When Moses Short was born on 3 March 1770, in Virginia, United States, his father, John C. Short, was 34 and his mother, Elizabeth Echols, was 27. He married Sarah Bright on 2 August 1793, in Lincoln, Kentucky, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He died on 28 March 1825, in his hometown, at the age of 55.