Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Charles (1730-1822)
MOORE, CHARLES, sixth Earl and first Marquis of Drogheda (1730–1822), born on 29 June 1730, was eldest son of Edward, fifth earl of Drogheda, and Sarah, eldest daughter of Brabazon Ponsonby, first earl of Bessborough. He entered the army on 18 Nov. 1755, and represented St. Canice (alias Irishtown) in the Irish parliament in 1756-8. He succeeded his father on 28 Oct. 1758, taking his seat in the House of Lords on 16 Oct. 1759. On 12 Jan. 1759 he was made governor of co. Meath, and on 7 Dec. was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 19th, afterwards the 18th regiment of light dragoons, of which he was colonel from 3 Aug. 1762 till its disbandment in September 1821, and was very active during 1762-4 in repressing Whiteboy outrages. He succeeded 'Single-speech Hamilton' [see Hamilton, William Gerard] as secretary to the lord-lieutenant on the appointment of the Earl of Northumberland as viceroy in 1763, and in April 1766, during the absence of the Marquis of Hertford, he was appointed a lord justice. In general he was a consistent supporter of government, but in 1769, during the viceroyalty of Lord Townshend, being disappointed in his expectation of a marquisate, he threw his parliamentary influence on to the side of the opposition. He was, nevertheless, in the same year made governor and custos rotulorum of Queen's County. He was promoted major-general on 30 Aug. 1770, lieutenant-general 29 Aug. 1777, general 12 Oct. 1793, and finally rose to be field-marshal on 19 July 1821, but apparently never saw active service. From September 1776 to July 1780 he represented Horsham in the English parliament. He was created a knight of the order of St. Patrick on 17 March 1783, being one of the fifteen original knights, and on 5 July 1791 he was created Marquis of Drogheda. He was joint postmaster-general from 1797 to 1806, and, in consequence of the support given by him in parliament to the union, he was, on 17 Jan. 1801, created Baron Moore of Moore Place in Kent. The honour was reluctantly conceded to him by the Duke of Portland, and only in order to facilitate the arrangements made by Lord Cornwallis in regard to the representative peers. 'He is,' wrote Cornwallis to Major Ross on 3 July 1800, 'perfectly insignificant in respect to weight and interest in the country, and I only recommended him as being the oldest marquis in order to assist me in providing room for friends in the representative peerage' (Cornwallis, Corresp. iii. 269). He died in Dublin on 22 Dec. 1822, and was buried in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda, with great pomp as being the oldest freeman of the city.
He married, on 15 Feb. 1766, Anne, daughter of Francis Seymour-Conway, first marquis of Hertford, and by her, who died on 4 Nov. 1784, had issue: Charles, seventh earl and second marquis, an imbecile, born 23 Aug. 1770 and died unmarried in 1837; Henry Seymour, who married, on 28 Sept. 1824, Mary Letitia, second daughter of Sir Henry Brooke Parnell [q. v.], afterwards Lord Congleton, and died in 1825; Isabella, who died in 1787; Elizabeth Emily, who married George Frederick, seventh earl of Westmeath; Mary, who married Alexander Stuart, esq., of Ards, brother to Robert, first marquis of Londonderry, and died in 1842; Gertrude; Alice, who died in 1789; Anne, who died in 1788; and Frances, who married in 1800 the Right Hon. John Ormsby Vandeleur, and died on 28 Nov. 1828.
[Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall; Collins's Peerage; Burke's Peerage; Official Returns of Members of Parliament; Cornwallis's Corresp.; Froude's English in Ireland; Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century; Charlemont's Corresp. in Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. pt. x.; D'Alton's Hist, of Drogheda; Gent. Mag. 1823, p. 83; Army Lists, 1762-1821.]