Joseph Moore was a stationer, bookseller and printer on the High Street from the late 1700s. He dispensed patent medicines, ran a circulating library and acted as an agent for information about sales and other events. Joseph Moore also sold lottery tickets from Sydenham’s as ‘Moore’s Lucky Lottery Office’!

John Sydenham, originally from Devon, started as Moore’s employee and later became family by marrying Moore’s daughter, Elizabeth, in 1805.

Besides running the business, John was active in local affairs as a Freemason, a churchwarden and Overseer of the Poor. He helped organize the 1814 peace celebrations after Napoleon’s abdication and was a trustee for the rebuilding of St. James’ Church in the 1820s. 

The next generation of news

The Sydenhams had 8 children of whom 4 died quite young. The oldest surviving son, John junior, went to school in Poole and was trained in the business which by now included journalism; Moore’s acted as local correspondents of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal.

In 1825, Moore and Sydenham announced their intention of publishing a Poole newspaper to be called ‘The Poole and Dorsetshire Herald’, but this did not materialise. The owners of the Dorset Chronicle probably feared the competition because they seem to have done a deal by which Moore and Sydenham became part owners of the Chronicle instead.

John Sydenham junior worked on the Chronicle as a journalist and in 1829 he became editor at the age of 22.

In 1842, John Sydenham senior sold his interest in the Chronicle and his son left to work on the West Kent Guardian for a while before returning to Poole in 1846 to prepare for the launch of the Poole and Dorsetshire Herald. John Sydenham senior was to be the proprietor and his son, the editor.

The first edition came out on 9th April 1846, giving Poole at last a truly local voice. It was printed in outbuildings at the rear of the shop.

Sadly, John junior died only a few months later at the age of only 39.

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