Thomas Moore - Later Life

Later Life

He finally settled in Sloperton Cottage at Bromham, Wiltshire, England, and became a novelist and biographer as well as a successful poet. Around the time of the Reform Act he was invited to stand for parliament, and considered it, but nothing came of it. In 1829 he was painted by Thomas Lawrence, one of the last works completed by the artist before his death. In 1830 he sang in front of the future Queen Victoria in a duet with her mother, and later composed a song Sovereign Woman in her honour.

Moore was for many years a strong advocate for Catholic Emancipation which he regarded as the source of all problems in Ireland and the sole reason behind the 1798 Rebellion - a point he made in his 1831 biography Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. He experienced a difficult relationship with the leader of the Catholic Association Daniel O'Connell whom Moore regarded as a demagogue, believing "O'Connell and his ragamuffins have brought tarnish upon Irish patriotism". Following the passing of the Catholic Relief Act in 1829 Moore believed his involvement in politics terminated, joking to a friend: "Now that the Paddies are happy... I consider my politics entirely at an end.". However he was drawn back into politics by a series of democratic rebellions across Europe in Belgium, France and Poland. Moore had also been a sympathiser with the Greeks in their War of Independence, a passion he shared with his friend Byron.

He received a state pension, but his personal life was dogged by tragedy including the deaths of all his five children within his lifetime (Anne, age 5, d.1817; Anastasia Mary, age 17, d.1829; Olivia as a baby of a few months of age; John Russell, aged 19, d.1842; and Thomas Lansdowne, aged 27, d.1849) and a stroke in later life, which disabled him from performances - the activity for which he was most renowned. Moore died being cared for by his wife at Sloperton on the 26th February 1852. His remains are in a vault at St. Nicholas churchyard, Bromham, within view of his cottage-home, beside his daughter Anastasia.

Moore was a frequent visitor to Lord Henry Fitzgerald property at Thames Ditton, Boyle Farm, and the premises were incorporated into Moore's long poem, 'The Summer Fete'. The poem was about his daughter, Alex Hassett. Alex had taken her mother's last name because when her mother married Thomas, her parents were against her changing her last name.