James Moore ( 1650 – 1706) was an Irish colonial administrator and military officer who served as the governor of Carolina from 1700 to 1703. He is best known for leading several invasions of Spanish Florida during Queen Anne's War, including attacks in 1704 and 1706 which wiped out most of the Spanish missions in Florida. He captured and brought back to Carolina as slaves thousands of Apalachee Indians. Early life Little is known of Moore's origins. During his life he was said to be a son of Irish military officer Sir Rory O'Moore (Nephew of Ruairí Óg Ó Mórdha), leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and that he had inherited his father's rebellious nature. He first appears in provincial records in 1675 representing Margaret Berringer Yeamans, widow of Sir John Yeamans, before the provincial council. At about the same time he married her daughter by her first husband, also named Margaret. Career In 1677, 1682, and 1683, Moore served on the provincial council. 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. In 1698 he was elected to the provincial assembly, and was described as the right-hand-man of proprietor Sir John Colleton. The next year he was named chief justice of the province, a post he held until he was named governor in 1700, replacing the deceased Joseph Blake. Moore was a leader of one of Carolina's political factions, called the "Goose Creek Men", after Goose Creek, an outlying area of Charleston. In 1683 Moore was granted by the lords proprietor. He called his estate "Boochowee". Part of this land is known today as Liberty Hall Plantation. From 1691 Moore was the acknowledged leader of the Goose Creek Men, the main political opposition to the ruling "Dissenter" faction. Moore's rise to governorship in 1700 signalled a major shift in the politics of the province. The Dissenters contested Moore's "unjust election". But the lords proprietor saw to it that Moore remained governor, and they made it clear that the Dissenters were no longer in favor. Between 1700 and 1703 Moore was the governor of Carolina, which was then in the process of dividing into the provinces of North and South Carolina. During this period, he led a number of attacks from the Carolinas into Spanish Florida. He relied on allied Indian