THE MOORES.
THIS is a Kentish family. They appear to have been possessed of the manor of More-Court, in the parish of Ivechurch, in that county, as early as the reign of Henry II. The head of the family was then one THOMAS DE LA MORE, who, as appears from a deed iu the time of his grandson, was the father of Henry, who was the father of John de More, who purchased lands in Benenden, and died about the seventh year of Edward II. He was succeeded by his son, Thomas, who, again, was succeeded by a son, John, who lived in Edward ILIA reign, and was succeeded by his son, Thomas, who married in the same reign Catherine, the coheiress of the family of Benenden, in Kent, and removed thither, building there a house called More-Court or More-Place, their estate there continuing in the family till it was sold in the reign of Queen Mary. William, the eldest son of this Thomas, married the daughter and heiress of Anthony Anchor, Esq., and was suc- ceeded by his sou, Thomas, who married the daughter and heiress of Robert Austen, and was the father of William Moore (as they now spelt the name), who, by his marriage with Margaret, daughter and coheiress of John Brenchley, Esq., got the inheritance of Moat- Lands and Bettenham, in Kent, and lies buried in the church of Benenden. So at least say the genealogies. But there is a somewhat suspicious discrepancy about the dates respecting the acquisition of the property at Benenden, and although the main facts seem indisputable, there has not improbably been some con- fusion among members of the family bearing the same Christian name. His son, Walter Moore, recovered certain lands at -Smallhide and Tenterden, which had been entailed upon the issue of his grandfather Thomas by Agnes Austen, his wife, niece to Robert Jane, in case her uncle died childless, and which the said Robert Jane had illegally left to his bastard son. This Walter -died in 1504, having obtained with his wife, Alicia, lands in the parishes of Brokeland, Fayerfield, Brensett, and &nave, in Kent. He was succeeded by his son, Thomas, who made his will in 1519, and was succeeded by his son John, who alienated the old seat of Moore Court (in Ivechurch). He married the daughter and heiress (eventually) of John Brent, Esq., and had six sons. The eldest, Owen, went to Ireland, and died there without issue. The second, SIR EDWARD MooRE, is the ancestor of the family we are now concerned with. The fourth son, Sir Thomas Moore, who came into Ireland early in the reign of Elizabeth, is the ancestor of the -extinct Earls of Charleville. Sir Edward Moore became heir to a cousin, Nicholas Moore, of Cranbrooke and Wingmore, and settled, along with his brothers, in Ireland in Elizabeth's reign, in conse- quence, it is said, of their connection with Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of that country, whose seat was at Pensharst, in Kent. Sir Edward received his knighthood for his good conduct from the bands of Sir William Drury, Lord Justice, in 1579, in the camp between Limerick and Killmallock. He had been already rewarded by the Queen in 1565, by a grant of a lease of the dissolved „abbey of Mellefont, in county Louth, which remained the princi- pal seat of the family till the time of the fifth Earl of Drogheda, when their residence was transferred to Monastervan, or MooRE ABBEY, in Kildare, which had descended to that Earl as heir of Viscount Loftus of Ely. Sir Edward Moore was active in the Irish -wars, and in 1599 he and Sir Francis Stafford were the only Englishmen who maintained houses in Louth, the rest being -devastated by the Irish. On the 10th of March, 1601, he -was constituted Constable of the Fort of Philipstown, an office afterwards renewed to him and his eldest surviving son for their respective lives. The exact date of his death seems not to be ascertained, but he was succeeded by his son, Sin GERALD or ,GARRET MooRE, who served under the Earl of Essex and Lord Mountjoy against Tyrone and the Spaniards, and when Essex left the kingdom, in 1599 had the command of 101) foot at Ardee, and 25 horse at Kell and Navau. He was with the Lord Deputy at the fight at Carlingford against Tyrone, November 13, 1600, and in 1602 and 1603 was employed in a negotiation with Tyrone for his submission. He acquired by purchases and grants between the Tears 1599 and 1612 large Irish estates in the counties of Loath, Meath, Westmeath, Dublin, Monaghan, and in King's County, and the great house, the Fermory, &c., in and near Dublin (which had belonged to St. Mary's Abbey), and all his possessions were confirmed to him by the King on the 9th of February, 1620, at the yearly rent of 6941. Os. 31d. Irish, and twenty pecks of corn, and he and his heirs to furnish and maintain two horsemen and one archer for ever. However, Sir Garret does not seem to have come with entirely clean hands through all the political transactions of those troublous days, since we find, on the 9th of June, 1603, a pardon granted to him and two other Moores for all treasons and other offences. On the 20th of the same month, nevertheless, he was made Seneschal of the county of Cavan and town of Kells, and