Louisa Fisk (1839-died between 1911 and 1923)Louisa was the fourth child of William

and Louisa (obviously named after her

mother), and was born in 1840, ma-

king her four years older than our Ed-

ward. She was not recorded as being

in the Fisk’s home in St Albans High

Street in the 1861 census, when she

would have been 21, but I cannot find

any record of what she was up to.

But she can’t have gone too far, be-

cause a year later, aged 22, she ma-

rried John Wright Moore, a grocer’s

son born in East Langdon, Northamp-

tonshire, who was 24. They married in

St Albans, and went to live in the little

village of Pailton, Warwickshire, just

outside Rugby, where Mr Wright

Moore was working as a Baptist mi-

nister, according to the 1861 census

at both the Monks Kirby and Pailton

chapels. So not only did three of the

sons become Baptist ministers, but

this daughter married one (and, as we

shall see later, younger sister Frances

married one too).

Just how John Moore and Louisa Fisk

came to meet is hard to work out, but

it must have had something to do with

him knowing the Fisks through Baptist

connections.

There was actually an important Bap-

tist minister from Northampton called

John Moore (1662-1726), author of a

gripping 1722 publication called "Se-

veral Sermons by John Moore of Nor-

thampton." It is reasonably likely that

Louisa’s John Moore was a direct

descendant, but that is only a guess.

Some time between 1866 and 1869,

they left Pailton to live at 5, Priory Gar-

dens, Folkestone in Kent. In the 1871

census, John Wright Moore was des-

cribed as a Baptist minister ‘without

charge’, and he was working as scho-

olteacher instead.

As well as teaching, John Moore also

ran his Folkestone home as a guest

house with the help of his wife and his

sister. They had a cook and a house-

maid, but their only guests at the time

were an Earnest Edward Lake, an at-

torney solicitor practicing in London,

and his sister Mary. These were pre-

sumably relatives of Louisa’s mother,

whose maiden name, of course, was

also Lake. I’ve done some research

into these two to see if it might throw up some clues as to Loui-

sa’s origins, but I can’t find any Louisa in Earnest Edward La-

ke’s family, and somebody on the Internet has done some pretty

thorough research of those Lakes. So maybe it’s just a coinci-

dence.

By now, Louisa had started on what seemed to be her major vo-

cation in life – having children. This lady never stopped bree-

ding. One came after another. The first came in 1863, just a year

after she’d married. It was a girl, and following in the family tra-

dition, she was also called Louisa. Just to keep things fair, the

next child was a boy and took his father’s name - John William

Fisk Moore born in 1865. Giving children names and middle

names to reflect the family history was quite a thing with these

people.

Next came Alban E Moore in 1866, named, to be sure, after Loui-

sa’s brother Alban who had died at the age of 9 a few years ear-

lier.

There were ‘moore’ to come: Ellen (known as Nellie) Moore in

1869, Ernest Lake Moore in 1872 (his odd middle name being

Louisa’s mother’s maiden name), Herbert Ebenezer Moore in

1875, James Moore in 1877, Sarah Muriel Moore in 1880 and

William Fisk Moore in 1881. That’s nine kids in nineteen years,

and there may have been others that died or didn’t appear on

the censuses.

The first three up until Alban were all born in Pailton, and Ellen

in Folkestone, which how we know they must have moved south

between 1866 and 1869.

By 1881, they had moved to a new house in Folkestone, 75,

Upper Sandgate Road.

With Louisa popping babies left, right and centre, it is no sur-

prise that they had drafted in a ‘mother’s

help’ called Margaret Seabrook, and they

also had two housemaids, Alice Godden,

who was 18, and Annie Marshall, who was

just 14.

John Moore was no longer either a minister

or a teacher. He was now running a grocery.

However, as two of the daughters married

Baptist ministers, it seems the Baptist tradi-

tion still ran very strong in this family. John

was also described as a ‘wine merchant,

sub postmaster and a house agent’.

