John Moor, like many Scots-Irish immigrants to America, came first to Boston, where he married Margaret Jack in 1732. The Rev. John Moorhead, pastor of the Church of the Presbyterian Strangers, performed their marriage ceremony, probably in parishioner John Little’s barn, where Sunday services also were held.

After nearly a decade of living quietly in Chelsea, Mass., John, Margaret and their family of three children arrived in Bedford in time for the March 1742 birth of their fourth child, Daniel. In all, there were eight children. Their Bedford homestead farm stood on the River Road on land that became part of Manchester in 1853.

John served the town of Bedford in numerous capacities. In April 1752, he was on a committee to erect a stone fence around the town cemetery. He was a constable, collecting taxes and serving warrants. He was a selectman several times, beginning in 1755.

The Seven Years’ War between England and France was declared in 1756 and quickly spread to the American Colonies abutting New France. The British sent troops and raised local regiments to oppose the French, who bolstered their forces with Abenaki, Ottawa, Potawatomi and other tribes. In 1757, John enlisted from Bedford as an ensign in Capt. Richard Emery’s company, Col. Nathaniel Meserve’s regiment, for the Crown Point expedition. In this era, British military rank was either purchased or earned by recruiting others. In his early 50s, John was probably an organized and respected citizen who contributed mature discipline to Emery’s company.

His 23-year-old son, John Moor, enlisted in the same company as a private. Both men had the great misfortune to defend Fort William Henry during Montcalm’s overwhelming August siege. In tragic fashion, both sides mismanaged tribal expectations of booty when Munro surrendered. In the resulting massacre (memorialized in James Fenimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans”), young John was captured and marched to Montreal and then Quebec, where he contracted small pox. With other prisoners, he was eventually shipped to France and jailed there for 10 months before being paroled to England. On his return trip from England to New York, he was “pressed on board a man of war,” and carried to Cape Britain, then Quebec, and finally to Boston, where he had liberty “as a sick man to return home.” Having enlisted in March 1757, he did not return until November 1759.

Ensign John Moor, the father, came home, apparently in good health but having lost substantial goods, perhaps military equipment. The New Hampshire legislature allowed Moor 36 pounds, 14 shillings for losses at Fort William
Henry. On Nov. 20, 1759, just weeks after his return, young John petitioned Gov. Wentworth for relief and was allowed 127 pounds, 10 shillings for his time and for the things taken from him by the enemy – a good gun, good coat, a waistcoat, a good shirt and breeches, shoes, stockings and a hat.

His son’s terrifying ordeal, and the family’s resulting trauma, did not deter Ensign John Moor from returning to war. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in Capt. Nehemiah Lovewell’s company in Col. John Goffe’s regiment for the invasion of Canada in the year 1760.

Following this tour of duty, during which the British captured Montreal and brought relative peace for a time, Lt. Moor laid down his gun and resumed his role as a Bedford selectman. In 1773, he served as town moderator. Joined by his adult sons, John signed the Association Test in 1776, pledging to support the Patriot cause. During the Revolution, several of John’s sons marched with Bedford and other towns against the British. Now in his 70s, Lt. Moor stayed home, dying in the fall of 1779, in the “74th Year of his Age.” Modern reckoning translates this to mean he was 73.

John and Margaret’s double gravestone in Bedford’s oldest cemetery on Back River Road is exquisitely carved. The stone carver divided the script and images down the middle but laid out the words poorly, having to insert a forgotten one above John’s death date.

The use of “Likewise” on Margaret’s side of the stone is rare, if not unprecedented. Her date of death is missing and the words “The wife of Lieut. John Moor” were carved in a different style at a later time. Only the male image on John’s side bears the wings of death, all contributing to the likelihood that Margaret was living when the stone was erected.