Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Moore, Charles (1603-1643)
MOORE, Sir CHARLES, second Viscount Moore of Drogheda (1603–1643), third and eldest surviving son of Sir Garret Moore, viscount Drogheda [q. v.], was born in 1603. He succeeded his father in 1627, and on 18 Aug. 1628 he was appointed a commissioner for regranting escheated lands in Ulster. He was present at the opening of parliament on 14 July 1634, and was a member of the lords' committee of grievances. When the news of the outbreak of the rebellion of 1641 reached him, he was living quietly with his family at Mellifont. He acted with great promptitude, and on the night of 26 Oct. threw himself with his troop of sixty-six horse into Drogheda, but failing to stimulate the mayor and aldermen to take immediate measures for the defence of the town, and 'conceiving his continued presence might be prevalent,' he removed his family thither, and energetically set about repairing the fortifications of the town. Having done all he could in this respect, he posted to Dublin in order to procure assistance from the government. But in this he was at first not very successful, obtaining merely a commission to raise a company of the townsmen, together with some arms and ammunition. Meanwhile the governor of Drogheda, Sir Faithful Fortescue [q. v.], either out of sheer cowardice or disgust at the conduct of the lords justices, threw up his commission, and Sir Henry Tichborne [q. v.], having been appointed governor in his place, entered Drogheda with one thousand foot and one hundred horse on 4 Nov.
His arrival relieved Moore of further responsibility, but did not cause him to relax his exertions to place the town in a posture of defence, and fearing that the force at the governor's disposal would be insufficient to resist the attack of the enemy, he took advantage of the reassembling of parliament on 16 Nov. to make a fresh appeal to the government at Dublin. His offer to raise six hundred men at his own expense on condition that the four independent companies in Drogheda were embodied in one regiment and placed under his command for the defence of the county, though approved by the Earl of Ormonde, was not accepted by the lords justices. But by an ordinance of the two houses he was appointed a commissioner 'to confer with the rebels in Ulster and other parts, touching the causes of their taking arms.' The Irish, influenced no doubt by the well-known friendship that had existed between the Earl of Tyrone and Moore's father and grandfather, made several ineffectual efforts to win him over to their side. On 21 Nov. Mellifont was attacked, and, after a short but brave defence, captured and looted. Towards the end of the month Drogheda was invested on all sides.
The siege lasted several months, and, though the rebels on 12 Jan. 1642 narrowly missed capturing the place, they were by the vigilance of the governor and Moore finally compelled to desist from the attempt. In a sally on 5 March, which caused them to raise the siege on the north side, 'my lord Moore, by the acclamation of all men, behaved himself very valiantly, to the greater hazard of his person than his captaines were pleased with' (Bernard, Whole Proceedings of the Siege of Droyheda, p. 69). A few days later, the Earl of Ormonde arriving at Drogheda, it was determined to pursue the rebels as far as Newry, but peremptory orders coming from the lords justices forbidding him to cross the Boyne, 'my lord Moore and our governor (who in all things have proceeded very unanimously) . . . resolved to adventure the same design.' In this they were successful, and on 26 March, after some sharp fighting, recaptured Dundalk. But Sir Henry Tichburne deeming it necessary to remain there himself, the government of Drogheda devolved upon Moore.
During the summer he displayed great activity in suppressing the rebellion in co. Meath. On 25 April he attacked a body of them in the neighbourhood of Navan, and burnt their quarters, and in August he captured the strong castle of Siddan. By letters dated York, 30 June, and Stoneleigh Abbey, 20 Aug., he was constituted governor of co. Louth and barony of Slane by the king, but being a staunch royalist the lords justices, who inclined to the side of the parliament, found means to frustrate the king's intention in this respect (Carte, Ormonde, i. 362). In consequence of a petition addressed to the king by the confederate catholics in October 1642, Moore was on 11 Jan. 1643 appointed a commissioner to hear their grievances, and accordingly on 17 March he went with the other commissioners to Trim in order to meet the agents of the confederates, and to receive from them their 'Remonstrance.' In April he conducted a foraging expedition into the counties of Louth and Cavaii for the relief of the forces about Dublin, but was compelled from want of provisions himself, after capturing Ballisloe, to return into garrison. In September he advanced against Owen O'Neill [q. v.] at Portlester on the Blackwater, but during the engagement on the llth he was knocked off his horse and killed by a cannon-ball, fired, it is said, by O'Neill. He was taken next day to Mellifont, and subsequently interred in St. Peter's Church, Drogheda. 'He was,' says Clogy (Life of Bedell, p. 177), 'a most noble and worthy person, valiant for the truth, and exceeding bountiful to the soldiers for their encouragement.'
Moore married Alice, younger daughter of Sir Adam Loftus, first viscount Loftus of Ely [q. v.], by whom he had five sons and four daughters, viz. Henry, his successor, who was created Earl of Drogheda on 14 June 1661, and died on 11 Jan. 1675 ; John, who died young ; Garret, who died without issue in 1665 ; Randal and Adam ; Mary, who married Hugh, viscount Montgomery; Sarah, who married William, viscount Charlemont ; Anne, who married Thomas Caulfeild, esq. ; and Lettice, born after her father's death on 15 Jan. 1643-4, and who married Hercules Davis, son and heir of John Davis of Carrickfergus.
Shortly after her husband's death Lady Moore was involved in a plot to betray Drogheda into the hands of Robert Monro [q. v.] and the Scots. She was committed with her accomplices to Dublin Castle, and it is apparent from her deposition that her object was to break off the peace between Charles and the Irish, because she had been told that her husband 'by declaring himself so much against the Irish in the war had contracted a general hatred for himself and all his relations.' She was liberated after a short detention. According to Lodge she broke her leg by a fall from her horse on 10 June 1649, in a sudden outburst of grief at the first sight of St. Peter's Church in Drogheda, where her husband lay buried. She died three days afterwards of a gangrene, and was buried the same night by her husband's side.
[Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall, vol. ii.; Collins's Peerage, vol. ix.; Strafford's Letters; Journals of the House of Lords (Ireland), vol. i.; D'Alton's Hist, of Drogheda; Dean Bernard's The Whole Proceedings of the Siege of Drogheda in Ireland; An Exact Relation of a Battell fought by the Lord Moore against the Rebels in Ireland, 1641; Gilbert's Hist, of the Confederation and Contemporary Hist, of Affairs; Whitelocke's Memorials; Clogy's Life of Bishop Bedell; Nalson's Affairs of State; Carte's Life of Ormonde; Mellifont Abbey, Dublin, 1885.]