MOFFAT, Robert (son of a custom house officer). b. Ormiston, East Lothian 21 Dec. 1795; apprenticed to a gardener 1809–12; under-gardener at Mr. Leigh’s, High Leigh, Cheshire Dec. 1813 to Dec. 1815; a missionary under the London missionary soc. from 1816, arrived at Cape Town 13 Jany. 1817, travelled in Namaqualand 1817–8; superintendent at Lattakoo 1820–5, at Kuruman 1825–70; visited England 1839–43; persuaded Livingstone to undertake the Bakwana mission 1840; was the pioneer of South African missionary work; left Africa for England 10 June 1870; D.D. Edinb. April 1872; presented with upwards of £5,000 by his friends 1873; presented with freedom and livery of the Turners’ company 20 Dec. 1877; entertained at the mansion house, London 7 May 1881; (m. at St. George’s church, Cape Town 27 Dec. 1819 Mary only dau. of James Smith of Dukinfield near Manchester nursery gardener, she was b. at New Windsor, now part of Salford, 1795 and d. Brinton, London 9 Jany 1871 after being for 50 years one of the pioneers of South African mission work); author of Translation of the gospel of St. Luke into Sechwana 1830, Missionary labours and scenes in Southern Africa 1842 and 9 other books. d. Leigh near Tunbridge 10 Aug. 1883. bur. Norwood cemet. 16 Aug., memorial monument at Ormiston. J. S. Moffatt’s The lives of Robert and Mary Moffatt (1886), portraits of Mr. & Mrs. Moffatt; A. Manning’s Heroes of the desert (1885), portrait; J. Campbell’s Farewell services of R. Moffatt (1843); I.L.N. lx 452 (1872), portrait; Graphic xxviii 192 (1883), portrait.
MOFFITT, Andrew. b. 11 Jany. 1836; assistant surgeon in army 25 May 1858, surgeon 1 March 1873, surgeon major 1 April 1873; principal medical officer of the Ever Victorious army in China 1863; author of A manual of instruction for attendants on sick and wounded in war 1870. d. Southampton 3 Feb. 1882. Graphic, xxix 244 (1884), portrait.
MOFFITT, John M. b. England 1837; apprenticed to a sculptor in London 1852; went to U.S. of America at end of his apprenticeship; executed the figures representing the four ages of man on the eastern entrance to Greenwood cemetery, New York; designed many of the altars in New York churches. d. London 15 Sep. 1887.
MOGFORD, John. b. 1822; landscape painter principally of coast scenes; associate of New Society of Painters in water-colours 1866 and member 1867; lived at 17 Park road, Hampstead 1867 to death; exhibited 32 landscapes at R.A., 28 at B.I. and 20 at Suffolk st. 1846–79. d. 17 Park road, Hampstead, Nov. 1885.
MOGFORD, Thomas (son of a veterinary surgeon at Northlew, Devonshire). b. Exeter 1 May 1809; printer at Exeter to about 1843 when he moved to London; a landscape painter in Guernsey, where he founded a school of painting; exhibited 43 pictures at R.A., 11 at B.A. and 23 at Suffolk st. 1838–61; his portraits include E. H. Baily, R.A., Samuel Cousins the engraver, and J. C. Adams the astronomer. d. Guernsey 1868. G. Pycroft’s Art in Devonshire (1883) 90–6.
MOGRIDGE, George (son of Mathias Mogridge of Ashted, Birmingham, canal agent). b. Ashted 17 Feb. 1787; an apprentice to a japanner 1801; partner with his elder brother Mathias Mogridge in the Japan trade at Birmingham 1811, his brother retired from the business with a fortune, and he became a bankrupt 1826; commenced a literary life 1826; author of Twelve moral tales by Uncle Newbury 1828; The moral budget of my Aunt Newbury 1835; Ephraim Holding’s Homely hints to Sunday school teachers 1843; Cheerful chapters adapted to youth, by Old Alan Gray 1854; The Chinese, by Uncle Adam 1845; under the names of Old Humphrey 1839 etc., and Peter Parley 1836 etc., he also wrote very numerous books; wrote under his own name The churchyard lyrist, five hundred original inscriptions 1832; Footprints of popery, or places where martyrs have suffered 1843; Amos Armfield or leather covered bibles 1845; Learning to act 1846; Wanderings in the Isle of Wight 1846; Things that have wings 1851; Sunny seasons of boyhood 1859; Who is my neighbour 1868, and 50 other books many of them anonymous; for the Religious Tract soc. he wrote 106 books and tracts; resided at 114 Cornwall road, London. d. 4 High Wickham, Hastings 2 Nov. 1854. C. Williams’s George Mogridge, his life, character and writings (1856), portrait; Memoir of Old Humphrey (1855), portrait.
