Papers of the Moore family of Bankhall, Liverpool

The Moore Family of Bankhall papers consist of a large collection of letters received, warrants, memoranda, bonds, draft court rolls, receipts and other documents relating to the Moore family as well as a collection of 27 letters addressed to Colonel Moore, Governor of the city of Dublin; to his son, Edward Moore, of Bankhall, Lancashire; and to Sir John Moore, Lord Mayor of London, Member of Parliament, and President of Christ's Hospital.

Edward Moore was the son of Colonel John Moore, who was MP for Liverpool in the Long Parliament and one of the signatories of the death warrant for Charles I. Oner of the earliest documents in the present purchase is a petition from Edward to the Committee for Stating Arrears of the Army in Ireland, asking for arrears totalling £4 288.6s8d. due to his father and himself for the year 1645-51 [MS.23.2A(2)]. The later documents in the group dating from 1684 to 1695, relate to Sir John Moore, who acquired much wealth in the East India trade, and became Lord Mayor of London and President of Christ Hospital. Sir John Moore (1620-1702), an East India merchant and member of the Grocers' Company, was the leader of the "Court" party of aldermen in London. His election as Lord Mayor in 1681-2 was hotly contested by the "Country" party, and his mayoralty produced a number of poems and controversial tracts in modern manuscript and print. He is dealt with rather severely in Burnett's History, more favourably in North's Examen, and is celebrated in part II of Absalam and Achitophel as Ziloah who, when he ruled Jerusalem [London], did "boldly all seditious surges stem". Several of the letters in the present collection are related to his work as President of Christ's Hospital from 1686 until his death.

The Moore collection consists of two separate accession, both of which are arranged chronologically.

Access is open to bona fide researchers, an appointment must be made in advance of any visit.

The Moore collection consists of two separate accessions, the first MS.23.1-2 consisting of 139 documents was purchased from Sotheby's in 1901  by the University of Liverpool School of Local History. The second accession a collection of 27 letters were bought from Hoffman and Freeman in June 1967 .

A finding aid is available in the reading room. There is a list of the first accession in the appendix of John Brownbill's calender of the deeds and papers of the Moore family, please see the bibliography for further details.

This collection level description was created for the Archives Hub in March 2004 by Roy Lumb.

Liverpool Record Office hold a collection of correspondence, deeds and papers of the Moore family dating from the 13th to 18th century.

Reproduction and licensing rules available on request

All of the material in the Moore collection has been preserved.

After being bought by the University of Liverpool School of Local History and Records the Moore collection was kept and used within the department, the records were later deposited with the University Library.

There are no anticipated accruals.

Wirral Archives hold correspondence and papers of Colonel John Moore dating from 1644-50.

The Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland hold correspondence and papers Sir John Moore, mainly relating to Appleby Magna Grammer School.

Guildhall Library hold family and business papers and correspondence of Sir John Moore dating from 1643-99.