on the 22nd of November, 1609, the governor- ship of the Castle of Philipstown was renewed to him and his son Edward for their lives. He represented Dungannon On the Parliament of 1613, and on the 20th of May, 1615, was appointed on the Council of the Presidency of Monster. In 1616 he was Captain of twenty-five horse at 4s. a day, and the King, by Privy Seal of the 15th of February, 1616, and by patent of the 20th of July following, created him Baron Moore of Mellefont, to him and his heirs male. The day following the latter date it is said that Dr. James Usher, then Chancellor of St. Patrick's, inaugurated the new dignity conferred on Sir Garret and another by a sermon from the text (Acts xvii. 2), " There were more noblemen than they which were at Tkes- salonica." On the 7th of February, 1622, the fortunate Sir Garret was advanced another step in the Irish Peerage as Viscount Moore of Drogheda. In July, 1624, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the peace for the provinces of Leinster and Ulster during the absence of the Lord Deputy Falkland. He died at Drogheda, November 9, 1§27, aged sixty-seven. His eldest son, Sir Edward Moore, died before his father, leaving an only daughter, Letitia, twelve and a half years old at her grandfather's death, with a fortune of 4,0001. The second son, Sir Thomas Moore, also died before his father. Eleanor, one of the daughters, married Sir John Denham, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and Lord Jus- tice of Ireland, and was the mother of Sir John Denham, the poet. The third son, Sir Charles Moore, succeeded his father as second Viscount Drogheda. Oa the 13th of August,1628,he was appointed one of the Commissioners for regranting the escheated lands in Ulster. He had also a release, and confirmation of all his estates, with liberty to impark 4,000 acres, with free warren and many other privileges, in September, 1639. He was a member of the Committee of Grievances in the Parliament of 1634 and a member of the Privy Council, and in 1640 he was cap- tain of sixty-three carbineers, with a pay of Its. 4d. a day. On the breaking out of the Rebellion of 1641 he repaired to Drogheda with a troop of sikty-six horse, and endeavoured to provide for its safety. Though he found the mayor and cor- poration slack in their zeal, and the townspeople evidently dis- loyal, he prepared some old ordnance for use and mounted it, had the walls repaired and the ditch scoured, and then rode to Dublin on a dark night to procure succours of men, &c. He offered to raise his troop to 100 horse and to add to it 100 foot at his own charges, and prevailed on the authorities to raise a regiment of 1,000 foot, which was placed Tinder the command of Sir Henry Tichborne, with a commission as Governor of the town. He also made several successful sallies from Drogheda, and offered to raise 600 additional men for the protection of county Louth. Mean- while (during his absence at Dublin) the rebels, under Colonel Coll MacBrian MacMahon, besieged his house at Mallefont, com- pelled it to surrender, and destroyed or took away therefrom goods and cattle to the amount of 2,0001., killing also twenty-eight of Lord Drogheda's servants. On the 30th of November the rebels besieged Drogheda itself in a body of 1,400 men, reduced the garrison to live on the flesh of dogs and cats, and on the 12th of January following, by the aid of friends in the town, made and entered a breach in the town at four o'clock in the morning. The Governor and Lord Drogheda, however, being aroused, managed to collect a force and to repel the attack, the Irish losing 200 men, and soon afterwards drawing off from the siege on the approach of 'Ormonde from Dublin. On March 1, with Sir John Borlase, Lord Drogheda took the castle of Colfe, and on the 5th routed his rebellious tenants at Tullogh-Allan, on the south side of Dro- gheda, they losing seven officers and nearly 400 men. This cleared Drogheda for the time from the danger of attack. In this encounter he himself was wounded and in great danger of being killed. On the taking of Dundalk soon afterwards Tichborne was transferred thither, and Drogheda was committed to Lord Drogheda. In this post he exhibited great activity, and had considerable successes in the neighbouring districts. In June and August, 1642, the King appointed him Governor of Louth and the barony of Slane. He succeeded in clearing the counties of Louth and Meath of the rebels, but on the 7th of August, 1643, was killed by a cannon- ball at Portlester, in the latter county, as he was on an eminence giving directions for the assault. He married Alice, younger daughter of Sir Adam Loftus, Viscount Ely, and a strange story is told of her death. On the 10th Of June, 1643, she is said to
hays fallen from her horse with sudden grief at the sight of St. Peter's Church at Drogheda, where her husband lay buried, and breaking her leg near the foot, she died on the 13th of a gangrene, and was buried by her husband's side. He was succeeded by his son, Henry, third Viscount Drogheda, who on Ormonde's recom- mendation was continued in his father's offices and employments.
