Thomas Moore's Ambition
The Man Behind Downingtown, Coatesville, Wagontown, and Atglen’s Early History.
*Readers should click on the various maps throughout this story for added information about specific properties, roads, structures, and points of interest.*
The Beginning
On a cold, winter day in January of 1710, Isaac Taylor set out from the comforts of his Thornbury Township home and made his way to the “upper” reaches of the Brandywine Creek. As the Deputy Surveyor for Chester County, Taylor often received orders to survey new lands for prospective settlers and land speculators. His objective this day lay between the east and west branches of the Brandywine in the Great Valley.
In the past decade, Isaac Taylor had reason to return to this area numerous times. By 1710, most of the Native peoples who had called the upper branches of the Brandywine home had been forced west as encroaching European settlements pushed towards the Susquehanna. The land Taylor was to survey was situated near an important trade route that had served traders and Native peoples for generations. It now served as a conduit for settlement into Chester County’s backcountry. The importance of this route led the Provincial Government to lay out a new king's highway - what eventually became the Conestoga Road - in 1705. The new road stretched from the provincial capital in Philadelphia to the east branch of the Brandywine in the Great Valley. The central Great Valley was now a prized location for new settlements.
Isaac Taylor’s client that day was Thomas Moore whom he likely knew quite well. Taylor served several terms in the Pennsylvania Assembly where he was a close confidant to fellow assemblyman Nicholas Pyle of Concord Township. Both men were Quakers who attended the Concord Meetinghouse, where it is likely that Isaac became acquainted with Pyle, who served as Thomas Moore’s childhood guardian.
Thomas was born in the late 1680s on his parent’s property in Concord Township. His father, Richard Moore, with his wife Mary and two young children, escaped religious persecution in England to start a new life in Pennsylvania. After arriving in Philadelphia in the summer of 1686, Richard purchased several tracts of land in Concord Township.
Richard would not live to see the turn of the new century. In March 1699, his widow Mary, now remarried to her neighbor Joseph Cloud, asked the Orphans’ Court to appoint guardians for her five minor children: John, Thomas, George, Mary, and Susanna. The court appointed John Bennett and Nicholas Pyle to oversee the children’s financial estate until they reached their majority.
Nicholas Pyle, a prominent landowner, and active member of the Concord Quaker community likely played a prominent role in shaping Thomas Moore’s future ambitions. Pyle’s interests extended beyond farming and local politics. By the early 1700s, he erected the first grist mill in Concord Township on Chester Creek. Grist mills factored prominently in Chester County’s early economic fortunes. It was this understanding, that drove the ambitions of many Chester County residents in the eighteenth century. For some it led to fortune, for others, to financial ruin but for the County itself, it would leave an indelible mark for generations to come.
Coatesville
As an ambitious man in his early 20s, Thomas Moore was eager to make his fortune. He was already aware of the new lands opening around the east and west branches of the Brandywine. Thomas’s step-cousin Joseph Cloud had settled on the east branch before 1704 and his step-uncle William Cloud was eager to join him. In late 1709, Thomas Moore requested a survey of 220 acres of land near the west branch of the Brandywine. It was for this order, along with one for William Cloud, that surveyor Isaac Taylor left his home in January 1710.
The land that Isaac Taylor surveyed for Thomas Moore was located near the west branch of the Brandywine, on land that is now the Borough of Coatesville. What Thomas originally intended to do with this tract is not known, but within a few months he petitioned the court to lay a road from his property to the New Castle County line.
His petition succeeded, and a road was carved out of the sparsely populated areas of Chester County to connect the central Great Valley to the landings on White Clay Creek, and from there to the shipping lanes on the Delaware River. He likely intended to establish a mill on this property, but the area’s potential was limited by a small population and a lack of a well-travelled road. Traders and settlers moved over the North Valley hills just to the north of this location, making it less than ideal for a grist mill. Within three years, however, a new opportunity arose to purchase land directly on the Conestoga Road where it met the Susquehanna Road, in a place now known as Downingtown.
1710 Road Description
Downingtown
In 1713, Thomas Moore sold his tract of land on the west branch of Brandywine to his brother-in-law, William Fleming who had married his sister Mary Moore. Along with his siblings, he also sold some of his lands in Concord Township that he inherited from his father, Richard Moore. Using the proceeds from those sales, Thomas purchased a new tract of land from Joseph Hickman. This 375-acre tract was located just north of his step-cousin Joseph Cloud’s land and to the south of his brother John Moore’s tract. More importantly, this new land was located directly on the Provincial Road where it forded the east branch of Brandywine Creek.
Having secured an advantageous piece of land, Thomas Moore settled down with his new wife Mary Pyle on their 375-acre tract. Mary was the daughter of Robert Pyle, brother of Thomas’s guardian Nicholas Pyle. By 1716, Thomas, along with his brother John Moore, erected a grist mill to the north of the Provincial Road, just before it crossed the Brandywine. With his business venture now established, Thomas went about the process to secure its success.