The shop, however, was called ‘James Fisk

& Co”. It would seem that in addition to dra-

pery and other interest in St Albans, James

also invested in a grocer’s shop in Folkes-

tone, which was managed by his sister

Louisa and her husband.

75, Upper Sandgate Road is now a branch

of Going Places travel agent. The shop was

run with the help of at least one of their

many sons, John, and had two assistants,

Joseph Goulden (21) and Harry Pettman

(14). It’s perhaps odd that they had two em-

ployees when he had so many kids to cho-

ose from. But it is this same child called

Harry Pettman who, in 1909, would take

over the shop for good.

This photo of the Lees was taken at

roughly the same time that Louisa and

John were running their guest house.

50

Christine Warren has a website with loads of old photographs of Folkestone, including the following two, which are of Moore’s Hotel it-

self - the place that was run by Louisa Fisk and John Wright Moore and later by their children. She doesn’t know what became of the

hotel, just that by 1958 it no longer existed. It may, however, still be operating under a different name.

LONDON GAZETTE,FEBRUARY 5, 1935

This Minnie Moore was running a hotel a few doors down the road

from the Moores Hotel. I am not sure who she was, ‘Minnie’ may

have been one of the children known by a nickname, maybe it was

a relative of John’s, or maybe there was no connection.

By 1891, the couple were into their fifties, but no longer ran the grocery. They

were living in and running a guest house at 11, the Lees.

The Lees is a broad promenade above the cliff west of the old town, popu-

lar then and now for Londoners taking a weekend break by the sea.

Only two of the children were still living with them at the time, Sarah (11) and

William (9).

So, had the grocer’s shop disappeared? Well, no as it happens, it was still

there at 75, Sandgate Road, but was now being run by their oldest son, John

(who was now 26). Their 22 year old daughter Ellen (Helen) and 15 year old

James were also living at the house, possibly helping to run the joint. Louisa

and John were still in Folkestone in 1901, but John was now recorded as ‘re-

tired boarding house keeper’, and they were no longer living there, but at

54, Bournemouth Street.

In 1911, Louisa is back living in the boarding house in the Lees, and is re-

corded as being married rather than widowed, so although he is not in the

house, John Moore her husband must still have been around. She is des-

cribed as living on her means, and the boarding house, or ‘pension’ as it is

described, is now being managed by her two daughters, Sarah and Ellen.

I am not sure when either Louisa or her husband died - but it was probably

around the time of the First World War - when Folkestone’s was full of sol-

diers perparing to go to France. On the back of the bottom left picture below,

sent April 25, 1915 to Manitoba, Canada, it says “This is a most delightfulspot and the flowers are splendid. Expect to go over very shortly, most likelywill be there before you receive this card. Am very fit."

Some more pictures of The Leas around the turn of the century

LOUISA FISK AND JOHN WRIGHT MOORE’S CHILDREN

The oldest daughter Louisa Moore, would have been 22 in 1891, and

had left home, but I can’t find her on the census. But in 1901 she was

back, living with her parents at their home in Bournemouth Street, and no

profession is given for her.

Then, in 1911, she was boarding at 21, Mount Ephraim in Tunbridge Wells,

Kent. She was 42 by this time, still single, and living on ‘private means’.

Somehow or other she had or was making enough money to get by wi-

thout working or marrying.

Louisa is not mentioned in the list of cousins left money by her Aunt Sarah

in 1923, so she must have died some time between 1911 and 1923.

Louisa Moore (1863 - )

John William Fisk Moore was aged 26 and running the

grocery store in the 1891 census, and living with his sis-

ter Nellie and 15 year old brother James. Ten years

later, and John is still recorded as being a grocer, but is

no longer living in the shop. He’s living with his parents

in the boarding house at 11, The Leas.

In 1911, John is back in the census, still unmarried and

at the home of a widow called Martha Elizabeth Coop in

Edmonton, Middlesex. That’s interesting, because his

younger brother James married somebody else whose

surname was Coop.

