MOORE, PATRICK [SSNE 1205]
- Surname
- MOORE, MOOR, MOR, MORE, MOHR, MOORE
- First name
- PATRICK, PATRIK
- Title/rank
- MAJOR GENERAL
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Region
- PERTH
- Social status
- OFFICER
Text source
Patrick More was born in Perth (probably around mid 1600) and was the son of John More and Christian Ruthven (this may be the Christian Ruthven who was the aunt of General Patrick Ruthven [SSNE 3413] making the two men cousins). He probably entered Swedish military service c.1629. By 1642 he was a cavalry captain in G.M. Witzleben's regiment. According to some sources he had apparently been a regimental quartermaster for Gustav II Adolf although this was in fact another man, Robert More. Queen Kristina donated land in Bremen Stift - the island of Krautsandt on the Elbe - to Patrick in reward of his ten years of service to the Crown. He engaged in a lengthy correspondence with Duke Karl (later Karl X of Sweden) about this, in particular after June 1648 when Patrick wanted to exchange the island for Muhlen amt in Buxtehude as this would help him support his wife and children. In 1646 Patrick More became the adjutant-general in the regiment of Arvid Wittenburg, and on 30 June 1646 he was awarded the salary and title of colonel in light of his previous 20 years service. This was a cavalry unit which, by 1648, contained 200 troopers. In December 1646 More arrived at Buxtehude where he became commandant, and as such set about fortifying the neighbouring castles. He also maintained correspondence with Major-General Robert Douglas [SSNE 2378] who had been granted a position in Bremen Stift (Kloster Zeven) on 10 July 1647. That year in September he invited Duke Karl to attend his newborn son's christening in October in Buxtehude. In 1649 he appears to have been in command of two companies in Herborn and had difficulty in providing enough food for them. His correspondence with Duke Karl from 1646 to 1650 is postmarked variously Buxtehude, Hamburg, Prague, and Herborn. More was present at the death of General Patrick Ruthven [SSNE 3413] in 1651 which at least one source maintains occurred in More's house (and in the presence of Sir William Swann [SSNE 4148]). It appears that from 1652 More was awarded a pension, although he continued active service. Certainly the Council of Buxtehude noted on 10 May 1669 in a dispatch to Bremen Court that after 1650, Colonel More chose to live and trade in Buxtehude suggesting a retirement from service. Indeed, we know from the Buxtehude archives that More had accommodation near the Zwinger Tower and also paid taxes on a small farm near the town.
On 14 April 1663, More's application for a birthbrieve to prove his Scottish birth was granted by the Scottish Privy Council. It stated that he was born in Perth and was the son of John More and Christian Ruthven. More's original testimonial was signed by Laurence Mercer [SSNE 6629]. The Buxtehude councillors seemed keen to demonstrate the numerous contributions More made to the town. However, by 1669, a difference arose as to what More should or should not pay the City of Buxtehude relating to a particular debt. The outstanding sum was connected with a pew in St Petri Church which the city had had made for him, and with certain disputed financial obligations related to it. These, according to the Buxtehude side, at one point reached 153 Reichsthaler, 4 Schillings, though previously the debt had been much higher. However, the Bremen Court felt unable to free More from the case against him and an exchange of documents continued right through the 1670s. Moreover, throughout 1677-78, More's wife Margaret became the plaintif in a case she herself brought against the city. In this exchange, there is frequent reference to a stipulation made on 22 November 1665 by Burgermeister Wilhelm Richers which seems to have been a codicil added to his will so that his wife should have the resources accruing from an obligation for the duration of her life. Richer's wife Anna was none other than the mother of Margaret More and that Richers, now deceased, was Margaret's step-father. Also that he had owned a house on the Market Square. Margaret claimed that she had fulfilled her obligations to her fellow heirs. The documents give no indication of how this disagreement was settled between Margaret and the City, nor if there is any connection to her husband Patrick being pursued by Buxtehude at the same time. They do show, however, that Patrick was well connected in the Buxtehude council through his connection to the Richer family.
The last group of documents in the Buxtehude archives, dating from 1677-1679, is a continuation of the previous church pew debt, and the City of Buxtehude is again the plaintif against Patrick More. Now it appears that there was a question of who was to have the use of the pew after More's death. In a 12 page missive to the Bremen Governing Council, More argues with much latin legal terminology about the sum claimed by Buxtehude etc. More says the church's original intention was not to let his heirs keep the pew after his death. He also proposes here and elsewhere, that if he dies without heirs, that the pew be transferred to some "knightly" (Rittermessig) person. Buxtehude accused More of insubordination for not complying with its rulings. He was summoned though did not appear. Given the fact that the city was now under the occupation of a power hostile to the Swedes, the fact that More excused himself was hardly surprising (see below). The Bremen Council received complaints from Buxtehude but let More know what they were suggesting, perhaps indeed, that they favoured him. The last documents from the Bremen Council simply urge the two parties to come to an agreement and the final outcome remains a mystery for the present.
