Moore, Jacob Bailey, 1797-1853

Moore was a journalist, printer, historian, and public official of New Hampshire. He edited the partisan New Hampshire Journal, 1826-1829, was a founder of the New Hampshire Historical Society, the author of many historical works, and a presidential appointee to various post offices.

Moore was the son of physician Jacob Bailey Moore (1771-1813) and Mary Eaton Moore. Their ancestor, Jonathan Moore, had settled in Exeter, New Hampshire by 1650. By 1813 Moore had apprenticed himself to Isaac Hill, the owner and editor of the New Hampshire Patriot at Concord. He became Hill's partner in 1819 and in 1820 he married Hill's sister, Mary Adams Hill Moore.

By 1823 the political differences between Hill and Moore caused them to dissolve the partnership, but he continued on with printing, publishing and bookselling. Moore was one of the founders of the New Hampshire Historical Society and he issued the first of three volumes of the Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society (1824-1832). Moore held the position of Librarian of the NHHS from 1823-1830 and again from 1837-1839. In 1826 he published the first issue of the New Hampshire Journal, which he edited until 1829. This paper supported John Quincy Adams for a second term to the U.S. presidency, while his brother-in-law, Isaac Hill, supported Andrew Jackson in the New Hampshire Patriot. Moore was elected in 1828 to the New Hampshire Assembly, but resigned soon after election. He also served as sheriff of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, from 1828-1833.

Moore suffered from the downfall of the Adams party in New Hampshire and the bitter differences of politics with his brother-in-law, Hill, who in 1836 became governor of New Hampshire. Financial difficulties forced Moore into bankruptcy and he withdrew from public life. He moved to New York City in 1839 and edited the New York Daily Whig until 1840. From 1841-1845 he served as chief clerk in the Post Office Department in Washington, D.C. and for a short time served as inspector of the Post Office in New Hampshire. In 1848 he became librarian of the New York Historical Society where his son was acting librarian, but he resigned in 1849 to assist with the establishment of the Post Office in California and became deputy postmaster at San Francisco in 1850. By 1853 he had returned East and died in his brother's home (John Weeks Moore) in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

Source: Dictionary of American Biography, 1928-1936, reproduced in Biography Resource Center ; Gale, 2008.