Richard Clement Moody

Richard Clement Moody was a British Governor and Commander of the elite Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, as which he was the Colony of [British Columbia |founder] and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, in which he owned more than 3049 acres of land.
He was also Commanding Executive Officer of Malta during the Crimean War; and was the first British Governor of the Falkland Islands, of which he founded their capital Port Stanley, Moody Brook, and Moody Point in Antarctica.
Moody founded the Colony of British Columbia whilst selected to 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific' by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton: who desired to send 'representatives of the best of British culture' who had 'courtesy, high breeding, and urbane knowledge of the world'. The British Government deemed Moody to be the definitive 'English gentleman and British Officer'. Moody's original title was 'Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia' before he was redesignated the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, as which he founded the capital of British Columbia, New Westminster, for which been described as 'the real father of New Westminster'.
Moody also founded the Cariboo Road and Stanley Park, and named Burnaby Lake after his secretary Robert Burnaby, and Port Coquitlam's 400-foot 'Mary Hill' after his wife, Mary Susannah Hawks. He designed the first Coat of Arms of British Columbia. Port Moody, and Moody Park and Moody Square in New Westminster, are named after him.
Like his father and siblings, Moody was a polymath who excelled in engineering, architecture, and music. He planned the restoration of Edinburgh Castle using musical chords, for which he was summoned to Windsor Castle for commendation by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He has been described as "a visionary in a plain land".

Birth and ancestry

Richard Clement Moody was born on 13 February 1813 at St. Ann's Garrison, Barbados, into a high church landed gentry family with a history of military service, which included Jacobites who had fought Britain's Protestant monarchy, and had ancestry in common with George Washington, the founder and first President of the United States of America.
He was the third of ten children of Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, ADC, Kt., and Martha Clement, who was the daughter of the Napoleonic Wars veteran and Barbados landowner Richard Clement after whom he was named, and the aunt of Belgravia cricketers Reynold Clement and Richard Clement. His father's English residences were 23 Bolton Street, Mayfair and 13 Curzon Street, Mayfair.
His paternal cousin was the high church clergyman Clement Moody, Vicar of Newcastle. His eldest paternal uncle, Charles Moody, of Longtown, was a gentleman farmer who inherited the family's trade of foreign food-commodities. His paternal grandmother was Barbara Blamire of Cumberland, a cousin of William Blamire MP High Sheriff of Cumberland and of the poet Susanna Blamire.

Siblings

Richard Clement Moody's siblings included Major Thomas Moody ; The Rev. James Leith Moody ; Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody CB ; and the sugar-manufacture expert Shute Barrington Moody, through whom his nephew was Commander Thomas Barrington Moody of the Royal Navy.

Education

Richard Clement Moody was educated by private tutors. His primary intellectual influence were the works of Montesquieu, and he was said to be interested from a young age in 'political economy and in learning the character and peculiarities of the people amongst whom he was thrown'.
Like his father, and like his brother Hampden Clement Blamire Moody, Richard Clement Moody was a polymath who excelled in engineering, architecture, and music. He later planned the restoration of Edinburgh Castle using music.
He was from the age of 14 years educated as a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, at which he became Head of School during his second year and graduated during his third year.

