Son of a bishop, Moore grad­u­at­ed at the top of his class from Co­lum­bia Coll­ege in 1798. Hav­ing in­her­i­ted a large hold­ings in what is now Green­wich Vil­lage in New York Ci­ty, Moore in 1819 of­fered the ci­ty 60 lots (in­cluding Chel­sea Square) to build a sem­in­ary. Two years ear­li­er, Moore had be­come a professor of Bib­li­cal learn­ing at a Pro­test­ant Epis­co­pal di­o­ces­an sem­in­ary, which sub­se­quent­ly merged with the Gen­er­al The­o­log­ic­al Sem­in­ary as a re­sult of Moore’s gift. Moore then be­came a pro­fes­sor of Ori­ent­al and Greek li­ter­a­ture, a post he held over 20 years. In 1851, he helped found St. Pe­ter’s Church near the school, and was the church’s first or­gan­ist. The se­cular world best re­mem­bers Moore as the au­thor of The Night Be­fore a Christmas (A Vi­sit from Saint Ni­cho­las).

Sources

Hymns

1. Lord of Life, All Praise Excelling