In 1716, he petitioned the Court of Quarter Sessions for two new roads. The first would begin at the property of his brother-in-law William Fleming and connect that tract with Thomas’s mill, known as Caln Mill. The second road would lead from Caln Mill and connect with the mill of his former guardian, Nichols Pyle’s in Concord Township. These new roads would connect his mill and this newly settled area to vital markets that were crucial to its growth.
Image: Original Road Papers Vol. 1 pg. 104
While the grist mill served the future economic needs of the growing colony, the area where Thomas Moore chose to build witnessed another, more lucrative trade. For many years, fur traders passed this section of the Brandywine on their way to trade with the Native Peoples who lived along the Susquehanna. Familiar names like Peter Bazillion, John Cartlidge, Jonas Davenport, and James Patterson trekked through this area on their way back and forth between Philadelphia and the Susquehanna.
It wasn’t just fur traders who passed by Thomas Moore’s newly constructed home and grist mill. As the primary road connecting the west to Philadelphia, hundreds of Palatines, English Quakers, and eventually, Scots Irish settlers were filtering past on their way to a new life. They were joined by proprietary officials, like James Logan and Isaac Taylor, on their way to survey new lands and conclude treaties with the Native Peoples, who themselves were making their way to claim wildlife bounties with the county government in Chester.
With all the traffic concentrated around the ford, it was only a matter of time before Thomas Moore established the first tavern at this location. On May 28, 1717, Thomas successfully petitioned for a tavern license. He stated that he was “living 20 Miles back near no publik house of Entertainment, is mightly troubled with travellers by reason of ye want of a house of Entertainment.”
Image: Tavern Petitions Vol. 1 pg. 4
Thomas continued to operate the tavern for four more years until he passed its operation over to his step-cousin Joseph Cloud. Eventually the location of the tavern moved to the west bank of the Brandywine where their neighbor George Ashton continued its operation.
Wagontown
In his early 30s, with a grist mill, tavern, and growing family, Thomas Moore decided to expand his operations. In 1718, a petition was put before the Provincial Council to extend the Conestoga Road, laid out in 1705, from Thomas Moore’s mill on the Brandywine to Conestoga. This road followed the trader’s path known as the Susquehanna Road, which had existed in some unofficial form for many years. Isaac Taylor, along with the fur trader John Cartlidge, joined Thomas Moore and others as part of the jury to determine the course of the new road. On November 23, 1721, by order of the Governor, it was made a King's Highway.
Thomas continued to seek new opportunities, but William Penn’s death in 1718 made warrants for new land more difficult to obtain while Penn’s estate was in litigation. However, for those with connections in the Propriety Land Office, acquiring new land was still possible. On January 22, 1720, on orders of James Steel, the Proprietary Receiver-General, Isaac Taylor surveyed 140 acres of land for Thomas Moore. This tract was located on the west branch of the Brandywine, just to the north of the new section of the King’s Highway that Thomas viewed in 1718.
As he had done with his Downingtown property, Thomas Moore erected another grist mill just to the north of the Provincial Road, in a place that is now called Wagontown. Unlike his Downingtown mill, Thomas leased this property and mill for the length of his ownership. Even as late of 1730, Thomas Moore was seeking to expand access to this mill by petitioning for a road that would connect the Wagontown mill with Newport Landing and Wilmington.
Image: Original Road Papers Vol. 2 pg. 67
Within a year of purchasing the Wagontown property, Thomas Moore purchased two additional tracts of land to the north of his Downingtown property. In April 1721, he purchased 285 acres from his neighbor Isaac Vernon, and in November he purchased 315 acres from his brother John Moore. By 1722, Thomas owned two grist mills and 975 acres of prime real estate. His economic success seemed assured.
Atglen
On January 12,1727, his brother and business partner John Moore wrote his will. Sick and weak of body but of sound mind, John distributed his worldly goods among his sisters and brothers. He appointed his brother Thomas Moore his executor and left him the remainder of his estate after his other siblings’ legacies were paid. Thomas, however, proved a poor executor of his brother’s estate.
Image: Wills & Administrations #252
In October 1726, a few months before his brother’s death, Thomas Moore secured a one fourth interest in Naaman’s Mill located on Naaman’s Creek in New Castle County. In December 1727, he purchased a 55-acre tract in Chichester from Robert Ford, and in April 1728 he purchased a 107-acre tract adjoining Naaman’s Mill.
To add to his spending spree, Thomas Moore acquired a small tract of land located on what is now known as Officers Run, a tributary of the Octorara Creek located near present-day Atglen. By November of 1729, he erected another grist mill. This was his fourth mill in just under 15 years. As was his pattern, Thomas petitioned the court for a new road to lead from his Atglen mill to White Clay Creek Landing. The selection of this site indicated that Thomas was aware of the growing economic importance of the western end of the Great Valley.