Overview of military and civic career

Richard Clement Moody trained on the Ordnance Survey in 1829, when he received an inheritance from his maternal grandfather and namesake the landowner Richard Clement.
Moody was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, in which his father was a prestigious officer, in 1830. The Royal Engineers during the 19th century were a socially exclusive elite land-marine force, whose officers were drawn from the upper middle class and landed gentry of British society, who performed, in addition to military engineering, 'reconnaissance work, led storming parties, demolished obstacles in assaults, carried out rear-guard actions in retreats and other hazardous tasks'.
Moody was promoted to Lieutenant 1835, to Second Captain in 1844, to Captain in 1847, to Major in January 1855, to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1855, to Colonel in 1858, and to Major-General in 1866.
Moody served with the Ordnance Survey in Ireland from 1832 to 1833.
He served on Saint Vincent from October 1833 to September 1837, where his elder brother Thomas died in 1839. He subsequently served on a tour the United States, with Sir Charles Felix Smith, from 1837 to 1838. On his return from the USA, Moody was stationed at Devonport. Moody served as Professor of Fortifications at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich from July 1838 to October 1841.
Moody was in October 1841 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Falkland-Islands: this office was renamed Governor of the Falkland Islands in 1843, when he also became Commander-in-Chief of the Falkland Islands. He served in these offices until July 1848, when he left Stanley, and arrived in England in February 1849. Moody in 1848 received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit of France.
He served as an aide-de-camp to the British Colonial Office, on special service, from August 1849. He served at Chatham Dockyard and at Plymouth during 1851. Moody was appointed Commanding Royal Engineer of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1852, as which he served until 1854. Moody was Executive Officer at Malta, during 1854, during the Crimean War, but was compelled to resign from this post in May 1855 as a consequence of insufficient health. He toured Germany before his appointment as Commander of the Royal Engineers in Scotland in November 1855.
Moody was appointed the Commander of the elite Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment; the Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia; and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, from December 1858 to July 1863.
Moody returned to England from British Columbia in December 1863, whilst he continued to own over 3049 acres of land in British Columbia. Moody was Commanding Royal Engineer at Chatham Dockyard between March 1864 and January 1866. On 25 January 1866, he was promoted to Major-General, and he retired from the British Army, on full pay, later that month.
Moody then served as a Municipal Commissioner, and expended his time between the learned societies of which he was a member. Moody was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 23 April 1839, and was therefore one of its oldest members. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and a Member of the Royal Agricultural Society, and an Honorary Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Moody during his retirement lived at Burwarton, Shropshire, and at Caynham House, Ludlow, Shropshire, and at Woodfield, Weston under Penyard, near Ross, and later at Fairfield House, Charmouth, Lyme Regis. His friends included the politician Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton and the biologist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker.
Moody died at the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth, on 31 March 1887, whilst visiting Bournemouth with his daughter, and was buried at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth. He left over £24,000 in money in addition to his estates which included over 3049 acres in British Columbia.

Governor of the Falkland Islands (October 1841 – July 1848)

Settlement

In 1833 the Great Britain asserted its authority over the Falkland Islands. In 1841, Moody, aged only 28 years, was appointed, on the recommendation of Lord Vivian, to be the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Falkland Islands. It is likely that the lauded reputation, at the Colonial Office, of Richard Clement Moody's father, Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, ADC, Kt., contributed to the Office's decision to appoint him to an important position at an unprecedentedly young age, and to grant him powers that were exceptional relative to those of other British Colonial Governors. Moody was directed by Lord John Russell to exercise an authority of 'influence, persuasion, and example'. Richard Clement Moody departed England, for The Falkland Islands, on 1 October 1841. His office was renamed Governor of the Falkland Islands in 1843, when he became Commander-in-Chief of the Falkland Islands.
When Moody arrived, on the Hebe, at Port Louis on 16 January 1842, the Falklands was 'almost in a state of anarchy', but he used his powers 'with great wisdom and moderation' to develop the Islands' infrastructure. Moody's General Report of the Falkland Islands for the British Government was completed on 14 April 1842 and was sent to London on 3 May. In his General Report, Moody recommended that the Government encourage settlers and promote extensive sheep farming. He estimated that the population of sheep were 40,000 in 1842 and encouraged the Government to import quality stock from Britain to be crossed with the local breeds: this policy was implemented to considerable success and was adopted by future settlers.
Moody's secretary, Murrell Robinson Robinson, a surveyor and engineer, was the nephew of one of Moody's tutors. Moody appointed Robinson as a JP in 1843, but banished him from the Islands in March 1845, with the statement that he set-out 'axe in hand' for some other colony. The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who arrived on the Islands with the expedition of Sir James Clark Ross, described Moody as 'a very active and intelligent young man, most anxious to improve the colony and gain every information respecting its products'. Moody granted Hooker use of his personal library, which Hooker described as 'excellent', and the two became friends. Moody's refusal to acquiesce to George Thomas Whitington's attempt to force him to travel in the brig Alarm provoked a feud between their families that continued during Moody's tenure as Governor of the Falkland Islands and in the Colonial Magazine of November 1844.

