Moore, Benjamin, Dd

Moore, Benjamin, D.D.

a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born at Newton, N.J., and was educated at King's (now Columbia) College, New York, where he graduated in 1768, and then devoted his time to the study of theology, supporting himself by private instruction in Greek and Latin. In May 1774, he went to England to enter into holy orders, and in June of that year was ordained deacon and priest by the bishop of London, and on his return to America officiated in Trinity Church, New York, of which he became rector, December 22, 1800. The extent of Dr. Moore's labors, and his popularity in this position, were beyond all precedent, and when, in 1801, the diocese needed a bishop, he was elected and consecrated. He was also made president of Columbia College in this year, and so remained until 1811, continuing all the while the duties of his ministry, and even until his death, February 27, 1816. From 1811 to the hour of his death, Dr. Hobart, who afterwards succeeded him, acted as his assistant bishop, bishop Moore having been struck with paralysis, and thus disabled from discharging any longer the duties of his office. Bishop Moore was an accomplished scholar and an able pulpit orator. He was, with one single exception, the last of the venerable men in the diocese of New York who had derived their ordination from the parent Church of England. He published two sermons in the American Preacher (volumes 1 and 2, 1791): — A Sermon before the General Convention (1804): — A Pamphlet in Vindication of Episcopal Services (2 volumes, 8vo). His Posthumous Sermons were published under the direction of his son, Clement C. Moore, LL.D. (N.Y. 1824, 2 volumes, 8vo). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 5:299; Bishop White, Memoirs of the Episcopal Church (1836), page 32; Moore, Hist. of Columbia College; Anderson, Hist. of the Colonial Church, 3:611 sq.; Drake, Dict. of Amer. Biog. s.v. (J.H.W.)