Born to be a writer and the American Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, Clement Clarke Moore was also the Professor of Divinity and Biblical Learning at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City.
Moore had gained considerable wealth by the subdivision of his inherited estate in the neighborhood of Chelsea. Clement Moore had also been one of the board members of the New York Institue of the Blind.
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Clement Moore Biography
He had gained wide acclamation from authoring the renowned the Christmas poem – A Visit from St. Nicholas, that had been published anonymously in 1823.
Later it had come to be known as the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’. Clement was born in New York City on the 15th of July, 1779 and was the son of Charity Clarke and Bishop Benjamin More.
His father had been the head of the Episcopal Diocese of New York which had the responsibility of covering the state. The church had been organized after the American Revolutionary War when the church had become independent of the Church of England.
Family and Early Life of Clement Moore
Moore had become president of the Columbia College, twice, after the Loyalists associated with King’s College had left for Canada during the uncertain years of the war.
Her mother, Charity Clarke, wrote letters to her cousins, showing disdain for the British monarch policies and the growing sense of patriotism in the days before the revolution.
Clement Clarke Moore Family Tree
Moore was born at the family estate of his mother and had established their own residence in Elmhurst, Queens. He had inherited the Chelsea estate after the death of his grandfather and mother, earning wealth by the subdivision of the property.
Moore had graduated from the Columbia College in 1798, earning both his Bachelors and Masters degrees. One of the earliest works that Moore had published was an anonymous pro-federalist pamphlet prior to the presidential election that took place in 1804.
It was meant to attach the religious views of Thomas Jefferson. Moore had concluded Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia was an instrument of infidelity.
Later life of Clement Clarke Moore
Moore had helped the Trinity Church to establish a new parish on Hudson Street, St.Luke in the Fields in 1820. He had also donated 66 tracts of land to the Episcopal Diocese of New York, which had the apple orchard from his inherited Chelsea estate.
Moore was appointed the professor of Biblical learning at the Seminary in 1809 and had held the post until 1850. Moore had owned several slaves during his lifetime and had opposed the abolition of slavery.
Moore had begun the residential development of Chelsea estate with James N. Wells in the 1820s. The land was divided into lots along Ninth Avenue and was being sold to the citizens of New York.
A planned neighborhood was being created but manufacturing, stables, and commercial uses were forbidden.
Clement Moore Facts
Moore had also served at the New York Institution of the Blind as a board member from 1840 to 1850, which is now known as the New York Institution for Special Education. He had also published a collection of poems.
Moore’s funeral was held in the Trinity Church at New port after his death at his residence in 1863. He had owned a pew at New port, but his body was returned to New York and was buried in the cemetery of St.
Luke in the Fields. His body had been reinterred in the Trinity Church cemetery of New York. Clement had lived a very social life and had actively participated in the development of his state.
A Visit from St. Nicholas
Moore had not initially wished to be connected with the verse that had got widespread popularity as he had a public reputation as a professor of the ancient languages.
However, the original publisher and seven others had acknowledged him as the author of the piece.
Clement Clarke Moore Poems
The poem was first published in the Troy Sentinel on the 23rd of December, 1823 after being sent to the paper by a friend of Moore.
The New York Book of Poetry first attributed the poem in print to Moore, who claimed authorship in 1844 by including it in his Poems. It is said that Moore had written the poem while he was visiting his cousin, Mary McVicker at Constable Hall.