The Foundation of Stanley

Shortly after Moody's arrival in 1842, when the Antarctic Expedition of Sir James Clark Ross sailed into Port Louis, Sir James Clark Ross advised Moody to choose for the capital city a site that was more easily accessible to sailing ships than Port Louis. Moody consequently investigated the suitability of Lord John Russell's recommendation of Port William, which Moody concluded to be the best site and renamed Port Stanley after Lord Stanley, who was the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. Moody founded and developed the city, to which, during 1845, he moved The Falkland Islands' administration. Moody designed Government House in Stanley that was completed in 1850 and after he had returned to England.
Sir James Ross subsequently named Moody Point, off Joinville Island in Antarctica, after Moody.
Moody levied a tax on alcohol, and, because there was a lack of currency on the island, issued his own currency of promissory notes. These two practices resolved immediate problems on the Islands: but Moody was criticized in Parliament, by Sir William Molesworth, 8th Baronet, for the latter. In June 1843, when Moody's office was renamed 'Governor', Moody was instructed by the Colonial Office to establish a colonial administration with a Legislative Council and an Executive Council. The records of Moody's 'conscientious' and 'impressive' administration of Falkland are held in the Jane Cameron National Archives in Stanley. Moody enacted laws and collected other duties or taxes. He asked the British authorities for a doctor, a magistrate, and a chaplain: all three were dispatched, and the latter was Moody's brother, James Leith Moody, who, after his arrival in October 1845, was 'querulous and eccentric' in a feud with his brother. Richard Clement established residences, Government offices, a barracks, a new road system, docks, a court of law, a gaol, a school, a church, a graveyard, and a police force. He established the requested Executive Council and a Legislative Council in 1845, each of which consisted of British officials, merchants, and local landowners. Moody's governance was impeded by the incompetence of the several members of his administration whom he dismissed. However, when during 1846 Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey became Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, the Colonial Office became less sympathetic to Moody.
Moody repudiated the original European settlers of The Falkland Islands but commended his Royal Engineers: he wrote, ''our community... chiefly composed of men of the lowest class, formerly seamen in whale ships & sealers, foreigners and Spanish gauchos... the only persons opposed to such wretched material for the formation of a colony are the 5 or 6 gentlemen and the detachment of Royal Sappers and Miners.''

Militia

In 1845, animosity on the River Plate between the British and the French fleets and the Argentine Government of Juan Manuel de Rosas provoked Moody to request an artillery contingent from Britain and to use his Royal Engineers to train a militia from The Falkland Islands' population. In 1891, the militia that was founded by Moody was renamed The Falkland Islands Volunteer Force, and it was subsequently renamed again to the Falkland Islands Defence Force, and it was involved in both World Wars and in the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982, when, coincidentally, a centre of the Argentinian offensive was Moody Brook which was named after Moody.

Permanent infrastructure

Moody's authority provoked antipathy in his subordinates, especially his inequable brother James Leith, the Chaplain to the British Force in the Islands. However, from the perspective of the British Government, Richard Clement Moody's tenure was a success, the consequence of which has been 180 years of British administration of the islands.
In 1994, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of Stanley, Moody, together with James Clark Ross and Lord Stanley, was commemorated on Falkland Islands stamps issued. Government House in Stanley, which was designed by Moody, featured on the stamps issued in 1933, to commemorate the Centenary, on those issued in 1983, to commemorate 150 years of British administration of the Islands, and on those issued in 1996 to commemorate the visit, in January of that year, by Princess Anne. Moody Brook is named after Richard Clement.
In 1845 Moody introduced tussock grass into Great Britain from The Falkland Islands for which he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Agricultural Society. Moody wrote an account of tussock grass in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. The Coat of arms of the Falkland Islands notably includes an image of tussock grass.
Moody left the Falkland Islands, for England, on HM Transport Nautilus, in July 1848. Moody arrived in England in February 1849.

