Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl Mount Cashell

Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl Mount Cashell (19 March 1770 – 27 October 1822), styled Lord Kilworth between 1781 and 1790, was an Anglo-Irish politician.

Moore was the eldest son of Stephen Moore, 1st Earl Mount Cashell, and Lady Helena Rawdon, daughter of John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira. He became known by the courtesy title Lord Kilworth after his father was elevated to an earldom in 1781. He was returned to the Irish House of Commons for Clonmel in May 1790, but was forced to resign his seat after only a few days on the death of his father. As the holder of an Irish peerage, Lord Mount Cashell was not allowed an automatic seat in the English House of Lords on the formation of the Union in 1800. However, in 1815 he was elected an Irish representative peer, replacing the deceased Earl of Westmeath, and was able to take his seat in the House of Lords.

Marriage and children Lord Mount Cashell married Lady Margaret King, daughter of Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston, in 1791. Margaret's mother, Caroline FitzGerald, daughter of Richard FitzGerald M.P., had educated her children by hiring governesses, including the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1794 George King, 3rd Earl of Kingston, Margaret's eldest brother, married Lady Helena Moore, Stephen's sister. Lord Mount Cashell acquired numerous other siblings-in-law, doubly closely bonded through the two marriages, including Henry, Edward, and Robert King.

The couple had seven children. The second son, Robert, was born in 1793. The third son, Edward Moore, became a Canon of Windsor Cathedral. The eldest daughter, Helena, was born in March 1795. One of the younger daughters, Jane Elizabeth, married in 1819 William Yates Peel, from the political and merchant family.

The Grand Tour, and marital separation

Death and succession Lord Mount Cashell died in October 1822, aged 52, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Stephen. The Countess Mount Cashell, who had left him circa 1803 for George William Tighe (by whom she had two more daughters, Lauretta and Nerina), died in January 1835.