Moses Moore’s complicated life during troubled times is profiled in Logan Connections. It’s a fascinating story and, along the way, reveals some lesser-known American history, particularly concerning Spanish, later British, West Florida, designated by the King as an asylum for Loyalists — those “distressed friends of England” — during the Revolutionary War. That Moses Moore was one of the signers of the Tryon Resolves, yet remained a Loyalist, illustrates how the Revolutionary War — among other things, a civil war — was not as clear-cut, as black and white, as we may think of it today. For thousands of individuals and families, it was a murky, messier shade of gray.
The connection with our Logans came about because one of Moses Moore’s daughters, Sarah Moore (Serah Moor), married Drury Logan. Another daughter, Hester Moore, married Joshua Roberts. Much of the Drury Logan profile in Logan Connections concerns the legal actions brothers-in-law Drury Logan and Joshua Roberts (and, in the Moses Moore profile, another brother-in-law, Joseph Lawrence, who married Ann Moore) dealt with concerning their father-in-law’s property, including attempts by the newly-created Lincoln County government to confiscate Tory, Moses Moore’s, property. Here, too, societal, political, familial, and economic complexity is evident since Drury Logan and Joshua Roberts fought for the Patriot side in the war, yet, along with Joseph Lawrence, looked out for Moses Moore’s land and property. Drury and Sarah Moore Logan even named a son Moses Logan.
The information below comes from Dr. A.B. Pruitt’s “Abstracts of Sales of Confiscated Loyalists Land and Property in North Carolina,” 1969.
Lincoln County:
353. Report Oct. session 1783 by Thomas Espey, John Berber, & John Carruth:
m) sold at vendue — estate of Moses Moore £29,828 curry.: land rented @£425 curry.
The following property ordered by Court to be returned to the former owners:
i) recd. by the Commrs. notes & bonds from the sale of the estate of Moses Moore to the amount of currency £30,263
Notes: “Vendue” is a legal term meaning “public sale at auction.” “Curry.” is an abbreviation for “currency.” Note that immediately after the Revolutionary War, the legal currency used was still the British pound.
In addition to Logan Connections, there is excellent information about Moses Moore, Drury Logan, Sarah and Hester Moore, Joseph Lawrence, and more at Joe Logan’s Genealogy Site: logan-family.org.
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