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Colonel James Moore was the British colonial governor of South Carolina between 1700 and 1703. During this period, he led a number of attacks from the Carolinas into Spanish Florida. He relied on allied Indian tribes, especially the Yamasee for most of his military force. In 1702 he led an invasion of Spanish Florida along the coast, destroying the remaining Spanish missionary Indians of Guale and Mocama, and devastating the lands around St. Augustine. While the town of St. Augustine was razed, its central fortress, Castillo de San Marcos, where the Spanish and numerous allied Indians had taken refuge, resisted Moore's siege. The 1702 campaign was viewed as a disaster due to the failure to take the fortress.

In 1704, Moore lead an expedition of 50 Englishmen and 1,000 Creek, Yamasee, and other allied Indians, into western Florida, leading to the Apalachee Massacre. The Apalachee were the last powerful Spanish-allied Indian nation in the region. Their defeat in 1704 resulted in many Appalachee being enslaved and exported from Charleston to the West Indies. Other Appalachee were forced to relocate to the Savannah River to live in semi-serfdom. Another result of the defeat of the Appalachee was the collapse of the final defence of the Indians of Florida. During the years following 1704, Carolinian and Indian slave raiders decimated the Indian population of Florida all the way to the Florida Keys.

Moore's defeat of the Appalachee and Spanish Florida in general was hailed as a major victory for Carolina, which had been fighting with the Spanish for control of the region for decades. It also served to strengthen ties between various southeastern Indians and Carolina. The Creek Indians and the Cherokee became much more closely allied with Carolina. With these two Indian nations as strong allies, the English rose to a position of dominance over the French and Spanish in the American southeast.

Governor Moore died in 1706, in debt. His son by the same name was elected to the same office in 1720. His heritage is disputed, but what is known is that he lived in Barbados in his youth. It is a common belief among historians that Rory O'Moore, leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 was his father. Moore was also the great-grandfather of General Robert Howe.

Known throughout the Carolina's as simply "the family" meaning the leading family of the entire region, the Family bloomed and then faded away as seems the fate of any prominent family over time.

It imported over 4,000 slaves into the Carolina's, mostly for its own extensive plantations and farms in and about Cape Fear area of what later became North Carolina.

James Moore also had a Charleston, SC home and a home in the Goose Creek area nearby to Charleston.

Another Moore family descendent of note is Maurice Moore qv , Justice of US Supreme Court.

A line of descent from Ireland Moore's / O'Mores

1 O'more b: ab 1460

   2 Rory Sr. O'More b: ab 1500 d: Aft 1520
       3 Rory Jr. O'More b: ab 1530 d: 1578
           4 Rory II Owney O'More  (Rebel leader)
              b: ab 1560 d: ab 1600
               5 Nathaniel Moore
               5 Roger Moore b: ab 1600 d: ab 1656
                   6 Gov James Moore b: ab 1640 d: 1706
                     + Margaret Berringer b: 1660 d: 1720
                       7 Gov James II Moore b: 1680 d: 1724
                         + Elizabeth Beresford 
                             b: ab. 1680 d: Aft 1718
                           8 James III Moore 
                               b: ab 1700 d: ab 1770
                             + Ann Yeamans b: 1706 d: ab 1730
                               9 James IV Moore b: 1725 d: 1779
                                 + Ann Davis b: 1728 d: Aft 1744

Ref: [http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi? op=PED&db=ernieeugenesmith&id=I071765 Family Tree for Ireland Moores]

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