'James Fisk & Co, Grocer, Provisions, Wine & Spirit

Merchants' of 75 Sandgate Rd, Folkestone was dissol-

ved in 1909, and John seems to have concentrated only

on the guest house. He was only visiting Martha Coop

in 1911 and his profession is that of boarding house pro-

prietor, the one in Folkestone. So not only John, but also

Sarah and Ellen and their parents were all making a de-

cent living out of it. Tourism must have been booming in

Folkstone.

The London Gazette in 1921 confirms that John and two

of his younger sisters were partners in the business, but

that year the business was passed in its entirety to

Sarah Muriel Moore.

John William Fisk Moore (1864 - )

The Leas in 1913

Alban Moore (1866 - )I can find no record of the third oldest, Alban Moore in 1891, but he is

back in 1901, and living at another familiar address, 75, Sandgate Road.

Yep, the old grocer’s shop was still going, although Alban was just the

assistant, it now being managed by a Joseph Cudmore from Devon. He

was 32 by this stage, but like so many of the young Moores, was also still

single. He doesn’t seem to appear on the 1911 census and doesn´t get

mentioned in the long list of nephews and nieces on his Aunt Sarah’s will

if 1923, so he must have died in his 30s or 40s.

The grocer’s store at 75, Sandgate Road in Folkstone has a confusing his-

tory. It was apparently called James Fisk & Co, so it seems very likely that

it was set up by Louisa’s brother James Fisk, the owner of the drapery in

St Albans. It was first managed by Louisa’s husband, John Wright Moore,

but when they moved into the hotel business, they seem to have left the bsi-

ness in the capable hands of their children.

So although in 1881 it was being run by John Moore and Louisa, by 1891

the grocer’s shop had passed on to their oldest son John Fisk Moore.

In 1901, the census records that the manager was a man from Devon ca-

lled John Cudmore, with his wife Nellie, although two of the Moore chil-

dren, Herbert and Alban, were boarding at 75, Sandgate Road and working

as grocer´s assistants.

But although John Cudmore was the manager, he does not seem to have

actually owned the place, because as revealed by an entry in the London

Gazette in 1909, John Fisk Moore and his sister Helen (Ellen) were still in

charge. It was in 1909 that they dissolved the shop and it was passed to

Harry Farley Pettman. This was the same guy who had been a child ap-

prentice in the shop in 1881, and in 1891 was also recorded as a grocer’s

manager and in 1901 was living a guest house of his own, but was recor-

ded as being a grocer.

It seems that Harry Pettman ran the shop that was owned first by James

Fisk and then by his nephews John and Helen, but the Fisks/Moores ended

their involvement in 1909, and Pettman took over the shop himself.

JAMES FISK & CO, GROCER,PROVISIONS, WINE & SPIRIT MERCHANTSLONDON GAZETTE,

26 MARCH 1909

51

Ellen (Helen) Moore (1869 - )

DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM WITTER OFSWAMPSCOTT, MASSACHUSETTS

(BY GEORGIA COOPER WASHBURN, 1929)

IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS OF MARYLANDERS,BY MARTHA REAMY, BILL REAMY

Ellen Moore was living and working at the grocery in Sandgate Road in 1891,

and then in 1901 and 1911 is at the boarding house in The Lees, and we know

from the London Gazette of 1921 that she was one of the three partners along

with her older brother and younger sister. She’s very confusing this girl, be-

cause at different times she is called Ellen, Helen and Nellie, but she is clearly

the same person.

In 1911, she was still single, and to the best of our knowledge, her life had re-

volved around running the grocery and the then the hotel, but probably also ke-

eping up the Fisk family tradition of the Baptist faith.

That’s because in 1919, when she was nearing 50, her life took a dramatic

change. The First World War was on full swing, and there were American and

Canadian troops in town. With the North Americans was the Reverend Oates

Charles Symonds Wallace, who was a highly esteemed citizen indeed.

