Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore (1748 – 1816) was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He was the father of Clement Clarke Moore by his marriage to Charity Clarke. Having attended King's College, he also served as its acting president during the first year of the American Revolution and, later, president of its successor, Columbia College (now Columbia University).

Charity Clarke was the older sister of Mary Clarke, married twice, to Richard Vassal, a planter in Jamaica, and to Sir Gilbert Affleck, 2nd Bt (– 1808), who by her first marriage had one daughter, Elizabeth Vassal, married to Sir Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet (1719 – 1800), later divorced, and secondly to Henry Richard Vassal-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland. In turn they were the daughters of Maj. Thomas Clarke, a retired British veteran of the French and Indian War, and wife Mary Stillwell, who was the younger sister of Anna Stillwell, married to Theodosius Bartow, the parents of Theodosia Bartow, first wife of Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States of America (1756 – 1836). [ [http://www.wargs.com/family/ancestry.html Ancestry of William Addams Reitwiesner (* 1954) ] ] Maj. Thomas Clarke was the proprietor of the house "Chelsea", at the time a country estate, and of much of its neighborhood, the which gave its name to the surrounding neighborhood of Chelsea, Manhattan. Clarke named his house for a hospital in London that served war veterans. 'Chelsea' was later inherited by Thomas Clarke's daughter, Charity Clarke Moore, and ultimately by grandson Clement and his family.

Of note: as a girl, Moore's wife, Charity Clarke, wrote letters to her English cousins that are preserved at Columbia University and show her disdain for the policies of the English Monarchy and her growing sense of patriotism in pre-revolutionary days.

Benjamin Moore's nephew, Nathaniel Fish Moore, was later also president of Columbia.

References

External links

* [http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/bmoore/ Documents by and about Moore]