Biography

1748 - 1811

John Moore, the First President Judge of Westmoreland County Court (1787-1791), was born in 1748 at Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, the son of Jeanette and William Moore, the family eventually settled at Crab Tree Run, New Alexandria.  The senator served as an ensign in the Bedford County Militia during the Revolution, later raising money (400 pounds sterling) for the defense of Westmoreland (Washington in 1781) County; procuring specie, rifle-powder, a ton of lead and 4,000 flints. He was a delegate to the 1776 Constitutional Convention and a member of the committee on the bill of rights.  He was commissioned Justice of the Peace in 1777; appointed Surveyor of Public Lands in 1778; became a county judge in 1779; and President Judge in 1785.  He was described as “Tall and straight, (with) large brown eyes, brown hair, and aquiline nose - Dignified.”  Moore married the daughter of Isaac Parr of New Jersey.  A lifelong member of the Congruity Presbyterian Church, the Honorable John Moore died in 1811.  An elder in the Presbyterian Church/ slaveholder.