Britain and Malta (February 1849 - October 1858)

Moody in 1848 received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit of France. He served as an aide-de-camp to the British Colonial Office, on special service, from August 1849 and tended to his father, Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, ADC, Kt.
Richard Clement Moody served at Chatham Dockyard and at Plymouth during 1851. He was Commanding Royal Engineer of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1852 until 1854, as which he directed the response to the burst reservoir at Holmfirth, Yorkshire, from 5 February 1852, which destroyed life and property. Moody was promoted to Regimental Colonel on 8 December 1853 and was appointed Executive Officer of Malta, during 1854, during the Crimean War. Whilst at Malta, his eldest son, Richard Stanley Hawks Moody, later a distinguished Colonel, was born, on 23 October 1854, at Strada Reale, Valletta. Richard Clement Moody was compelled by his Yellow Fever to resign from his office in Malta during May 1855, after which he recuperated on a tour of Germany. He was appointed as Commander of the Royal Engineers in Scotland in November 1855, as which he served until October 1858, and was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Moody was involved in Scottish architectural projects, and enjoyed the intellectual society of Edinburgh.

Musical Plan for Edinburgh Castle and Queen Victoria

Whilst in Germany during 1855, Moody composed plans for the restoration of Edinburgh Castle that were based on a musical principle in which measurements were made 'drawn to musical chords'. He has been described as 'a visionary in a plain land' and 'a man who could conceive of Edinburgh Castle in terms of a musical score'. His plans so impressed Lord Panmure that he was invited to Windsor Castle to present them to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, both of whom were musicians and both of whom were delighted. The implementation of Moody's plans was disrupted by the retirement of Lord Panmure after which they were not implemented but are retained at the War Office, where 'they still remain a memorial to Moody's talent'.

Founder and first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia (October 1858 – July 1863)

Selection

When news of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush reached London, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, requested the War Office to recommend a field officer who was 'a man of good judgement possessing a knowledge of mankind' to lead 150 Royal Engineers who had been selected for their 'superior discipline and intelligence'. Lytton desired to send to the colony 'representatives of the best of British culture, not just a police force', to send men who possessed 'courtesy, high breeding and urbane knowledge of the world', such as Moody, whom the Government considered to be the archetypal 'English gentleman and British Officer', whom the War Office chose. Lord Lytton, who described Moody as his 'distinguished friend', accepted their nomination, as a consequence of Moody's military record, and of Moody's success as Governor of the Falkland Islands, and of distinguished geopolitical record of Moody's father, Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, ADC, Kt., at the Colonial Office, and of Moody's brother Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody, who had already served with the Royal Engineers in British Columbia from 1840 to 1848 with such success that he was granted command of the Royal Engineers across the entirety of China.
Moody's responsibility was to transform the new Colony of British Columbia into the British Empire's 'bulwark in the farthest west' and to 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific'.
Richard Clement Moody and his wife Mary Susannah Hawks and their four born children left England in October 1858 and arrived in British Columbia in December 1858, with the 172 Royal Engineers of the elite Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, and his secretary Robert Burnaby. The landed gentry amongst the Royal Engineers were Moody's three Captains, Robert Mann Parsons, John Marshall Grant, and Henry Reynolds Luard; and his two Lieutenants Lieutenant Arthur Reid Lempriere and Lieutenant Henry Spencer Palmer; in addition to Captain William Driscoll Gosset. The contingent also included Doctor John Vernon Seddall and The Rev. John Sheepshanks. Moody was sworn in as the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia and appointed Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia.

Ned McGowan's War

Moody had hoped to begin immediately the foundation of a capital city, but on his arrival at Fort Langley, he learned of an insurrection at the settlement of Hill's Bar by a notorious outlaw, Ned McGowan, and some restive gold miners. Moody repressed the rebellion, which became popularly known as 'Ned McGowan's War', without loss of life. Moody described the incident:
The notorious Ned McGowan, of Californian celebrity at the head of a band of Yankee Rowdies defying the law! Every peaceable citizen frightened out of his wits!—Summons & warrants laughed to scorn! A Magistrate seized while on the Bench, & brought to the Rebel's camp, tried, condemned, & heavily fined! A man shot dead shortly before! Such a tale to welcome me at the close of a day of great enjoyment.
Moody described the response to his success: 'They gave me a Salute, firing off their loaded Revolvers over my head—Pleasant—Balls whistling over one's head! as a compliment! Suppose a hand had dropped by accident! I stood up, & raised my cap & thanked them in the Queen's name for their loyal reception of me'.

