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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company; Elwood Roberts, Editor.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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M. ANNA MOORE, formerly of King-of-Prussia, but now a resident of Norristown, is a descendant of an old colonial family long resident in Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. John Moore, described in the conveyance as a carpenter and supposed to be the immigrant and to have come from England not much before that time, bought four hundred acres of land from David Powell in 1709. The land was situated near what is now Port Kennedy, in Upper Merion township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. One of his sons, probably born in this country, was John. The last-named had the following children: Catharine, born 2 mo. 20, 1725, married Thomas Mills; John, born 1st mo. 19, 1726, who married Jane ____, and died in 1777, while his wife survived until 1812, when she died at the age of eighty-three years. Reese, born 9th mo. 21, 1727, married Mary____, and died 11th mo. 23, 1751; Sarah, born 7th mo. 9, 1730, married 5th mo. 3, 1748, Enoch Davis; Richard, born 2d mo. 18, 1731, died 1st mo. 10, 1757; Mordecai, born 4th mo. 3, 1735, married, 12th mo. 12, 1758, Elizabeth Davis, who was born 9th mo. 12, 1737, and died 8th mo. 15, 1817, while Mordecai died 4th mo. 22, 1802; Anthony, 2d mo. 4, 1737.

The children of John and Jane Moore: Ann, born 11th mo. 14, 1746, married Christopher Rue; John, born 9th mo. 28, 1752, married Deborah Davis, and died 3d mo. 16, 1822; Elizabeth, born 8th mo. 22, 1753, died 11th mo. 22, 1756; Hannah, born 7th mo. 3, 1755, died 11th mo. 20, 1756; Reese, born 4th mo. 5, 1757; Richard, born 10th mo. 2, 1758, died 10th mo. 27, 1825, married, 11th mo. 11, 1807, Abigail Eastburn; Rachel, born 7th mo. 20, 1760, married Abijah Stephens, son of David Stephens; Jonathan born 7th mo. 30, 1762, married Kittie____, and died 7th mo. 23, 1815; Jacob, born 3d mo. I, 1765, died young; Isaac, born 3d mo. 1, 1765, died 3d mo. 8, 1765.

The children of Mordecai and Elizabeth (Davis) Moore: Hannah born 12th mo. 24, 1759, married, 10th mo. 12, 1795, Moses Coats, and had one child Eliza, born in 5th mo., 1797, who married William Cowgill and had two children, Catharine, who married Isaac B. Stokes, having one son, William C. Stokes, of Norristown, and Hannah, who married David Walker, her children being Eliza C., Winfield H. (deceased), Ella V., married Edward B. Conard, and Lewis; William, born 3d mo. 21, 1761; Reese, born 1st mo. 14, 1763, died about 1834, married, between 1795 and 1798, Sarah Roberts, who died 4th mo. 2, 1805; Jesse, born 7th mo. 21, 1765, who became a judge and married Widow Leitch, they having no children; Isaac, born 3d mo. 26, 1768, died 5th mo. 23, 1841, married, 4th mo. 1, 1799, Miriam Wells; Elizabeth, born 4th mo. 4, 1771, died 8th mo. 24, 1836, married, in 1797, Abijah Stephens, son of David Stephens, who died 10th mo. 23, 1825, she being disowned by Friends, 7th mo. 13, 1797, for marrying out of meeting; Mordecai, born 5th mo. g, 1774. Abijah and Elizabeth (Moore) Stephens had several children of whom Eleanor, a first cousin of Robert Moore, father of the subject of this sketch, born September 13, 1802, married, March 22, 1821, David Zook, father of General Samuel K. Zook, who was killed at Gettysburg. Eleanor (Stephens) Zook survived her husband many years, dying May 17, 1901, being in her ninety-ninth year.

Dr. John Moore, born 4th mo. 18, 1778, married 4th mo. 24, 1804, Catharine Robeson. He died 5th mo. 22, 1836. Dr. John Moore was a minister of Race street meeting, Philadelphia. He wore in the early part of his ministry, a blue coat with brass buttons, buff vest, buckskin knee-breeches, and fair top-leather boots. It is related that when he first spoke in meeting, Nicholas Waln, an eminent minister, arose as soon as he took his seat, saying, “Well done, lappel,” and sat down.

Reese Moore (grandfather) and Sarah (Roberts) Moore had the following children: Roberts, (father) born 8th mo. 18, 1798; Mordecai R., born 12th mo. 26, 1800; Anna Maria, born ? mo. 21, 1802, married Dr. John Charles Merillat, and died 8th mo. 22, 1853.

