Thomas Fraunceis Moore

poc8 - Thomas Fraunceis Moore

• General Notes
  • 
    First child.
    Thomas Fraunceis Moore had born in England in 1849 (as recorded on his tombstone in Elmhurst he died 7 August 1942 aged 93 years).  At the age of 1 year his parents (Mr. Thomas Webber Moore and Louisa Matilda Percy) took him to America.  Then 1 or 2 years later they emigrated to Australia where he grew up.
    
    The Luppitt parish register, Honiton, Devon, England records the baptism of Thomas Francis Griffith Moore, son of Thomas and Louisa Matilda Moore on 8 February 1849.
    
    They first settled in Ballarat, Victoria, and were present during the gold rush there, which had begun in 1851.
    The family later moved to land at Nowhere Creek at Elmhurst, Victoria, c1854, and had sufficient funds to buy a substantial property there, which they called "Deer Park" in memory of Louisa's father.
    
    Thomas Fraunceis fancied Anne daughter of the Leach family who ran the general store at the nearby Glenpatrick gold diggings.  She was a local school-teacher and he corresponded with her by letter - according to Bev Moore (Start).  Thomas Fraunceis lthen married Annie Leach at De Cameron in 1865.
    After marrying Annie, Thomas Fraunceis set off from the family property at Deer Park, Elmhurst with his wife and brother Richard Percy & his wife Jane, to Appin (on the Loddon River near Kerang) and jointly pioneered a property there.  They also promoted the 12 Mile Canal Company (later the 12 Mile Irrigation Trust) - which was the first group of men to create & use gravity irrigation from a canal in Victoria, via a 9 mile long canal which was built to service an area 3 miles wide on the east side of the Loddon River.  This was later mirrored by the Sheepwash Company (later the Leagluir and Merring Irrigation Trust) which built a similar canal to service the west side of the Loddon River.  Subsequently the Goo Scheme took over the 2 canals and added them to its own canal network.
    
    20 years later in about 1895 the partnership ended when Thomas Fraunceis and his wife Annie returned to Elmhurst to take over the Deer Park property from Thomas Fraunceis' father.
    
    Respected by his children, but rather tough and distant - called by his children "The Pater".
    
    According to a family story quoted by Louisa Gillies (nee Moore) - daughter of Thomas Fraunceis Moore "Many years later Mr. and Mrs. Moore were buried near his father's and mother's grave.  Mrs. Moore predeceasing him by some years.  Mr. Moore living to the grand old age of 96."
    
    Family stories relate that Thomas Fraunceis Moore had a rich "uncle" and he hoped to inherit the fortune - this however did not come about. 
    There were also family stories told by the Moores that there was a large sum of money held in chancery for the family - but no-one was ever able to locate or claim it.
    ?? Could the "rich uncle" have been James Smithson in England who left a large bequest to set up a scientific institution - this money eventually went to America to set up the Smithsonian Institute.
    
    

Wife's Pictures

e - thomas frauncies and annie moore