John Moore was born in Tryon County, North Carolina in about 1753. Perhaps motivated by a desire to preserve his vast land holdings, Moore aligned himself with the British cause at the outbreak of the American Revolution and raised a group of loyalist soldiers. By 1780 Moore was appointed as a lieutenant colonel and suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Ramsour's Mill in present-day Lincolnton, North Carolina. Moore again met defeat at the Battle of King's Mountain. His eventual fate is not proven, but according to a London magazine from 1783 he was captured by Col. Wade Hampton and hung in South Carolina sometime in 1781.