Moore, Thomas 1779-1852
Irish poet and composer

Born in Dublin, he was educated at Whyte's School and Trinity College, Dublin, and became a lawyer. His translation of Anacreon (1800) proved a great success, followed by Poems (1801). In 1803, after being appointed registrar of the Admiralty Court in Bermuda, he arranged for a deputy, and returned and settled in Wiltshire. Meanwhile he had published the earlier of the Irish Melodies (1807-34) and The Twopenny Postbag (1812), and in 1817 Lalla Rookh appeared. His Bermuda deputy embezzled �6,000, and in 1819, to avoid arrest, Moore went to Italy and then to Paris. He returned in 1822 to Wiltshire, and published The Loves of the Angels (1823) and a novel, The Epicurean (1827), and wrote biographies of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Byron.

Bibliography: T de Vere White, Tom Moore, the Irish Poet (1977)