Foundation of New Westminster

In British Columbia, Moody 'wanted to build a city of beauty in the wilderness' and planned his city as an iconic visual metaphor for British dominance, 'styled and located with the objective of reinforcing the authority of the Crown and of the robe'. Subsequent to the enactment of the Pre-emption Act of 1860, Moody settled the Lower Mainland. He founded the new capital city, New Westminster, at a site of dense forest of Douglas pine that he selected for its strategic excellence, including the quality of its port. He, in his letter to his friend Arthur Blackwood of the Colonial Office, dated 1 February 1859, described the majestic beauty of the site:
"The entrance to the Frazer is very striking--Extending miles to the right & left are low marsh lands & yet fr the Background of Superb Mountains- Swiss in outline, dark in woods, grandly towering into the clouds there is a sublimity that deeply impresses you. Everything is large and magnificent, worthy of the entrance to the Queen of England's dominions on the Pacific mainland. My imagination converted the silent marshes into Cuyp-like pictures of horses and cattle lazily fattening in rich meadows in a glowing sunset. The water of the deep clear Frazer was of a glassy stillness, not a ripple before us, except when a fish rose to the surface or broods of wild ducks fluttered away".
Moody designed the roads and the settlements of New Westminster, and his Royal Engineers, under Captain John Marshall Grant, built an extensive road network, including that which became Kingsway, which connected New Westminster to False Creek; and the North Road between Port Moody and New Westminster; and the Pacific terminus, at Burrard's Inlet, of Port Moody, of the Canadian and Pacific Railway ; and the Cariboo Road; and Stanley Park, which was an important strategic area for invaluable the eventuality of an invasion by America. He named Burnaby Lake after his secretary Robert Burnaby, and he named Port Coquitlam's 400-foot 'Mary Hill' after his wife Mary Susannah Hawks. Moody designed the first Coat of arms of British Columbia. Richard Clement Moody established Port Moody, which was subsequently named after him, to defend New Westminster from potential attack from the United States. Moody also established a town at Hastings which was later incorporated into Vancouver.
The British designated multiple tracts as government reserves. The Pre-emption Act did not specify conditions for the distribution of the land, and, consequently, large areas were bought by speculators. Moody requisitioned 3,750 acres for himself, and, on this land, he subsequently built for himself, and owned, Mayfield, a model farm near New Westminster. Moody was criticised by journalists for land grabbing, but his requisitions were ordered by the Colonial Office, and Moody throughout his tenure in British Columbia received the approbation of the British authorities in London, and was in British Columbia described as 'the real father of New Westminster'. However, Lord Lytton, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, 'forgot the practicalities of paying for clearing and developing the site and the town' and the efforts of Moody's Engineers were continually impeded by insufficient funds, which, together with the continuous opposition of Governor Douglas, whom Sir Thomas Frederick Elliot described as 'like any other fraud', 'made it impossible for design to be fulfilled'.
Moody's 5th, 6th, and 7th children, all daughters, were born at Government House in New Westminster. He is thought to have also fathered at least two illegitimate children with his Native American housekeeper.

