In those
days the patronage of a powerful peer was a ready road to preferment.
Young Moore gave satisfaction to his noble patron, and was pushed up
the ecclesiastical tree until he reached its topmost branch, being
created in 1783 archbishop of Canterbury. In 1770 he formed a very
judicious marriage with Miss Eden. This lady was sister of Sir Robert
Eden, governor of Maryland in 1776 (who married the sister and co-heir
of the last Lord Baltimore), and of the first Lord Auckland, whom
George III. very justly stigmatized as "that eternal intriguer." To
the "eternal intriguer" the elevation of Moore to the archbishopric
was probably mainly due. Lord Auckland was for many years as intimate
a friend as Pitt ever had, and his daughter (afterward countess of
Buckinghamshire) is the great minister's only recorded love. For
twenty-three years Dr. Moore filled the archbishopric, and in those
days it was a far better thing pecuniarily than it is now. He made hay
whilst the sun shone, and then and for long after did his relatives
bask in the sun. Registrarships, canonries and livings fell upon them
in rich profusion, and the great prize of all, the registrarship of
the Prerogative Court of the archbishop of Canterbury, fell to the
luckiest of the lot.
Of course the registrar never came near his registry: his duties were
discharged by three deputies.
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