Lot 44: f - Tilly Kettle 1735-1786 , Portrait of Peter Moore of Hadley Hall, Essex (1753-1828)

Half length, wearing a blue suit and a white necck tie, standing next to a pillar oil on canvas

measurements note 75 by 61 cm., 29½ by 24 in.

By family descent

The sitter was the youngest son of the Rev. Edward Moore and his wife Mary. He went to India in 1769, arriving in Bengal on 31st May 1769. During his fifteen years there he became Burke and Sheridan's chief informant on the situation in India and provided material for Warren Hastings's trial. In January 1774 he married Sarah, daughter of Colonel Webb of Bandon, County Cork. He returned to England in 1785 with a considerable fortune and settled at Hadley in Middlesex. From 1803 until 1826 he was M.P. for Coventry and was a frequent speaker in debates. Amongst his successes were the rebuilding of Drury Lane Theatre which he promoted and the reconstruction of the Highgate Tunnel and the Imperial Gas Light Company.