George Moore's Aunty Dinah
George Moore's father John Moore (1765-1840) was said by Smiles in his biography of George Moore to be the only son of Thomas Moore (1732-1811). In fact, John Moore was one of six children born to Thomas Moore, the others being Mary (1763-1848), Thomas (1767-1770), Thomas (1771-1771), Sarah (1771-1787) and Dinah (1773-1856). From this you will see that, more correctly, John Moore was the only son of Thomas Moore to survive infancy.
Dinah Moore, George Moore's paternal aunt, married Thomas Stamper, a farmer, and lived at Bolton Hall and Smiles gives the following account of George Moore's boyhood visit to his Aunty Dinah.
Visit to Aunty Dinah's (from Smiles's biography of George Moore)
On such occasions, George took his
friends to Aunt Dinah's at Bolton Hall, where they
were always made welcome. They were allowed to run
about the farm, to ride the horses, to bathe in the Ellen,
and do whatever they liked.
One day George brought with him a friend from
Wigton accoutred in boots. Boots were not so common
in those days as they are now ; clogs being, more gene-
rally worn. The two lads walked about the fields all
day, and, the grass being wet, the boots became
thoroughly sodden. When night arrived, and they
prepared to go to bed, the boots had to be got off.
First one tried, and then another. The whole family
tried in turn to pull them off, but they would not budge.
So George's friend had at last to go to bed in his boots,
tied about in cloths to save the bedding.
When George slept at Bolton Hall he usually occu-
pied the Parlour. There were strange rumours about
that room. It was thought to be haunted. Ghostly
tappings were heard inside the wall. The little dog of
the house would tremble all over on hearing the strange
noises. George was in great dread of the bogle, though
he himself never heard the tappings. 1 Yet, with the
strong love of sleep for he always slept well he at
last went off, heard no more, and was up, bright and
joyous, in the early morning.
Descendents of Dinah Stamper nee Moore
Matthew Gray, a g-g-g-g-g-grandson of George Moore's Aunty Dinah, himself a keen genealogist, contacted me from his home in New Zealand and provided the following fascinating information.
Dinah and her husband, Thomas Stamper had nine children. One of them was Joseph Stamper (1791-1840) who married Margaret Graham (1790-1868). They had six children, one of whom was Sarah Stamper (1812-1888) who married George Plaskett (1803-1849). Sarah and George had several children including Dinah Isabella Plaskett* ( 1844-1925 ).
Dinah Isabella emigrated to New Zealand aboard the British
Empire as an 18 year old in 1864 and originally settled in
Christchurch where she met and married Thomas Faulder (1838-1897), also a native of Cumberland. They moved to Auckland where they came to own a lot of land and were active in community life. Dinah Isabella and Thomas had 12 children. Two died in infancy. Only two, one of whom was William George Derwent Faulder (1876-1940), had offspring. Consequently there are not too many descendants of Dinah and Thomas living in New Zealand at this time!
One of their sons turns out to be an interesting historical figure - though poles apart from George Moore, or maybe not!
Thomas Noble Faulder was born in Auckland in 1883 and
emigrated to the USA as a young man. He was convicted of
murder there in 1911 and hanged a year later. Faulder's crime was to shoot dead a cook, Louis Gebhardt whom he believed to have poisoned a dog that he had befriended. After committing this crime he attempted to take his own life by shooting himself, first with the rifle with which he'd shot Gebhardt and then by blasting away half his left side with a shotgun. So, speaking as a dog-lover myself, I really don't think he was all bad! His defence of insanity was dismissed in spite of testimony of mental imperfections by a number of people, including his brother, Norman Faulder who travelled from New Zealand to attend the trial.
* Two of Dinah Plaskett's sisters also emigrated to New Zealand. They were Margaret (1823-1869) who was unmarried and Mary (1839-1875) who married Thomas Slater in the year of her death.