John Carrick Moore

James Carrick Moore (1805–1898) FGS, FRS was an eminent geologist and the "last of that band of ardent field-geologists who … did so much to investigate the underground structure of the British Islands". He was also Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Wigtown. Biography John Carrick Moore was the son of James Carrick Moore and Harriet Henderson, daughter of the actor John Henderson. He was born on 14 February 1805. He was admitted to Westminster School on 18 September 1815. Then, after a period at Glasgow University (1820-23) Moore entered Queens' College, Cambridge in 1823, where he was awarded the degree of M.A. In 1827 he was fourteenth Wrangler in the mathematical tripos. Moore was admitted to the Inner Temple on 29 January 1824 and called to the Bar on 28 January 1831. But he had a greater interest in geology than in the law. In the mid-1830s he became interested in the Rhinns of Wigtownshire, near his home. He was in touch with Charles Lyell (later Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS), who identified the fossils found by him as graptolites. Moore was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1838. He was appointed Secretary from 1846 to 1852, elected a Vice-President (1853—4), and then resumed as Secretary in 1855 for one year. Moore presented to the Society accounts of further research, and published papers in 1850 and 1863. In 1853 Moore was elected a Visitor and then in 1857 a Manager of the Royal Institution. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Wigtown (now part of Dumfries and Galloway) on 20 November 1854.