OCS Wallace was a highly respected Baptist minister, born in Nova Scotia,

and the direct descendant of another prominent Baptist, William Witter, who

had emigrated to Canada from Scotland in the 18th century. He had studied

Greek, Latin, Philosophy and History, and at Arcadia University also excelled

as a half-back on the football field. OCS Wallace published several major works

on Baptism, including “The life of Jesus: studies for young people” (which was

used a basic textbook on Jesus at schools), “What Baptists believe”, “Gates”,

"His Life”, “Looking Toward the Heights”, “Clover, Brier and Tansy” and a ton-

gue-twister “As Thorns Thrust Forth”. He was considered one of the senior pro-

moters of the Baptist movement in North America, being minister for 14 years

at the Eulaw Pince Church in Montreal, for five years in Lawrence, Massachu-

setts, and was also at Bloor Street Church in Toronto. Any Google search re-

veals loads of different books that were written by OCS Wallace, and also

numerous references to his work in other publications. In fact, he was impor-

tant enough for a book to be written about his own life; “The life-story of Rev.

O.C.S. Wallace” by C.J. Cameron. He also travelled widely, and is mentioned

as an important speaker at a number of Baptist conferences.

He retired from his ministerial duties from 1895-1905, when he became chan-

cellor of McMaster University in Ontario, where not everybody took to kindly to

his religious views, and he was seemingly in constant conflictwith those who

wanted to University to take a more ‘modern and scientific’ view of education.

IS JESUS YOUR PERSONAL SAVIOUR?BY GEORGE A. RAWLYK

A WORLD MISSION:CANADIAN PROTESTANTISM

BY ROBERT ANTHONY WRIGHT

ALL THAT FITS A WOMANBY T. LAINE SCALES

THE WESTMOUNT NEWS -MAY 2, 1913

In 1905 he resigned from the University and re-

turned to preaching, moving to USA to work as a

minister in Westmount, Baltimore.

He had married twice, first to a Canadian called

Leonette Moore in 1885 (with whom he had his

only children, Rachel Leonette Wallace 1889 and

Oates Crosby Saunders Wallace 1894, known fa-

miliarly as ‘Rae’ and ‘Croy’). His first wife died in

1902, but two years later, in 1904, he married

again to Frances Barbara Moule, who had three

children of her own from her own first marriage

to James Edward Wells (George, Ned and Clif-

ford). So, between them, they had five children

from previous marriages.

His youngest stepson fought and died in the First

World War, at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917,

along with so many other Canadian troops. His

collected letters sent to his mother from the bat-

tlefields of Europe were published in a book edi-

ted by his stepfather, OCS Wallace and titled

“From Montreal to Vimy Ridge and beyond; the

correspondence of Lieut. Clifford Almon Wells,

B.A., of the 8th battalion, Canadians, B. e. f., No-

vember, 1915-April, 1917”. It can be viewed on-

line for free – I’ve included the biographical

introduction here, which not only offers informa-

tion on the soldier, but also offers some clues

about his family background.

The introduction also says that as a direct result

of her grief for the loss of her son, the Lieutenan-

t’s mother, and OCS Wallace’s second wife, died

in an unfortunate accident 21 days later.

OCS Wallace himself was one of five prominent

Canadian gentlemen that were sent to Britain and

France to oversee what was going on and pre-

sumably to provide moral and spiritual support.

And in doing so, at some point he befriended a

fellow Baptist, a hotel proprietor in Folkestone ca-

lled Helen Moore – Louisa’s daughter. Maybe

they met through church doings, maybe Wallace

was staying at the hotel, that’s not known, but

there is an important army barracks in Folkes-

tone.

In 1919, the 49 year old Helen became his third

wife. There is very little evidence of the Moores of

Folkestone being involved in the Baptist faith like

their parents had, but the fact that Helen (and

also their daughter Sarah Muriel) married Baptist

ministers suggests that the family connection with

the Church was still very strong.

The marriage is confirmed in many places, inclu-

ding their own registration of the marriage, where

OCS Wallace marries Helen Moore of Folkes-

tone, as well as own her Aunt Sarah’s will, where

she is referred to as Ellen Wallace, and an entry

in “Witter genealogy: descendants of William Wit-

ter of Swampscott, Massachusetts, 1639-1659.”

