Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, John Henry
MOORE, Sir JOHN HENRY (1756–1780), poet, only son of Sir Henry Moore, bart. [q. v.], was born in Jamaica in 1756. His mother was Catharina Maria, eldest daughter of Samuel Long of Longville, Jamaica, and sister of Edward Long [q. v.], author of the 'History of Jamaica' (Nichols, Lit. Anecdotes, viii. 434). John succeeded to the baronetcy while still at Eton, in 1769, and proceeded to Cambridge, where he graduated from Emmanuel College, B.A. in 1773 and M.A. in 1776. In 1777 he issued, anonymously, through Almon, a volume of poems entitled 'The New Paradise of Dainty Devices,' which provoked a not unmerited sneer from the 'Critical Review' (xliii. 233). It contains, however, some fair occasional verses. The best of these, including an early parody of Gray's poem, entitled 'Elegy written in a College Library,' together with a few new pieces, and an excruciating 'palinode' deprecating the vigour of Langhorne and Kenrick, and beseeching them to 'untwist their bowels,' were issued again in 1778 as 'Poetical Trifles' (Bath, 1778, 12mp). Some lines ' To Melancholy ' evidently inspired Rogers's 'Go, you may call it madness, folly.' Moore frequently resided at Bath, deposited verses in Lady Miller's urn at Bath Easton [see Miller, Anna, Lady], and took part in the other harmless fooleries of her coterie. He died unmarried, at Taplow, on 16 Jan. 1780, when the baronetcy became extinct. A third edition of his 'Trifles' appeared posthumously in 1783, edited by his friend Edward Jerningham [q. v.] His poems appear between those of Hoy land and Headley in vol. lxxiii. of 'The British Poets,' 1822, and in similar company in vol. xli. of Park's ' British Poets,' 1808.
[Kimber and Johnson's Baronetage of England, iii. 201; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Chambers's Encycl. of English Literature, i. 707; Brydges's Censura, vii. 223; Moore's Works in the British Museum Library; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anon, and Pseud. Lit, col. 1958.]