_Francis Moore_ (Vol. iii., pp. 263. 381.).--Francis Moore, physician,
was one of the many quack doctors who duped the credulous at the latter
period of the seventeenth century; he practised in Westminster: in all
probability then, as in our own time, the publication of the almanac was
to act as an advertisement of his healing powers, &c. Cookson, Salmon,
Gadbury, Andrewes, Tanner, Coley, Partridge, &c. &c., were all his
predecessors, and were students in physic and astrology. Moore's
_Almanac_ appears to be a perfect copy of Tanner's, which was first
published in 1656, forty-two years prior to the appearance of Moore's.
The portrait in Knight's _London_ is certainly imaginary. There is a
genuine and very characteristic portrait, _now of considerable rarity_,
representing him as a fat-faced man in a wig and large neck-cloth,
inscribed "Francis Moore, born in Bridgnorth, in the county of Salop,
the 29th of January, 1656-7.--JOHN DRAPENTIER, delin. et sculp."
I may mention it as a curious fact, that the portraits of these quack
doctors, when in a good state, are frequently of great rarity. I possess
one which was in the Stow collection, being a fine impression of the
following print by Drapentier, for which the sum of five guineas had
been paid:
"The effigies of George Jones, whom God hath blessed with greate
success in healing."--"Student in the art of physick and
chirurgery for about thirty years in the Upper More Fields, two
golden balls on the tops of the two posts of the portel before my
door."