After marrying, they stayed in England for at least

some time, with OCS Wallace attending an im-

portant Baptist conference in London in 1920.

But eventually he returned to Baltimore and mi-

nisterial duties, and Helen went with him. They

sailed in August 1920, and for the next two or

three either the Reverend alone or in company of

wife are often recorded crossing the Canadian

border or sailing back to Britain. This wuld have

both been to visit relatives but also to attend Con-

ferences,an area in which the Reverend was par-

ticularly active at this time.

The Reverend is always referred to as ‘British’,

which he was of course, because Canada was

not yet a fully independent country.

The geneology book on William Witter by Geor-

gia Washburn, written in 1929, speaks of OCS

Wallace in the present tense, but of his wife in the

past, which suggest she had become his third

wife to die by 1929. But the couple then appears

together in the 1930 US Census, so if there is any

insinuation that helen had died, then it was

wrong.

In 1930, the couple were still living in Baltimore

and OCS was still a minister, and one of his

daughters from his first marriage, Rachel, was

still with him and working as a librarian.

He resigned in from the Church in 1936 aged

79, where he says his intention was to spend

his time in his private library at Kenhurst,

Mount Washington. An article in the Montreal

Gazette provides an excellent review of his life,

but doesn’t mention any of his wives.

In 1939, there is a reference to OCS Wallace

sending his greetings to a Baptist conference

in Atlanta, the last before the War – he was

unable to attend because he was now blind

and confined to a Baltimore rest home. He died

at the age of 90 in 1946. I have no record of

when Helen might have died.

A 1995 geneology by James Crawford Moule

called “John Moule and Katie Scanlan”, which

is mainly concerned with his second wife, is

not much more helpful regarding Helen. It just

says “Dr. Wallace married for a third time inMarch 1919 to Helen Moore. In 1921 theymoved to Baltimore, Maryland where Dr. Wa-llace was pastor of the Eutaw Place BaptistChurch. He died in Baltimore in 1947.” It’s also

mistaken in that Eutaw Place is where OCS

Wallace had been a pastor in Montreal many

years before.

MONTREAL GAZETTEJAN 2, 1936

The Leas Bandstand, around the turn of

the century

MOORES HOTEL, FOLKESTONEIt was some time in the 1880s that Louisa Fisk and her hus-

band John Moore left the grocer’s shop in the safe hands of

their son John and moved instead to run the guest house in

Folkestone.

This became the family home, and judging by the census,

various Moore children came and went over the years.

In 1901, John was there, although he was still involved in the

grocer’s shop. Also with them are Ellen (called Helen here),

Muriel and James, but none of these were recorded as ac-

tually running the boarding house. The proprietor is a lady

called Hannah Meade.

Now where the hell did this Hannah Meade suddenly appear

from? She is recorded as being the older sister of the other

Moores. She was born in 1861 in Kettering, Northamptons-

hire, where father John Moore was from before he married

Louisa Fisk.

The most obvious explanation here is that Hannah was a

child of John Wright Moore’s from a previous marriage, al-

though I can find no record of him ever having a previous

wife, or of any Hannah Moore that was born in Kettering, or

of any Northamptonshire girl called Hannah that ever married

somebody called Meade before she appears in Folkestone at

the age of 40 in 1901, managing the family’s boarding house

and recorded as the older sister of the other Moores.

But Hannah Meade must have been a premarital child of

John Moore’s that had suddenly appeared from nowhere like

a soap opera character.

Hannah Meade disappears off the radar as quickly as she

appears.

In the 1910s, when both Louisa and John seem to have died,

the hotel was run by three of the children, John, Sarah and

Ellen, and there is no longer any sign of this Hannah Meade.

Then in 1921, the London Gazette announed that it went into

the sole charge of Sarah. Ellen had now married Canadian

baptist minister OCS Wallace and was off to live in Baltimore

in the USA, so she was leaving the business, but why John

also opted out is not clear.

