Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira
Elizabeth Rawdon, Countess of Moira in the Peerage of Ireland (23 March 1731 – 11 April 1808) was a political hostess, literary patron and antiquarian. She was born at Donington Park, Leicestershire, England and died at Moira, County Down, Ireland. While declaring herself a "firm aristocrat", in Ireland she included in her circle men and women committed to the republican cause of the United Irishmen.
Elizabeth Rawdon | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Moira Baroness Hastings of Hastings | |
Elizabeth Hastings, by Joshua Reynolds | |
| Reign | 1789–1808 |
| Born | Elizabeth Hastings 21 March 1731 Donington Park, Leicestershire |
| Died | 11 April 1808 (aged 77) Moira, County Down, Ireland (Now Northern Ireland) |
| Spouse(s) | John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira |
| Issue | 5, including The 1st Marquess of Hastings |
| Father | Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon |
| Mother | Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon |
Born as Elizabeth Hastings, she was the daughter of Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdon and Selina Shirley, founder of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion religious denomination. Elizabeth was 16th Baroness Botreaux and 15th Baroness Hungerford, inheriting the titles on the death of her brother Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon.
She was the third wife of John Rawdon, 1st Earl of Moira, in Dublin an opposition peer in the Ascendancy Parliament, and on his County Down estate an "improving landlord". In 1798, following the Battle of Ballynahinch, fought largely on the Moira demesne, the government suspected her of assisting rebels and their sympathisers escape summary justice.