Travels in the Himalyan Provinces of Ladakh & Kashmir

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In 1811 Moorcroft travelled extensively among the northern sub-continent in of better breeding stock. To Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, and to Benares (then still part of Maratha territory), but Moorcroft failed to acquire the ideal breeding horses that he sought. In Benares he learned that Bukhara was rumoured to have "the greatest horse market in the world." Moorcroft recruited a Persian named Mir Izzat-Allah to make a scouting trip to Bukhara and map out the route. He also learned that fine breeding horses might be found in Tibet.

Moorcroft continued his journeys; Kashmir was reached on 3 November 1822, Jalalabad on 4 June 1824, Kabul on 20 June, and Bokhara on 25 February 1825.

At Andkhoy, in Afghan Turkestan, Moorcroft was seized with fever, of which he died on the 27 August 1825, with Tieback surviving him only a few days. But according to the Abbé Huc, Moorcroft reached Lhasa in 1826, and lived there twelve years, being assassinated on his way back to India in 1838.

In 1841, Moorcroft's papers were obtained by the Asiatic Society, and published, under the editorship of H. H. Wilson, under the title of Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara, from 1819 to 1825.

William Moorcroft (1767- 27 August 1825), English explorer, was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, the illegitimate son of Ann Moorcroft, daughter of a local farmer. He was Baptized in 1767 in St Peter & St Paul the Parish Church of Ormskirk where there is a commemorative plaque to his life.

While employed by the East India Company Moorcroft travelled extensively throughout the Himalayas, Tibet and Central Asia, eventually reaching Bukhara, in present day Uzbekistan.

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