Great Grandparents
George Moore (1727-1799) of Ashbrook House and later Moore Hall, County Mayo, made his fortune as a wine merchant in Alicante, Spain. In 1765 he married Catherine de Killikelly (1729-1813), daughter of Dominick de Killikelly of Lydacan Castle, County Galway. They developed the twelve thousand acre mansion and demesne of Moore Hall in 1792-1796.
The year George died, his son John Moore (1763-1799), President of the short-lived Republic of Connaught, died in captivity. John was the novelist George Moore’s granduncle.
To the Memory of
Catherine Killikelly.
Born in Bilboa 17[27]
Married to George Moore
then of Alicant
in the Kingdom of Spain
and late of Moore Hall
in the County of Mayo
and Kingdom of Ireland Esq. 176[5]
deceased in London
16th August 1813
Her three Surviving Sons
George Thomas and Peter.
Above is a ledger stone in Winchester Cathedral, photographed 2025 by Michael O’Shea, that commemorated Catherine Killikelly Moore.
Michele Reardon, a descendent of Nina Moore and family historian, wrote to me about Catherine:
She left Moore Hall when her son George married a Browne. She severed ties with her son because of hard feelings related to Louisa [Browne]’s family connection to the judge who sentenced [Catherine’s] son John to deportation/death.
I believe the story is that Catherine also blamed the Brownes for her husband George’s early demise due to stress from John’s fate despite his best efforts to save him. Her husband was buried at Ashbrook.
Peter was a ‘lunatic’ and Thomas lived in England. She probably moved to England to be near Thomas.
[Though buried in Winchester Cathedral (Church of England)], Catherine was a devout Catholic, no doubt about that.
Catherine Moore’s estate plans and litigation are documented in The English Report, Volume CLXI, Ecclesiastical, Admiralty, and Probate and Divorce, I (Edinburgh: W. Green & Son, Ltd, 1917). A pertinent excerpt follows:
This document mentions her deceased son John (martyr) and three living sons: George, Thomas and Peter. Catherine disowned George and Thomas at different times for disrespecting her wishes.
The executor arranged for her burial in Winchester Cathedral in lieu of her preference for the Killikelly cemetery in Galway. She forbade her burial on property controlled by her son George (the novelist’s grandfather).
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