Family and Education

b. 15 Mar. 1784, 2nd s. of Charles, 1st Mq. of Drogheda [I], by Anne, da. of Francis Seymour Conway*, 1st Mq. of Hertford. educ. Rugby 1798; St. John’s, Camb. 1802. m. 28 Sept. 1824, Mary Letitia, da. of (Sir) Henry Brooke Parnell*, 4th Bt., 1s.

Offices Held

Jt. muster master gen. [I] 1807-d.

Sheriff, Queen’s Co. 1814-15; gov. co. Kildare 1817.

Capt. Warws. militia 1805; col. Kildare militia 1815-d.

Biography

Moore ‘was a great favourite with his uncle’ Lord Hertford, who brought him into Parliament and in August 1807 asked Lord Hawkesbury to provide for him, in view of the fact that Lord Henry’s elder brother was insane and his father’s means of providing for his younger children were limited. Government raised no objection when Lord Drogheda was prepared to resign his office of joint muster master general in his son’s favour. It was a sinecure shared with William Bagwell* which, according to Peel in 1818, ‘until the reductions in 1815-16 produced £5,000 per annum on an average of eight years, now £1,000 on an average of two years’. Before this arrangement was made for him, Moore had applied in June 1807 to succeed to Lord Castlecoote’s militia command in Ireland.1

Moore made no mark in Parliament, supporting government by vote when present, notably on the Scheldt question in 1810. When Hertford’s Members opposed government on the Regency question in January 1811, he diplomatically stayed away.2 He consistently voted against Catholic relief, 1812-17, opposed sinecure reform and voted against Stuart Wortley’s motion for a stronger administration, 21 May 1812.

After Hertford had returned him for Lisburn in 1812, Moore declared in February 1813 that he would offer for the Queen’s County, of which he also desired to become governor and custos, to the embarrassment of government, who had to weigh his claims against those of William Wellesley Pole*, then out of office. In 1814 he was named sheriff, but subsequently gave up his pretensions to the county.3 In 1815, when he was being pressed to relinquish the charms of Dublin society to vote with government, Hertford asked for his militia regiment to be transferred to England to make his militia duty ‘compatible with his parliamentary attendance’.4 From 1815 to 1818 he appeared in the government lobby.

Moore intended to offer for Drogheda at the ensuing election, but government were unable to secure him the Foster interest there and he gave it up.5 He then went to Brussels where ‘the hereditary love of play’ landed him in financial difficulties. The family lawyer wrote: ‘If Lord Henry will only tell his father the amount of his debts and be willing to come home and settle down and marry, his father will pay off everything for him’. Moore acceded to his father’s wishes. He was ‘one of the most amiable and agreeable companions ... extremely fascinating when he pleased ... with a sort of easy nonchalance in society ... He had a good voice and during the annual meetings of the ... electors of Orford ... his song would often enliven the evening’. He died in August 1825, a few days after the birth of a son and heir on the 14th.6

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Winifred Stokes

Notes

• 1. Raikes Jnl. (1858), ii. 11; Wellington mss, 19 June [1807]; Wellington Supp. Despatches, v. 107, 182-3; NLI, Richmond mss 70/1341.
• 2. Richmond mss 65/733.
• 3. Ibid. 67/1048; Add. 40233, f. 296; 40282, f. 151; 40285, f. 42.
• 4. Add. 40246, f. 69; 40288, f. 159; NLI, Fitzgerald mss 7840, p. 37.
• 5. Add. 40266, f. 54; 40277, f. 101; 40278, f. 44; 40295, f. 114.
• 6. Countess of Drogheda, Hist. Moore Fam. 159-60; Raikes Jnl., ii. 10-11; Gent. Mag. (1825), ii. 276.