Despite these disagreements, More continued to live and serve the Swedes in Buxtehude until the late 1670s during which time he rose to the rank of Swedish Krigsråd (appointed 23 April 1671), that is Military Councillor for the realm. On 29 March 1675, More received the rank of major-general for his long services to the Swedish Crown and his advanced age. His replacement as commandant of the town was Colonel Hamilton [SSNE 3526] who was forced to surrender Buxtehude to the Danes and their allies only weeks later on 16 April after a three day siege. It is yet to be ascertained if More permanently moved out of the town after it fell to the Danes or if he was allowed back for the twilight of his life. More wrote many letters from Buxtehude during this period which survive in various collections in the Swedish Riksarkiv. He had a brother called William [SSNE 3142] who also served the Swedes. Patrick More died in 1680. Thereafter, documentation survives that show that More intended to repatriate capital to his native Perth, in particular, a charity donation to a poor individual of the city. Three documents survive show that his wife paid a bequest left by More to the poor of Perth. These letters are dated Buxtehude (in the Duchy of Bremen), 1682-1683.
Sources: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069904_00273#?c=&m=&s=&cv=272&xywh=2572%2C2839%2C2494%2C1438
Swedish Riksarkiv, E155, Stegeborg Samlingen: Pergamentsbreven och Johan Casimirs Arkiv, 20 letters 1646-1650 written from Buxtehude and Herborn; Riksarkivet, Wolsberg samlingen, E6098. Patrick More to Secretary Wolfsberg (secretary to Karl Gustaf), 19 March 1649; Swedish Riksarkiv, P. Sondén, Militärachefer i svenska arméen och deras skrivelser; F. Rudelius, 'Kalmar Regementes Personhistoria 1623-1927 (2 vols., Norköping, 1952) I, p.21.
Germany: Stadtarchiv Buxtehude, StH. 38. M1 (1669), M2 (1678) and M3 (1678) - Three folders of documents detailing obligations and financial dealings between Patrick More and the Council and Mayor of Buxtehude.
Scotland: Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3rd series, I, 1661-1664, pp.355-356; Perth and Kinross Council Archive, B59/24/12/3. Papers (3) relating to the bequest by Patrick More to the poor of Perth and its payment by his wife Margaretha More, Buxtehude. 1682-1683 See also: Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), p.223; Steve Murdoch and Kathrin Zickermann, ‘Major General Patrick Moore of Buxtehude: A Scottish Officer in Swedish Bremen’ in Friends of Perth and Kinross Council Archive, Issue 21 (2007), pp.8-10.
Some sources, - like Hirsch and Hirsch - erroneously argue that he arrived in Danish service from Swedish service in 1655 (although this is more probably another Patrick More [SSNE 2623]) and became commandant at Buxtehude on 16 October 1657 for the Danes. Hirsch and Hirsch also call More O'Sullivan Mohr, probably confusing him, or associating him with Philip O'Sullivan Moore's [SSNE 78] Irish unit in Danish service. However, there is no evidence found to date that he ever joined Danish service. See Danish Rigsarkiv, J.C.W. Hirsch and K. Hirsch (eds.), 'Fortegnelse over Dansk og Norske officerer med flere fra 1648 til 1814 (12 vols. unpublished manuscript compiled 1888-1907), VII, vol. 2, p.199.
With thanks to Bernd Utermöhlen from Stadtarchiv Buxtehude for his help in locating the documents in Buxtehude and Ardis Dreisbach-Grosjean for transcribing and translating them. Thanks also to Dr Kathrin Zickermann for her work in updating this entry.
Service record
- SWEDEN, SWEDISH ARMY, G.M. WITZLEBEN
- Arrived 1626-01-01, as REGIMENTAL QUARTERMASTER
- Departed 1655-12-31, as COLONEL
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- SWEDEN, KRAUTSANDT ON THE ELBE
- Arrived 1644-01-01
- Capacity LANDOWNER, purpose MISC
- SWEDEN, BUXTEHUDE, BREMEN
- Arrived 1646-12-01, as COMMENDANT
- Departed 1680-12-31, as COMMENDANT, KRIGSRÅD, MAJOR GENERAL
- Capacity COMMENDANT, OFFICER, KRIGSRÅD, purpose MILITARY