Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863) was an American Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, as well as Divinity and Biblical Learning, at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in New York City. Located on land donated by the "Bard of Chelsea" himself, the seminary still stands today on Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets, in an area known as Chelsea Square. Moore's connection with that institution continued for over twenty-five years. He is the author of the yuletide poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", which later became famous as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas".
Life and career
Moore was born on July 15, 1779, to Bishop Benjamin Moore – who headed the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and was twice the president of Columbia College – and Charity Clarke, whose father, Major Thomas Clarke, owned the Manhattan estate "Chelsea" where Moore was born. This estate would later pass to Charity Clarke and then to Moore, but he grew up in the Moore family residence in Elmhurst, Queens. He was a graduate of Columbia College (1798), where he earned both his B.A. and his M.A..
One of Moore's earliest known works was an anonymous pro-Federalist pamphlet published prior to the 1804 presidential election, attacking the religious views of Thomas Jefferson (the incumbent president and Democratic-Republican candidate). His polemic, titled in full Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy, focused on Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), which Moore concluded was an "instrument of infidelity".
In 1820, Moore helped Trinity Church organize a new parish church, St. Lukes in the Fields, on Hudson Street,[5] He later gave 66 tracts of land – his apple orchard – to the Episcopal Diocese of New York to be the site of the General Theological Seminary. Moore had written a Hebrew lexicon, and was made professor of Biblical learning at the Seminary, a post that he held until 1850.
Despite his objections to the Commissioner's Plan of 1811, which ran the new Ninth Avenue through the middle of his estate, Moore began the development of Chelsea with the help of James N. Wells, dividing it up into lots along Ninth Avenue and selling them to well-heeled New Yorkers. Covenants in the deeds of sale specified what could be built on the land – stables, manufacturing and commercial uses were forbidden – as well as architectural details of the buildings.
From 1840 to 1850, he was a board member of the New York Institution for the Blind at 34th Street and Ninth Avenue, which is now the New York Institute for Special Education. He compiled a Hebrew and English Lexicon (1809), and published a collection of poems (1844). Upon his death in 1863 at his summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island, his funeral was held in Trinity Church, Newport, where he had owned a pew. Then his body was interred in the cemetery at St. Luke in the Fields. On November 29, 1899, his body was reinterred in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York.
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Clement Clarke Moore is my 6th cousin 6 times removed.
You
→ Mom
your mother → Pvt. Garnett Hancock, WWII Veteran
her father → Burrell H Hancock
his father → Samuel Austin Hancock
his father → Elizabeth Edwards Hancock
his mother → Brice Edwards
her father → Ambrose Edwards, Jr.
his father → Ambrose Edwards, the Immigrant
his father → Isabella / Elizabeth Edwards (Downing)
his mother → Sir George Downing, 2nd Baronet
her father → Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet
his father → Lucy Downing (Winthrop)
his mother → Anne Fones, (Younger)
her sister → Elizabeth Winthrop Feake Hallet
her daughter → Capt. William Hallett
her son → Elizabeth Fish
his daughter → Sarah Moore
her daughter → Bishop Benjamin Moore
her son → Clement Clarke Moore
his son
→ Mom
your mother → Pvt. Garnett Hancock, WWII Veteran
her father → Burrell H Hancock
his father → Samuel Austin Hancock
his father → Elizabeth Edwards Hancock
his mother → Brice Edwards
her father → Ambrose Edwards, Jr.
his father → Ambrose Edwards, the Immigrant
his father → Isabella / Elizabeth Edwards (Downing)
his mother → Sir George Downing, 2nd Baronet
her father → Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet
his father → Lucy Downing (Winthrop)
his mother → Anne Fones, (Younger)
her sister → Elizabeth Winthrop Feake Hallet
her daughter → Capt. William Hallett
her son → Elizabeth Fish
his daughter → Sarah Moore
her daughter → Bishop Benjamin Moore
her son → Clement Clarke Moore
his son
