Francis Moore

Voyage to Georgia

Francis Moore and his wife, Mary, departed from Gravesend, England on a voyage to Georgia in company with other settlers of Frederica Town. Beginning October 15, 1735 when their vessel, The Symond, disembarked, through June 1736, Moore kept a journal of his observations. This journal provides a rich source of information on the fledgling colony of Georgia, and the frontier setting of the British military headquarters at Fort Frederica.

 

Official Recorder

At Frederica, the Moores settled at lot #21 North Ward, where in 1741, he reported spending 400 pounds on two houses, one of brick and one of timber. Francis Moore served as First Recorder, keeping important records on the town’s court and other meetings. He carried on correspondence between Frederica and government officials in Savannah and London, for a salary of 20 pounds a year.

According to Georgia’s Colonial Records, on May 11, 1737 Moore’s salary of 50 pounds included his acting as storekeeper and clerk to James Oglethorpe from October 1735 to January 1736/7. He served as Oglethorpe’s personal secretary from 1739 to 1743. Disenchanted with petty town squabbles, the Moores returned to England by 1744.

 

List of Provisions

Colonial Provisions

In 1744, Francis Moore printed his Voyage to Georgia Begun in the Year 1735. His book gives insight into the daily life of the people of Frederica Town. To the left is a listing of the a year’s supply of food for each man in the colony provided by the Trustees. Mothers, wives, sisters or children of these men received similar provisions with the exception of meat, which was less. Each man would also receive the following:

“A watch-coat, a musket and bayonet, a hatchet, a hammer, an hand-saw, a shod shovel or spade, a broad hoe, a gimlet, a drawing knife, an iron pot, a pair of pot-hooks, a frying pan, and a publick grindstone to each ward or village.”

Although Moore’s book promised a sequel featuring an account of Oglethorpe’s 1740 Siege of St. Augustine, and the resulting Spanish invasion in 1742, this second book was never published.