Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Francis (1558-1621)
MOORE, Sir FRANCIS (1558–1621), law reporter, born in 1558, was son of Edward Moore of East Tildesley, near Wantage, Berkshire, by Elizabeth' Hall of Tilehurst in the same county (Burke, Extinct Baronetage, p. 365). After attending Reading grammar school he entered St. John's College, Oxford, as a commoner in 1574, but did not graduate (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714, iii. 1022). He subsequently became a member of New Inn, and entered himself of the Middle Temple on 6 Aug. 1580, being chosen autumn reader in 1607. One of the ablest lawyers of his day, Moore was appointed counsel and under-steward to Oxford University, of which he was created M.A. on 30 Oct. 1612. At Michaelmas 1614 he became serjeant-at-law, and on 17 March 1616 was knighted at Theobalds. He was M.P. for Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, in 1588-9, and for Reading in 1597-8, 1601, 1604-11, and 1614. In parliament he was a frequent speaker, and is supposed to have drawn the well-known statute of Charitable Uses which was passed in 1601. The conveyance known as lease and release was his invention.
Moore died on 20 Nov. 1621, and was buried at Great Fawley, Berkshire, where he resided. By his marriage to Anne, daughter of William Twitty of Boreham, Essex, he had three sons and four daughters. His eldest surviving son, Henry, was created a baronet on 21 May 1627.
Moore's reports, 'Cases collect & report … per Sir F. Moore,' fol. London, 1663 (2nd edit, with portrait, 1688), extend from 1512 to 1621, and have always enjoyed a reputation for accuracy. They had the advantage of being edited by Sir Geoffrey Palmer [q. v.], a son-in-law of Moore, and commended in a 'prefatory certificate' by Sir Matthew Hale [q. v.], who married one of Moore's granddaughters. There is an abridgment of them in English by William Hughes (8vo, London, 1665). Four manuscripts of these reports are in the British Museum, being Harleian MS. 4585, Lansdowne MS. 1059, and Additional MSS. 25191-2.
Besides his reports, Moore was the author of readings made before the Temple on the statute of charitable uses, which were abridged by himself, and printed by George Duke in his commentary on that statute in 1676, and again by R. W. Bridgman in 1805.
There are two engravings of Moore, one by Faithorne, the other by 'F. V. W.;' neither possesses much interest.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 304; Cal. State Papers, Dora. 1610-20; Wallace's Reporters, 3rd edit. p. 85; Granger's Biog. Hist. of Engl., 2nd edit. i. 392; Addit. MS. 28676a, f. 245 (portrait); Will in P. C. C. 98, Dale.]