Mordecai R. Moore, named above, married Mary Thomas, who died 2d mo. 27, 1899. They had one child, Hannah, born 3d mo. 9, 1839, died 7th mo. 4, 1840. Mordecai R. Moore was associated about 1846 with James Hooven, of Norristown, in the iron foundry business. He was for many years a well-known citizen of Norristown. He died 1st mo. 11, 1866.

Dr. John Charles and Anna Maria Merillat had two children, William C., born 11th mo. 9, 1839, married 9th mo. 5, 1901 (second wife) Mary H. Foreman; Roberts Moore, born 5th mo. 5, 1841, died 12th mo. 5, 1845.

Roberts Moore (father) married, 2d mo. 15, 1838, Mary S. Bisbing. He was a farmer of Upper Merion township. He died 9th mo. 27, 1874. His widow died 5th mo. 11, 1875, aged sixty-eight years. Their children: Sarah, born 6th mo. 28, 1841, died 11th mo. 22, 1845; M. Anna, born 5th mo. 9, 1846; Mordecai R., born 5th mo. 16, 1848, died 8th mo. 21, 1848.

M. Anna Moore is descended from John Roberts, who emigrated from Wales in 1683, when he was sixty years of age, being a millwright by trade. He erected in Lower Merion township the third mill in Pennsylvania. He married, at Haverford meeting, 11th mo. 2, 1690, Elizabeth Owen, daughter of Owen Humphrey. She had emigrated with her brother John from Merionethshire, in Wales, in 1683, bringing with her a certificate of removal. She was married at sixteen years of age. John Roberts died in 1703. Their children were: Rebecca, born in 1691; John, born 6th mo. 17, 1695. John Roberts married Hannah, daughter of Robert Lloyd, who was born in Wales, in 1669, and died in Merion in 1716. The daughter of Robert Lloyd, Hannah Lloyd Roberts, was born in 1699. She had one son, John Roberts. She married, second, William Paschall, and had several children, and (third) Peter Osborne, and had several children.

Another child of John and Elizabeth Owen Roberts was Matthew, born 4th mo. 13, 1693. He married Sarah Waters. Of their children, Jonathan, born in 1732, married Anna, second child of David and Anna Noble Thomas, the parents having been married at Abington Meeting in 1731. Jonathan was a member of the colonial assembly and otherwise prominent. The couple had a family of seven children, of whom the fifth in order was Jonathan Roberts, of Upper Merion, who became a United States senator from Pennsylvania, and was one of the best known citizens of Montgomery county. His sister Anna, the sixth child of Jonathan Roberts, Sr., died unmarried. The seventh child, John, was born 10th mo. 16, 1776. He married, 12th mo. 24, 1807, Sarah Bartolomew, of an old Upper Merion family. He died 8th mo. 14, 1846, and his widow died 9th mo. 12, 1847.

Sarah Roberts, daughter of Jonathan and Anna Roberts, eldest child of the couple, born 2d mo. 1761, married, between 1795 and 1798, Reese, son of Mordecai and Elizabeth (Davis) Moore. She was the grandmother of M. Anna Moore, subject of this sketch. (See biographical sketch of Sarah H. Tyson, elsewhere in this work, for further particulars of the Roberts ancestry of M. Anna Moore.)

Elizabeth (Davis) Moore, wife of Mordecai Moore (great-grandfather), was the daughter or William Davis. Their children: Tacy, born April 13, 1732; Isaac, born January 7, 1735; Jesse, born March 13, 1736; Elizabeth (great-grandmother), born September 12, 1737, married, in 1758, Mordecai Moore; William, born November 19, 1739; James, 1741; Asa, 1743; Hannah, 1747.

The Davis family were descendants of Lewis David (or Davis as it afterward became), who came to America from Standwin, in the county of Pembroke, and dominion of Wales. He probably arrived about 1691 at Philadelphia, and settled in Haverford. He died in 1708. He had a son, James Lewis. Asa Lewis, born 8th mo. 8, 1743, son of William Davis, and grandson of Lewis, was appointed assistant quarantine physician at above, and his wife Florence; married, in 1769, Elizabeth Humphreys, and removed from Haverford to East Bradford, in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in 1784. Their children were Elizabeth, William, Jane, James. Elizabeth married Jesse Reese. William married, in 1802, Mary Hibberd.

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This family biography is one of more than 1,000 biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

View additional Montgomery County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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