Samuel Moore (Quaker leader)

Samuel Moore (1742 – 1822) is notable as a leader in the early establishment of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Maritime Canada, and as the progenitor of a number of civic, religious and political leaders in both Canada and the United States.

As a Quaker, Moore would not join the armed struggles during the American Revolution, and he was forced to leave his Woodbridge, New Jersey home, and flee to New York in 1777. In his deposition to the British-appointed Claims Commission in 1786 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, he testified that he had been imprisoned several times for refusing to assist the rebels. His house and land were confiscated in 1779, and with his wife and 9 children, he was evacuated by the British to Wilmot Township in Nova Scotia. Moore became a leader in the Quaker fellowship there.

The annalist, Ambrose Shotwell, verifies that Samuel was both a Loyalist and a Quaker: "Samuel, b. 4 April 1742, at Rahway, New Jersey; member of the M, M. for Rahway and Plainfield, by request, 16 of 11 mo. 1774; dwelt, before the Revolution, at Uniontown, 2 miles from Rahway, whence, having the reputation of being a Tory, he went, during the war, to New York, and at its close, like many others, he took refuge in Nova Scotia, his property near Rahway being confiscated; his family accompanied him excepting his son Elias and daughter Sarah. On 15 of 7 mo. 1802, he received a certificate of membership from R. & P. M. M., directed to Nantucket M. M., the few Friends in Nova Scotia being under the care of that meeting."

In 1786 and 1787, Samuel hosted his brother, Joseph, and his Quaker companions who had collected donations in the United States for the poor of Nova Scotia, Canada.

When Timothy Rogers, the entrepreneurial patriarch of the Rogers Communications family, was considering immigrating to British North America, he visited with Moore in 1795. Rogers records that Samuel Moore was "a Friend that lived in Wilmot in the County of Annapolis, that received us very kindly....I think we had hereway about 10 or 12 meetings." Rogers' journal preserves several letters between the two Friends. Rogers chose to emigrate to Upper Canada, rather than Nova Scotia, and founded the settlement that eventually became Pickering Village, Ontario.

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