He played a leading role in a 1690 expedition into the Carolina back country, crossing the Appalachians to investigate possibilities of trade with the local Indian population.

[4] From 1691, Moore was the acknowledged leader of the Goose Creek Men, the main political opposition to the ruling "Dissenter" faction.

But the lords proprietor saw to it that Moore remained governor, and they made it clear that the Dissenters were no longer in favor.

On news of the outbreak of Queen Anne's War in 1702, he led 500 colonists, 300 native allies, and 14 small ships on 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.

[1][6] The 1702 campaign was viewed as a disaster due to the failure to take the fortress and the expenses incurred, and Moore resigned his post.

In 1704, Moore led an expedition of 50 colonists and 1,000 Muscogee, Yamasee, and other allied Indians, into western Florida, leading to the Apalachee massacre.

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.

[7] Their daughter, Mary Moore, married Job Howe, another of the "Goose Creek Men".