MOORE, Henry, 4th Earl of Drogheda [I] (1700-27).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1722 - 29 May 1727

Family and Education

b. 7 Oct. 1700, 1st s. of Charles, Visct. Moore (1st s. of Henry Hamilton Moore, 3rd Earl of Drogheda [I]) by Jane, da. and h. of Arthur Loftus, 3rd Visct. Loftus of Ely [I]. m. 11 Feb. 1720, Charlotte, da. of Hugh Boscawen, 1st Visct. Falmouth, 1da. d.v.p. suc. fa. 21 May 1714 and gd.-fa. as 4th Earl of Drogheda 7 June 1714.

Offices Held

Biography

Succeeding to the family estates at the age of 13, Drogheda promptly took to drink. His grandmother and guardian, Lady Drogheda, then sent him on the grand tour, accompanied by a French Huguenot refugee as governor. At Brussels, in June 1717, he gave his companion the slip and set off alone for Paris, informing his grandmother that he could no longer bear the man’s ‘peevish humours’. Running short of money in Paris, he returned home, where, in 1719, his grandmother obtained from the lord chancellor of Ireland a release from responsibility for him, writing ‘sure he exceeds all the youth that ever went before him for wickedness’. An allowance of £1,500 p.a. was granted him, which he invariably exceeded. A year later, he married a daughter of Hugh Boscawen, the government manager for the Cornish boroughs, who brought him in for Camelford at the next general election. Having dissipated his fortune in racing and every kind of extravagance, he died at Dublin 29 May 1727, aged 26, leaving debts exceeding £180,000, which forced his successor to sell a large portion of the family’s estates in co. Louth.1

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Anne, Countess of Drogheda, Hist. Moore Fam. 112-16, 145.