21 May 1755–15 Oct. 1810
Having been educated himself in New England, the judge sent Alfred to Boston for schooling at the early age of nine (probably because of Moore's recent remarriage following the death of Alfred's mother). After several years of study, Alfred returned home before the Revolution, read law in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar in April 1775. Soon afterwards he married Susanne Elizabeth Eagles of Brunswick County, and they had several children.
On 1 Sept. 1775 he was made a captain in the First North Carolina Continental Regiment, commanded by his uncle, James Moore. Alfred saw military action first against the Scottish Highlanders at Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776 and later against the British forces in the June 1776 defense of Charles Town. He resigned from the army on 8 Mar. 1777, after the death of Judge Moore (ironically, Maurice and James Moore died in the same house on the same day, 15 Jan. 1777), to care for his father's family. Returning to his plantation, Buchoi, in Brunswick County, he resumed the practice of law and engaged in rice planting. While no longer a regular soldier, he became active as a colonel of militia and was very effective in harassing the British forces under Major James Craig, who captured Wilmington in January 1781 as a supply base for Lord Cornwallis's army to the west. Craig retaliated by sending a detachment to Buchoi, where it plundered Moore's house, burned the outbuilding, and carried off the stock and slaves. Craig's attempts to kill or capture Moore failed, and his offer to restore Moore's property and give him amnesty if he would return to the plantation and forego any further military action was spurned by Moore. Although the war left his plantation in disarray and his personal fortune considerably diminished, the immediate postwar period brought rather rapid recovery; by 1790 he owned forty-eight slaves.
His retirement was short-lived, for in 1792 Moore represented Brunswick County, as a Federalist, in the Assembly and in 1795 he engaged Timothy Bloodworth, a Republican from New Hanover County, in a lively contest for election to the U.S. Senate; Moore lost by one vote. In 1798 the Assembly elected him judge of the superior court. In October 1799, after the death of James Iredell, George Washington's appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court from North Carolina, President John Adams, in recognition of Moore's legal eminence (which only William R. Davie shared before the state's bar), appointed him to replace Iredell. Iredell and Moore were the only North Carolinians ever to serve on the nation's highest bench. Although Moore remained on the Court for five years, he delivered an opinion in only one case, Bas v. Tingy (4 Dallas 37, 1800), in which he stated that a "limited, partial" war existed with France, a position supported by the other judges.
Recognition of Moore's mature judgment was also evidenced by his appointment to various delegations or commissions over the years. In 1786 he was appointed by the governor as a delegate to the Annapolis convention, called to determine whether the Articles of Confederation needed to be amended; however, he, along with the other North Carolinians, did not attend. Later, in 1798, President Adams designated him as one of three commissioners to make a treaty with the Cherokee; Moore withdrew from the negotiations before the treaty was signed on 2 October. Ever a public-spirited citizen, he tended to support any worthy cause, such as the formation of the state university—he was one of the original trustees (1789–1807) and contributed sizably to its support.
Always of frail physique, Moore was forced by increasing ill health to retire from the Supreme Court in 1804, thus ending his long and fruitful career. He died and was buried with full military honors at Belfont, the plantation of his son-in-law, Major Hugh Waddell, in Bladen County. Later his remains were moved to the churchyard of St. Philips at Brunswick town. Perhaps Samuel A. Ashe summed up the role of Moore best: "Taking him all in all, he was one of the most masterful men who have adorned the annals of North Carolina."