MOHL, Mary Elizabeth (dau. of Charles Clarke). b. Millbank row, Westminster 1793; placed in a convent school at Toulouse 1801; lived in Paris with her mother; great friend of Madame Récamier for 18 years; m. 1847 Julius Mohl the orientalist 1800–76; her receptions in the Rue du Bac, Paris were very popular for nearly 40 years, her friends included Quinet, De Tocqueville, Guizot, Thiers and Renan; author of Madame Récamier, with a sketch of the history of society in France by Madame Mxxx. 1862; Le livre des Rois, par Abou ’lkasim Firdousi traduit et commenté par J. Mohl, Publié par Mme Mohl. 7 vols. 1876–8. d. Paris 15 May 1883. bur. Père-Lachaise cemetery. M. C. M. Simpson’s Letters of G. and M. Mohl (1887), portrait; K. O’Meara’s Madame Mohl (1886), portrait; Contemporary review Aug. 1878 pp. 1–21; F. W. Muller’s Biographical Essays (1884) 272–310.
MOIR, David Macbeth (son of Robert Moir d. 1817). b. Musselburgh near Edinburgh 5 Jany. 1798; studied medicine in Edinburgh, M.R.C.S. 1816; partner with Dr. Brown at Musselburgh 1817 and in practice there to death; wrote jeux d’esprit in Blackwood’s magazine, also essays and serious verse over the signature Δ; wrote for Fraser’s magazine and other periodicals; author of The bombardment of Algiers and other poems 1816, anon.; The legend of Genevieve, with other tales and poems 1824; The autobiography of Mansie Wauch 1828; Outlines of the ancient history of medicine 1831; Proofs of the contagion of malignant cholera 1832; Domestic verses 1843; edited The works of Mrs. Hemans 7 vols. 1839. d. King’s Arms inn, Dumfries 6 July 1851. bur. at Inveresk, statue by Ritchie erected at Musselburgh 1854. m. 8 June 1829 Catherine Elizabeth youngest dau. of Charles Bell of Leith, she was granted civil list pension of £100, 6 Oct. 1853. The poetical works of D. M. Moir. Ed. by Thomas Aird 2 vols. Edinb. (1852), memoir i pp. xv–cxxxii, portrait; Blackwood’s Mag. Aug. 1851 pp. 249–50; Fraser’s Mag. Sep. 1833 p. 290, portrait; Maclise Portrait gallery (1883) 198–9, portrait.
MOIR, George (son of George Moir). b. Aberdeen 1800; admitted advocate 2 July 1825; contributed to Blackwood’s Mag. from 1828; professor of rhetoric and belles lettres in univ. of Edinb. 1 Aug. 1835 to Oct. 1840, professor of Scots law 13 Feb. 1864 to 1865; sheriff of Ross and Cromarty 1855–8; sheriff of Stirlingshire 1858–68; translated Wallenstein, a dramatic poem by J. C. F. Von Schiller 2 vols. 1827, and The historical works of F. Schiller, Constable’s Miscellany 2 vols. 1828; author of The appellate jurisdiction of Scotch appeals 1851; Magic and witchcraft 1852; Principles of the law of Scotland, containing extracts from lectures of G. Moir 1870, 4 ed. 1886. d. Charlotte sq. Edinb. 19 Oct. 1870. Grant’s Story of Univ. of Edinburgh, ii 359, 375 (1884); Journal of jurisprudence, xiv 618 (1870).
MOIR, John Macrae. b. Waterside of Thornton at the foot of the Grampians in Kincardineshire 1827; ed. Aberdeen univ., M.A.; went to London 1846; associated with journalism 1852; edited the Illustrated Times, London 9 June 1855 for 3 years; secretary of the Scottish corporation 1862 to death; the first editor of the Illustrated news of the world, No. i Feb. 6, 1858; the first editor of the People’s magazine 1867; London correspondent many years of the chief provincial newspapers; one of compilers of Men of the time; nonconformist minister at Worthing, Sussex; barrister M.T. 6 June 1864; often acted as deputy judge in the lord mayor’s court, and as deputy judge in the city of London court and other metropolitan county courts; a candidate for office of town clerk of city of London 1873, and for that of city remembrancer 1878; edited Capital punishment by John Macrae 1865 and Todesstraffe by Professor Mitteemaier 1862. d. Braefit, 116 King Henry’s road, South Hampstead 12 July 1881. bur. Hampstead cemet. 16 July. The Biograph, Jany. 1881 pp. 9–11; Law Times, lxxi 236 (1881).