Feud with Governor Douglas

Throughout his tenure in British Columbia, Moody feuded with Sir James Douglas Governor of Vancouver Island, whose jurisdiction overlapped with his own. Moody's offices of Chief Commissioner and Lieutenant-Governor were of "higher prestige lesser authority" than that of Douglas, despite Moody's superior social position in the judgement of the Royal Engineers and of the British Government which had selected Moody to "out manoeuvre the old Hudson's Bay Factor ". Sir Thomas Frederick Elliot described Governor Douglas as "like any other fraud", whereas Moody had been selected by Lord Lytton for his qualities of the archetypal 'English gentleman and British Officer', and because his family was 'eminently respectable': he was the son of Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, ADC, Kt. and Martha Clement who were socially superior members of the planter class of the West Indies, including Demerara and The Guianas, in which Douglas's father and brothers owned less land and from which Douglas's 'a half-breed' mother originated. Governor Douglas's ethnicity was 'an affront to Victorian society'. Mary Susannah Moody, who was a member of the Hawks industrial dynasty and of the armigerous Boyd merchant banking family, wrote, on 4 August 1859, "it is not pleasant to serve under a Hudson's Bay Factor", and that the "Governor and Richard can never get on". John Robson, who was the editor of the British Columbian, wanted Richard Clement Moody's office to include that of Governor of British Columbia, to make Douglas obsolete. In letter to the Colonial Office of 27 December 1858, Richard Clement Moody states that he has "entirely disarmed of all jealousy". Douglas repeatedly insulted the Royal Engineers by attempting to assume their command and refusing to acknowledge their contribution to the nascent colony.
Margaret A. Ormsby, the author of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for Moody, untypically censures Moody for the abortive development of the New Westminster. Most historians rather commend Moody's contribution and exonerate Moody from culpability for the abortive development of New Westminster, especially with regard to the perpetual insufficiency of funds and of the personally motivated opposition by Douglas that continually delayed the development of British Columbia. Robert Burnaby observed that Douglas proceeded with "muddling work and doubling his expenditure" and with employing administrators to "work a crooked policy against Moody" to "retard British Columbia and build up... the stronghold of Hudson's Bay interests" and their own "landed stake". Therefore, Robert Edgar Cail, Don W. Thomson, Ishiguro, and Scott commended Moody for his contribution, and Scott accused Ormsby of being "adamant in her dislike of Colonel Moody" despite the majority of evidence, and almost all other biographies of Moody, including that by the Institution of Civil Engineers, and that by the Royal Engineers, and that by the British Columbia Historical Association, commend Moody's achievements in British Columbia.
The Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment was disbanded in July 1863. The Moody family and the 22 Royal Engineers who wished to return to England, who had 8 wives between them, departed for England. 130 of the original Columbia Detachment decided to remain in British Columbia. Scott contends that the dissolution of the elite Columbia Detachment, and the consequent departure of Moody, "doomed" the development of the settlement and the realisation of Lord Lytton's dream. A vast congregation of New Westminster citizens gathered at the dock to bid farewell to Moody as his boat departed for England. Moody wanted to return to British Columbia, but he died before he was able to do so. Moody left his library behind, in New Westminster, to become the public library of New Westminster.
In April 1863, the Councillors of New Westminster decreed that 20 acres should be reserved and named Moody Square after Richard Clement Moody. The area around Moody Square that was completed only in 1889 has also been named Moody Park after Moody. Numerous developments occurred in and around Moody Park, including Century House, which was opened by Princess Margaret on 23 July 1958. In 1984, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of New Westminster, a monument of Richard Clement Moody, at the entrance of the park, was unveiled by Mayor Tom Baker. For Moody's achievements in the Falkland Islands and in British Columbia, British diplomat David Tatham CMG, who served as Governor of the Falkland Islands, described Moody as an "Empire builder". In January 2014, with the support of the Friends of the British Columbia Archives and of the Royal British Columbia Museum Foundation, The Royal British Columbia Museum purchased a photograph album that had belonged to Richard Clement Moody. The album contains over 100 photographs of the early settlement of British Columbia, including some of the earliest known photographs of First Nations peoples.

Marriage and issue

On 6 July 1852, at St Andrew's Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, Moody married Mary Susannah Hawks of the Hawks industrial dynasty, who was the daughter of Joseph Stanley Hawks JP DL, Sheriff of Newcastle, and of Mary Boyd of the armigerous Boyd merchant banking family which had founded the Bank of Newcastle. Mary Susannah Hawks's maternal uncles included Admiral Benedictus Marwood Kelly and industrialist Edward Fenwick Boyd. Her mother Mary Boyd descended from Sir Francis Liddell who was the son of Sir Thomas Liddell, 1st Baronet ; and from Frances or Francisca Forster ; and from Sir William Chaytor of Croft.
After their marriage, Richard Clement Moody and his wife Mary embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe, including of France, and of Switzerland, and of Germany.
Richard Clement Moody named the 400-foot hill in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, 'Mary Hill', after his wife. However, Mary Susannah Moody disliked British Columbia which she described as 'roughing it in the bush' relative to living in England. The Royal British Columbia Museum has 42 letters written by Mary Susannah Moody from the British Empire, mostly from the Colony of British Columbia , to her mother and to her sisters, Juliana Stanley Hawks and Emily Stanley Hawks, who were in England. Mary Susannah Moody was erudite in English and in French literature and the letters have been of interest to scholars of the ruling class of the British Empire.

