In London he shared a room in George Street, Hanover Square with Adam Walker where lectures were given to small groups of gentry.

The boy showed precocious aptitude and, as well as teaching Moyes himself, Smith secured the patronage of David Hume and Thomas Reid in the young man's education.

From 1778 he gave his lectures in a building constructed by Allan Ramsay at the foot of Carrubbers Close as a theatre but known as St Andrews Chapel.

[8] During 1784–86, he toured the United States giving successful lectures in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Princeton and Charleston, South Carolina.

[5] Moyes was an Affiliate Member of Lodge Holyrood House (St Luke's), No.44, (Edinburgh, Scotland).