1729 road petition to Thomas Moore's Sadsbury mill.
As Thomas Moore expanded his business and land holdings, he continued to reside on his 375-acre tract in what is now Downingtown. While little of his life in this period is known, a small glimpse can be seen in two criminal complaints filed in the summer of 1728. The first dispute began when Thomas accused Margaret Conner, likely his indentured servant, of stealing several yards of woolen fabric, a silk handkerchief, and a women’s shift. Several witnesses provided testimony which indicated that Margaret was in possession of a piece of green fabric pinned to her smock. Margaret stated that “Elizabeth Richards gave it her in ye Evening when they wear a milking cows.” The testimony indicates that Thomas Moore’s servants moved between his properties, as Margaret was said to have come from Naaman’s Creek to his Downingtown property.
Margaret Conner submitted her own claim against Thomas Moore whom she accused of the criminal charge of bastardy. She claimed, “that he had carnal knowledge of her body at several times ...” In the end, however, the court dismissed both cases. While these cases proved little more than grist for the rumor mill, Thomas's fortunes were changing. When he appeared before the court in Chester in the fall of 1728, he was no stranger to the courthouse. Caught up in several debt cases for the past decade, the financial house of cards he had built on credit, was about to collapse.
Image: Quarter Sessions Indictments August Term 1728 - vs. Conner
Naaman's Creek
As early as 1724, Thomas Moore began to mortgage his properties. As he expanded his holdings and milling operations, he required more and more credit to keep his enterprise afloat. When his brother John Moore died in 1727, instead of respecting his brother’s wishes and paying out legacies, he used the balance of the estate to purchase new lands and erect a new mill. By 1733, Thomas had to sell his 140-acre Wagontown tract and mill to Francis Swayne and soon after, he divested himself of his Atglen mill. With the sale of these two properties, he was able to keep his creditors at bay for a few more years.
In 1736, Thomas Moore moved his family to Naaman’s Creek which brought him closer to his childhood home in Concord Township and his wife’s family. By December 22, 1736, Thomas died. He left behind his widow Mary, and six children, some of whom were still minors. He also left behind an enormous amount of debt that would haunt the family for decades to come.
The inventory of both his Downingtown and Naaman’s Creek properties highlight the wealth in personal goods Thomas Moore had accumulated over twenty-six years. The total value amounted to £370 with an additional £120 owed to the estate from Thomas’s debtors. Thomas, however, was in debt to his creditors in an amount exceeding £1,163. His widow Mary and half-brother Joseph Cloud were appointed his administrators and spent the next two decades trying to settle his estate.
Image: Wills & Administrations #591
In 1738, Thomas Moore’s remaining lands were sold. Even with the sale, Mary Moore, and Joseph Cloud, were unable to satisfy his creditors. On March 3, 1738, Thomas’s mother Mary Cloud, along with his sisters and brothers petitioned the Orphans’ Court. Their complaint stated that their son and brother, John Moore, left a “considerable real and personal Estate.” And that John “did devise Sundry Legacies to Your Petitioners and Appointed his Brother Thomas Moore his Executor.” They accused Mary Moore and Joseph Cloud of bringing in an account of John Moore’s estate that showed it in debt and therefore unable to pay out their legacies.
Image: Orphans' Court Decedents Thomas Moore 1737
The truth of the matter was that there were not enough assets to cover all the debts that Thomas Moore owed. It is not known if Thomas ever intended to pay out his brother’s legacies once he had the financial means to do so. Considering that a decade had passed since John Moore’s death, a decade where he made additional purchases and erected a new mill, it seems unlikely. This left Thomas’s wife and children in a precarious position. With his estate tied up in litigation and with many of his creditors being extended family members, there were few people the family could turn to for support.
Image: Orphans' Court Decedents Thomas Moore 1737
The final account of Thomas Moore’s estate was not filed until 1745. But the trail of creditors that Thomas Moore left behind would hound his administrators until 1752. That was the year the last debt case involving his estate appeared before the Court of Common Pleas. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the milling enterprise that Thomas Moore embarked upon in 1710 was no more. Each mill would now be the financial success or failure of other men and women. His ambition, however, had lasting consequences. By understanding the importance of wheat and flour production to the growing Pennsylvania economy, Thomas planted the seeds for the future communities of Coatesville, Downingtown, Wagontown, and Atglen. Well-connected, he was able to capitalize on his relationships to secure desirable real estate along Chester County’s important waterways and obtain the credit needed to build three grist mills.
For his family however, Thomas Moore’s ambition cost them everything. On July 7, 1763, Mary Moore, requested aid from the Concord Monthly Meeting. Bereft of support from her family and the financial security of her husband’s estate, Mary sought relief from her poverty. As a married women in the eighteenth century, Mary would have had little say in the financial transactions of her husband. Even if she was fully aware of the dire situation she was in before Thomas’s death in 1737, she was destined to pay the price for his ambition.
