John Moore (archbishop of Canterbury)

John Moore was an English clergyman who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England.

Life

Moore was the son of George Moore, a butcher, and Jane Cook. He was baptised at St. Michael's Church, Gloucester on 13 January 1730. He was educated at the Crypt School, Gloucester. He was a student at Pembroke College, Oxford.
After ordination, Moore was for some years tutor to Charles and Robert, the younger sons of Charles Spencer, Duke of Marlborough. On 21 September 1761, he was preferred to the fifth prebendal stall in the church of Durham and, in April 1763, to a canonry at Christ Church, Oxford.
On 1 July 1764, Moore received the degrees of B.D. and D.D. In September 1771, he was made Dean of Canterbury, and in February 1775, Bishop of Bangor.
On the death of Archbishop Frederick Cornwallis, Moore was translated to the See of Canterbury on 26 April 1783, on the joint recommendation of bishops Robert Lowth and Richard Hurd, both of whom had declined the primacy.
Moore was a competent administrator and a promoter of the Sunday-school movement and missionary efforts.
Moore died at Lambeth Palace on 18 January 1805 and was buried in Lambeth parish church.

Family

Moore married twice, first, a sister of James Wright; secondly, on 23 January 1770, Catherine, daughter of Robert Eden, of West Auckland. He left children.

Discovery of his coffin

In 2017, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum, which is housed at the medieval church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, 30 lead coffins were found; one with an archbishop's red and gold mitre on top of it. A metal plate identified one of these as belonging to Moore, with another being that of his wife Catherine.