Issue

Moody and Mary Susannah Hawks had 13 children. Moody is thought to have also fathered at least two illegitimate children with his Native American housekeeper whom he left in British Columbia. The 13 children of Moody and Mary Susannah Hawks were:

Josephine Mary. A fabric embroiderer of Fisherton House, Fisherton de la Mere, Wiltshire. Married Arthur Newall, who was a son of Robert Stirling Newall, in 1883, by whom she had two sons. Her first son Robert Stanley of Little Cottage Street, Westminster, was an ethnographer of Aboriginal Australia and an archaeologist for the Commissioners of Woods and Forests who made excavations at Stonehenge with Lieutenant-Colonel William Hawley between 1919 and 1926, and was Vice President of Salisbury Museum from 1971. Her second son was named Basil.
Colonel Richard S. Hawks Moody CB Military Knight of Windsor. Married Mary Latimer, 1881, by whom he had four children. His eldest daughter, Mary Latimer Moody, married Major-General James Fitzgerald Martin KStJ.
Charles Edmund. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and was a businessman, and lived at Springfield, Breinton, Herefordshire. Married Kate Ellershaw in 1885, by whom he had three daughters, the eldest of whom, Kathleen, married Sir Donald Kingdon, Chief Justice of the Gold Coast.
Walter Clement. He lived at Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and at Broxted House, Cheltenham. He married Laura Evelyn Rynd, who was the sister of Captain G. C. Rynd, of the Manchester Regiment, in 1888. His wife left an estate of £12,643.
Susan.
Mary.
Margaret JP. She was a Pershore District Councillor. Married The Rev. William Dobson Lowndes, of Christ's College, Cambridge, of Little Comberton Rectory, Pershore, in 1884, with whom she had two sons and two daughters. Their youngest daughter was Mary de Clervaux, who married Alan Edgar Lester, of Birmingham and Harborne, and who drowned in 1950; and their elder daughter was Margaret Alice, who was a missionary at Zanzibar with the Universities' Mission to South Africa. Their younger son was The Rev. William Parker Lowndes, of St. Pancras Church, Ipswich, of the Royal Artillery, who died during 1929 after a fall from his horse exacerbated wounds that he had received in World War I. Their elder son was the Royal Arch freemason Major Richard Charles Lowndes MC, of Boar's Hill, Oxford, of the Royal Artillery, who was captured and imprisoned by the Turkish after the Siege of Kut in World War I. He married Phyllis Daphne Vernon Cooke in 1920.
Captain Henry de Clervaux, whilst serving with the South Wales Borderers/2nd Battalion 24th Regiment. He was named after his ancestor William Clervaux of Croft, from whom he descended through Sir William Chaytor. He was educated at Rugby School and at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, after which he joined the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment in 1883. He served, between 1885 and 1887, in the Burmese Expedition with the 2nd Battalion the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, under Sir W. S. A. Lockhart, for which he received the medal with clasp. He joined the South Wales Borderers/2nd Battalion 24th Regiment in 1894. He served in the Second Boer War as aide-de-camp to Major-General Clements, who was the Commander of the 12th Infantry Brigade from December 1899, and he was mentioned in despatches on 10 September 1900. Married on 15 January 1895 Daisy Leighton, who was the daughter of Edmund Leighton, of London, by whom he did not have issue. He was greatly interested in sport and riding. He is buried at Krugersdorp Garden of Remembrance, in South Africa, and commemorated at Hereford Cathedral, and at St Mary's Church, Foy, Herefordshire, and at Brecon Cathedral, Powys, Wales, and at Holy Trinity Church, Guildford, Surrey, and at Rugby School Chapel Memorial, Warwickshire.
Grace.
Gertrude. She resided at Horkesley House, Monkland, Herefordshire. She died unmarried.
Major George Robert Boyd. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and was commissioned into the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. He lived at Ludlow, Shropshire. He married Dorothy Wingfield and their daughter Rosemary Moody married Richard Edward Holford, of Duntish Court, Dorset, who was the son of Captain Charles Frederick Holford, on 10 August 1935.
Ruth and Rachel.