Thomas and Elizabeth Moore

Elizabeth Moore was buried on 5th August 1720 near the Library door in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey. Her tablet has been moved to the wall of the Dark Cloister. The inscription reads:

This monument was erected in memory of Elizabeth Moore who dyed ye 31st of July A.D.1720 aged 35 years by her truly afflicted husband Thomas Moore, Gent., Librarian of this Church

The shield of arms shows "ten cross crosslets" for Moore impaling "a chevron between three bulls heads". Thomas himself was buried on 24th December 1733. He had held the post of Librarian and Clerk of the Kitchen from 1690 and became Auditor from 1729. Newspapers of the day say that he was secretary to Thomas Sprat, Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Rochester and registrar of the diocese of Rochester. Apparently he was instrumental in saving Sprat's life and those of other dignitaries by detecting the false evidence given by witnesses in respect of an alleged plot to assassinate William III. In 1710, when a German traveller to London visited the Library, he described Moore as deaf and looking like a chimney sweep but noted that he spoke tolerable Latin. He died age 71 and his will was proved by his nephew the Reverend Thomas Moore and niece Mary (wife of Robert Berkeley). His sister Anne (Sear) had a son Reverend Charles Sear and daughter Rebecca, wife of Colonel Evans).