There is a mention of the hotel in 1931, when the death of

LONDON GAZETTE,MARCH 18, 1921

one of its residents was mentioned in the paper: “It is with deep regret that we recordthe passing of Mr. George Idenden Swoffer of Moore's Hotel, The Leas, Folkestone,who was for over 30 years a Magistrate on the Folkestone Bench, the founder of thewell-known firm of fruit merchants which bears his name.”

Sarah died in 1935, but she was now running the Longford Hotel just down the road, so

what happened to Moore’s is not clear, although in 1936 it still existed with that name

according to the photograph shown on this page. That is the last mention I have of any

Moore’s hotel on The Leas. By the 1950s, it can be confirmed that there was no Hotel

of that name in Folkestone.

The latest reference I have found to

Moore’s Hotel was this postcard from

1936, which says it shows Moore’s Hotel,

but doesn’t say which one it is.

Muriel Sarah Moore (1880 - )

WHO'S WHO AMONG LIVINGAUTHORS OF OLDER NATIONSBY ALBERTA LAWRENCE, 1932

Sarah Muriel Moore is usually recorded

using both of her first names, and the order

seems to change. She seems to have prefe-

rred Muriel, so it seems that her middle

name sometimes moved into the front.

can’t be found on the 1901 census, but in

1911, she was one of the proprietors of the

boarding house in The Lees, aged 36 and

still single, as she still was in 1921, now 46,

when, as the announcement in the London

Gazette shows, her older brother and sister

withdrew from running the boarding house

and Sarah continued to run it on her own.

Sarah gets a special mention in her Aunt Sa-

rah’s will of 1923, where she is left fifty

pounds. It is likely that Sarah was named

after her mother’s sister, and if she was sin-

gled out above all the other nephews and

nieces for that money, then she must have

had a particularly close relationship with her

aunt. Maybe Sarah was her godmother.

In 1928, she was recorded on board a ship

to America, and still a ‘hotel director’ from

Folkestone. Chances are she was going

there to visit her older sister and former bu-

siness partner Helen Moore, now married to

OCS Wallace and living in Baltimore. There

is little evidence of the Moores being parti-

cularly religious, but they must have been,

because while her older sister married to one

of the senior members of the Baptist move-

ment in North America, late in her life, at the

age of 50, and in the year 1930, Sarah Mu-

riel Moore was married to a very senior

member of the Baptist church in England,

John Charles Carlile.

John C Carlile was the writer of several

major works, his most important being “The

Story of the English Baptists”, which was the

first major book about the history of the mo-

vement in England. He also wrote novels, in-

cluding one called “Cardinals Secret” and a

book about “Folkestone in the War”.

He also got around a lot. There are records

of him coming and going on ships, someti-

mes called a ‘minister’ and sometimes called

a ‘writer’, from Cape Town, Genoa, New York

and all kinds of places. As well as Folkes-

tone, he also mentions an address in Sou-

thampton Road, London. It would seem

likely that he owned two houses.

He was also the editor of the most important

Baptist publication, the Baptist Times, and in

one he is described as “J. C. Carlile, the

forthright and opinionated editor of the Bap-

tist Times”, who seemed to enjoy confronta-

tion with other faiths. As the following extract

suggests, he was not mad on the Anglicans

and seemingly despised the Catholics: “The

individual Nonconformist denominations

were not afraid to confront the Anglican

Church. The Baptists were the most critical

of the bishops’ proposals, with J. C. Carlile,

editor of the Baptist Times, lambasting the

measure throughout 1927-28. ‘A careful exa-

mination shows that cover is provided for the

restoration of many Roman practices which

are repugnant to the Protestant sense of the

nation’, warned a special edition in 1927.” An

article in the New York Times of August 17,

1941 mentions that he visited New York in

his capacity as editor of the Baptist Times,

and although I haven’t seen the article, this

would most probably have been a report of

his death. The fact that it was reported in the

NYT of all things goes to show that he was

quite an important figure.

