John Moore was head of the family of Moore of Bank Hall, near Liverpool. He was the leader of the Puritans in that district and was returned for Liverpool in the Short Parliament. He took little part in the early military operations in Lancashire but commanded at the first siege of Lathom; and he was Governor of Liverpool when that place was stormed by Prince Rupert in August, 1644. Moore was blamed for his surrender, but apparently without due reason. He was a Deputy-Lieutenant, Sequestrator, and one of the judges at the King's trial, his name appearing in the death warrant. He afterwards served in Ireland and died in 1650. His son Edward, was created a Baronet by Charles II. Moore was a restless, bitter, and unscrupulous man, and his household was described as a 'hell upon earth' by Adam Martindale, who for a time acted as his clerk.[42]
William Ashhurst took no part in the operations in Lancashire but looked after the interests of the county at Westminster. He attained some prominence in the House of Commons, and was one of the commissioners sent to Scotland in 1647-8. His brother Major Ashhurst who had at first fought on the Parliament's side joined Charles the Second in the expedition of 1651, and William Ashhurst was for a time imprisoned as a suspected person.[43]
It has already been indicated that the division of Lancashire between the two factions followed the same lines as the division of the country generally, that is, the Parliament had the south-east and the King the north-west. The divisions of the families also on the whole followed this arrangement. But no hard and fast lines can be drawn. The Parliament for instance had one firm supporter, Colonel Moore, in the extreme west, and one, Colonel Dodding, in Lancaster; Rigby himself lived near Preston: while on the other hand the Nowells of Read lived in what was chiefly a Parliamentarian district, and we find the Traffords, Mosleys, and the Radcliffes who were Royalists in or near Manchester itself.
Moreover hardly a single family of note was to be found entirely united. Even the Stanleys had their representative in the Parliament's ranks, Sir Thomas Stanley. Sir Gilbert Hoghton's eldest son was a Parliamentarian, whilst Capt. Standish, son of the M.P. for Preston, was killed in the royalist ranks at Manchester. The two bitterest opponents of the King in Lancashire were Rigby and Moore; and Rigby's wife was the sister of an active royalist, while Moore's son was created a Baronet after the Restoration.