Meeting Sydney Bailey Moore’s great-grandson

Photo: Professor Robert Ouvrier, his wife Margo and me – 23 January 2017

In October 2016, I was on the internet once again hoping to find another Moore thread to follow on my Australian Past journey. I found a leaflet which piqued my interest that described an illustrated talk given by Professor Robert Ouvrier about Captain Joseph Moore, which was held at Mosman Library five years previously on the 9 March 2011. Being the eternal optimist my immediate thought was surely there must be a Moore connection here… my optimism paid off hugely and quite unexpectedly!

It didn’t take me long to discover more about Professor Ouvrier on the internet, as the accolades received by this quite remarkable man are significant. I pursued a number of avenues to find him and eventually a couple of months later I received a surprise phone call from him. I was absolutely delighted and we spent some time on the call where I learned that, yes, he was indeed a descendant of Captain Joseph Moore. We made plans to meet in late January, where we would discuss in detail our common ancestor and how exactly we were related. I was thrilled, as after all this time, I would finally get to meet a an Australian Moore relative.

I think when you’re waiting for an exciting event to happen, time seems to stand still but, eventually the 23 January 2017 arrived. We’d planned to meet at a small café not far from where Steve and I were living at the time, and at 12:30 I was ready and waiting outside the venue to meet Robert and his wife Margo.

What a charming couple and the three of us spent the next two hours talking about our connection and from what we could gather we were fourth cousins (I’m still not sure if this is right!). Robert’s great-grandfather Sydney Bailey Moore was my 3rd great-grandmother Ann Bailey Moore’s younger brother. Sydney was born in 1833 in Sydney and died in Paddington in 1915. Such exciting news!

Robert shared with me the presentation of the talk he’d given at Mosman Library in 2011. It’s a wonderful presentation filled with images and information about Joseph Moore and his family. An interesting slide showed that Captain Joseph Moore had received a Crown Grant of land in Mosman, 40 acres, for which he’d paid £100. Robert had worked it out that the same piece of land in Mosman in 2017 would be worth $200Million. Unfortunately, when Joseph and Henry went into insolvency the 40 acres was sold. What a fascinating piece of history!

                   Images:  Captain Joseph Moore’s Crown Grant of land 8 April 1834                 (Courtesy of Professor Robert Ouvrier, from his illustrated talk 9 March 2011)

Our meeting was over way too soon, but we made a tentative arrangement to meet up again, in a couple of months, possibly at Moore’s Wharf at Miller’s Point in Sydney.

That meeting happened just last weekend, we had a fabulous time and I’ll share it with you in my next blog!