His close friends included the famous Char-

lotte Sharman (1832-1929), a Christian woman who ran

orphanages for girls, who he called “a woman of faith,

an apostle of practical religion, kind, intelligent, sharp

witted and humorous. When she prayed the heavens

opened", and also the famous trade unionist Tom Mann.

He was a man who moved in high circles.

John Charles Carlile was an intimate friend of Tom Mann, a renowned trade unionist and one

of the founders of the Independent labour Party. However, Carlile was vehemently opposed to

the idea of Mann becoming a member of the clergy. Mann eventually emigrated to Australia,

where he was also an important socialist politician.

BRUCE HERALD, 1894An entry in an American Who’s Who says that he

used the pen name of John Irons, but I have not

found any books where he uses that name.

It also says that he married Sarah Muriel Moore in

1930, and that her pen name was ‘Bill Glynn’. This

would suggest that Sarah Muriel also wrote books,

but using a male pseudonym, but if she did, then I

have not found any other evidence of this. Records

do show that they married in 1930 though, at Holborn

in Middlesex. John C Carile was a Londoner, al-

though he spent several years as a Baptist minister

in Folkestone, which is how they met.

In 1931, the couple were recorded on a ship sailing

to New York, and although JC Carlile was still a mi-

nister, Sarah Muriel was now a housewife, so it

seems that it was at the time of her marriage that she

also stopped running the guest house, of which there

is no further record at all after 1936. They sailed back

two months later, and on both voyages they were on

board the Olympic, the sister ship to the Titanic.

There is a possibility that they were going there to at-

tend the funeral of Helen Moore, now Wallace, as

she seems to have died around this time, but this

can’t be certain, especially as JC Carlile was cons-

tantly travelling around the world on his ministerial

duties.

JC Carlile died in 1941 (as reported in the New York

Times), but I don’t known when his wife passed

away.

With any hope of a future in grocery or running boarding houses pretty

much monopolised by his older brothers and sisters, Ernest Lake Moore

had little hope but to go and try to make his own way in the world. Off he

went to live at Picton House in Newington London, where in 1891, he was

one of a host of apprentice haberdashers living in Eliya Witchard’s boar-

ding house. In 1901 he was in Leicestershire, visiting the Payne family, yet

somehow or other, he too was able to live on his own means. But unlike

his older siblings, he did get married, in Stockport in 1908 to Helen Darrah.

In 1911, they were living at Holly Point, Thornfield Road, Heaton Mersey

in Stockport, the home of Helen’s widowed mother Eleanor Darrah. Er-

nest was working as a commercial traveller, and they had just had their

first daughter, Helen Moore. He was mentioned in his aunt Sarah’s will in

1923.

Herbert Ebenezer Moore may have had that middle name in honour of

our great great grandfather, as the family clearly had a thing about family-

related middle names. In 1881 he was 16 and boarding in Abergavenny.

Some curious coincidences here. He was working as a clothier for a fairly

large drapers shop, which also happened to be next door to a baptist cha-

pel. And Abergavenny is also the place where his aunt Frances had died

a year earlier, but where her husband Isaac Watts and his cousins were

still living. I am not sure what happened to him after that. In 1911, a 35

year old draper appears on the census living on his own at The Green,

Saltwood, Hythe in Kent. He is called Herbert Moore, and was born in Fol-

kestone, and might be the same person. He was apparently married al-

though there is no mention of his wife. In whatever case, he was still alive

in 1923 because he was mentioned in his Aunt Sarah’s will.