He was one of the Commissioners to treat with the Irish in January, 1643, and in 1645, repairing to the King, had a special livery of his estate, though still under age. He played a some- what undecided part in the following years. On the surrender of Dublin, &c., to the Parliament in 1647, he had a regiment given him, and in 1649 was still acting on that side. Afterwards changing, he had his estate sequestered, but on his petition of the 8th of April, 1653, he was permitted to enjoy a full third part. But the charges and debts upon his estate were such that he was reduced to considerable distress, till relieved by the Government from some of these on the 10th of October, 1653. On his petition for a composition for his estate, and on report in 1654 by the Commissioners that his annual income from his real estate was 4,087/. 15a, and the yearly quit-rent 6111. 3s. 6d., and that he might be admitted for composition for the remainder at two years' purchase, and he returning his own personal estate as only 2001., in February, 1655, he was ordered to pay a fine of 20/. on the latter, and on his real estate 6,000/. by three half-yearly instalments, and the remaining 9731. at the expiration of two years from the same time. He was now so far received into favour by the Protector's Government as to be made Custos Rotulorum of the county of Louth, on the 20th of January, 1657. After the Restoration he was made captain of a troop of horse and Governor of Drogheda, and on the 14th of June,' 1661, Earl of Drogheda. On the 22nd of May, 1662, and in 1675 he was one of the Commissioners for arrears of officers in Ireland before 5th June, 1649, and on the 20th'of October, 1663, was again Custos Rotulorum of Louth. On the 19th of September in the same year he had a grant, at a yearly rent of 39/. ls. 2d., of 3,000 acres of profitable land, comprising the castle, town, and lands of Ball- regan, which had been during the Commonwealth granted to Robert Reynolds, of the Middle Temple, M.P. The Earl of Drogheda died on January 11, 1676, and was succeeded by his son Charles, second Earl of Drogheda, who died without surviving issue on the 18th of June, 1679, and was succeeded by his brother Henry, third Earl of Drogheda, who assumed the name of Hamilton, as heir to the Earl of Clanbrassil. He was a cornet in Charles IL's reign before his father's and brother's deaths ; was Custos Rotulorum of Louth and Meath in 1679, and of Meath and Queen's County in 1686 ; made a Privy Councillor by James II. in February, 1685, but attainted by that King's Catholic Parliament in Ireland in 1689. He commanded a regiment of foot in William's army at the Boyne, and at the head of the advance-guard made a dashing, though unsuccessful, attempt to carry Limerick on their first approach to that town. He was sworn a Privy Councillor when William left for Eng- land, and was one of the first members of the Royal Fishery of Ireland Company, incorporated in 1692. In 1699 he was one of the Commissioners to take account of the forfeited estates in Ireland, and was rewarded by a gift of 1,000/. from the English Commons for this service, so unpalatable to the Crown. Great complaints were afterwards made respecting the valuation put by these Commissioners on the lands. He was a Lord Justice in 1696 and 1701, and was of Queen Anne's Privy Council, and died June 7, 1714. Charles, Lord Moore, his eldest son, who had been M.P. during the reigns of William and Anne, and married Jane, daughter and heiress of Arthur, Viscount Loftus of Ely, died a few days before his father, May 21, 1714, leaving three sons, the eldest of whom, Henry, succeeded as fourth Earl of Drogheda. He was a member of the English Parliament for Camelford, in Cornwall, but died on the 28th of May, 1727, with- out surviving issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Edward, fifth Earl of Drogheda, who was a Privy Councillor and Governor of Meath in 1748.
He inherited his uncle, Lord Loftus's property, and himself had a large family, but his eldest son died before him, and, with his fourth son, he was lost on his passage from England to Dublin on the 28th of October, 1758. He was succeeded by his eldest sur- viving son, Charles, sixth Earl of Drogheda, who was a General in the Army, Governor of Meath and King's and Queen's coun- ties, and Constable of Maryborough Castle. He was a Privy Councillor for Ireland, and one of the first Knight Companions of St. Patrick on the institution of the Order. On the 27th of June, 1791, he was created Marquis of Drogheda in the Irish Peerage, and on the 17th of June, 1801, a Peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Moore, of Moore-Place, Kent. He married a daughter of the first Marquis of Hertford (of the present family), died December 22, 1812, and WAS succeeded as second Marquis by his eldest son, Charles, who died in 1837, unmarried, and was suc- ceeded by his nephew, Henry Francis Seymour Moore, third and present Marquis of Drogheda, son of his brother, Lord Henry Seymour Moore. The family, which is Conservative in its politics, has not been of any especial personal importance for some gene- rations, but possesses great social and political weight in Ireland.
Previous page
