lies. Expectations, both fulfilled and denied, can be studied in the welfare of four generations of the male ancestors of General Sir John Moore (1761-1809), the hero of Corunna and the eldest son of Dr. John Moore, the author of Zeluco (1789). Although Sir John is by far the best known of all his family, his brothers were also eminent and deserve mention here. Next to Sir John in age was Dr. James Carrick Moore of Corsewall (1762-1860), who with Jenner introduced vacci­ nation into Great Britain and succeeded Jenner as president of the National Vaccine Institute. The third son was Admiral Sir Graham Moore (1764-1843), knighted in 1815 for service in the Atlantic. The fourth brother, Francis (1767-1854), retired as Deputy Secretary of War in 1809. That four brothers did so well was no accident.1 Though much of their success occurred in the nineteenth century, the beginning of their rise lay with their father's efforts in the eighteenth, and it is with him that this paper will be principally concerned. Dr. John Moore (1729-1802) was born in Stirling, but after the death of his father moved with his mother to Glasgow, her parents' city, where Moore resided until he was just past forty. He was trained as 145 146 / FULTON a surgeon and availed himself of travel and study on the continent, as did the best medical men of his time. He could do so because his mother had means. In 1772 he was chosen by the family and tutors of the young Duke of Hamilton to accompany the youth abroad and watch over his health until the youth was able to act responsibly for himself. Moore remained on the continent with his charge nearly five years. In 1777, Moore moved his family permanently to London, left off practice, and devoted his remaining twenty-five years to his sons' careers, his investments, politics, and books for the popular audi­ ence. His estate upon his death in 1802 was valued at more than£25,000,2 a competence yielding £1000 per annum, which was roughly equivalent to what a judge of the Scottish Court of Session or the Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh might have made in a year. Suc­ cess like this comes from hard, sustained work, a little luck, and happy opportunities. In the Scotland of his day, moreover, the right connec­ tions were also necessary to bring such affluence to a man like Moore. A Scottish middle-class family could live without the need of influ­ ence with "people above" so long as it drew income from land or made a simple merchant's livelihood. By contrast, any position in the church, the military, the university, or the government could be ob­ tained only through the interest of powerful and invariably titled families who had connections with the ultimate source of patronage in London. The same situation applied also to any personal service such as a tutorship, a chaplaincy, etc. Employment came only through the favor of friendship, a long-standing family connection, or a per­ sonal recommendation. "To have stature and authority in Scotland," John Shaw has written recently, "the individual had to have a link with some Scottish political grandee or equivalent influential group in London. To be a success the individual had to be agent in the in­ terest of such a southern master." From the beginning of the century until the mid-1770s the Moores enjoyed a beneficial relationship with several figures upon whom they could draw for advancement. Primary among these were the chiefs of Clan Campbell, in particular the second Duke of Argyll until about 1725, and his younger brother, the Earl of Hay, who dispensed virtu­ ally all the public offices, university chairs, and many livings in the church from 1725 until his death in 1761. The influence of the Dukes of Argyll...