Ernest Lake Moore (1872 – ) and Herbert Ebenezer Moore (1875 - )

Barfreystone Church Vintage RP Postcard

Fisk-Moore 1b

Rev Canon Stuart, Fisk-Moore, Canterbury

England

Canterbury - Butchery Lane

Ruins of Infirmary, Canterbury

Christ Church Gate. Canterbury, Kent, En-

gland. Fine W.F.M

52a

FISK MOORE PHOTOGRAPHERSWilliam and James were living in Folkestone at the time of the 1901 cen-

sus. In 1911, William had moved away from home, and was living as a bo-

arder in Aldershot, where he was a photographer, along with a fellow

border called John Hack. In 1911, he was still a photographer, now bo-

arding at 17, Monastery Street in Canterbury, and also still single. There

was a fellow boarder in the house, also a photographer, called Beaufort

J Fisk Moore, who was actually his brother James, who changed his

name to Fisk Moore by deed poll in 1919, the same year he married

James married Rebecca E. Maud-Coop in Canterbury. The two brothers

set up a photography company in Canterbury called ‘B&W Fisk-Moore’

and although James seemed to prefer to be known as ‘Beaufort’, he was

really James, as proven by this announcement in the London Gazette.

They were extremely successful at what they did, and are often mentio-

ned as pioneers in some respects of photography, with William Fisk-

Moore becoming honorary secretary of the Royal Photographic Society

and frequently contributing to journals.

The company is referred to frequently, often with some highly prestigious

projects including photographs for a special 1925 edition of TS Eliot’s

Murder in the Cathedral, and other subjects included none other than Ma-

hatma Ghandi, when he visited the Archbishop.

Their pictures included important shots of Canterbury during the war, in-

cluding the heroic efforts of the fire brigade to save Canterbury Cathedral.

Fisk-Moore themselves were less fortunate during the blitz. “The blitz of

Canterbury” by Paul Crampton explains that they lost both their offices in

St George’s Street and their studio in St George’s Place. This same

James Crampton published the “The Fisk-Moore Collection”. It was just

after they lost everything to the war that it was decided that William would

continue the business on his own from 1942.

An announcement in the London Gazette states that the Fisk Moore com-

pany was dissolved in 1948, and James died in 1949.

LONDON GAZETTE, NOVEMBER 13, 1942LONDON GAZETTE, 7 FEBRUARY 1919

A view of the "FISK-MOORE STUDIOS" at 4

St. George's Gate from the Cattlemarket, a

detail from an old postcard.

Above, a 1917 advert.

Right, a portrait taken in the studios of B

& W Fisk-Moore, Canterbury.

The card is signed on the reverse "With

Love From Mary"

Albert & Mina, a photograph attribued to

the Fisk-Moore studio.

Canterbury Cathedral

by B & W Fisk-Moore

A group of Canterbury cricketers

photographed by B & W Fisk-Moore

In 1931, B&W Fisk Moore photographed none other than Mahatma Gandhi when he visited Canterbury.

The picture is titled “Dean Hewlett Johnson, Gandhi and Miss Slade outside Deanery”

52

Canterbury Firewatchers

The Weavers, Canterbury. / One time home of Huguenot refugees who brought the

industry of weaving to Canterbury

Stodmarsh Hunt Meet with horses (of interest to me as Stodmarsh is the field where

I played football when studying at Christchurch in Canterbury in the late 1980s)

The Abbots Barton Hotel, Canterbury

Ash School Photo taken around 1900

Norfolk Regiment & 7th Bn & Support Company 1944 (B and W Fisk-Moore)

Wye College Cricket Team 1930

Image from First World War in Canterbury

52b

This appeared in the “Childrens Newspaper”, in 1931

Army Hospital - Soldiers and Nurses, Whitstable-On-Sea

Taken in the studios of B & W Fisk-Moore, Canterbury.

The card is signed on the reverse " With Love From Margaret " and is a youn-

ger photograph of the girl shown on previous page. The handwriting is exactly

the same

The wreckage of Black Mill, Harbledown after demolition.

B & W Fisk-Moore, Canterbury

WW1 Photo Postcard WILTSHIRE Regiment NCO KNIGHT

1917

52c

CANTERBURY - general view - old postcard by Fisk-Moore

Black Mill, Har-

bledown on the

day that it was

demolished

Date 9 July 1913

Unidentified Manor House

Frank Woolley, described as one of the finest all-round

cricketers that ever lived, who played 64 tests for England

between 1909 and 1934