Augustine Moore

Augustine Moore (circa 1685–July 28, 1743), nicknamed "Old Grubb", was a prominent tobacco merchant who became a planter and founder of the Moore family of Virginia. He may be best known for building Chelsea plantation, now on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the best-preserved 18th century buildings in the state. Early and family life Moore emigrated from England about 1705 and made a fortune in the tobacco trade. Descendants traced their lineage to a Lord Mayor of London and Sir Thomas More, although some disagreement exists. He married Mary Gage in England, but she died in childbirth in the Virginia colony in 1713, with mother and child buried at Chelsea. In 1715 Moore remarried, to the widow Elizabeth Todd Seaton, who had inherited "Toddsbury" plantation in Gloucester County from her father Thomas Todd (1660-1724), and had a dower interest in land in Spotsylvania County as well as a King William County plantation called Romancoke from her first husband, Henry Seaton (1659-1713). Her mother, Elizabeth Bernard, was the daughter of Col. William Bernard and his wife Lucy (daughter of Mr. Hickerson and widow of a man named Burwell). Elizabeth Seaton Moore's infant son with Henry Seaton, George Seaton (1711-1750) would inherit that property upon reaching legal age. Thus, Augustine Moore raised him at his Chelsea plantation, together with his own children.