was returned in the whig interest for Gloucestershire at the general election in May 1831, and sat for East Gloucestershire from December 1832 to December 1834. He succeeded his father as the second earl of Ducie in June 1840, and took his seat in the House of Lords for the first time on 31 July following (Journals of the House of Lords, lxxii. 375). Ducie moved the address at the opening of parliament in January 1841 (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. lvi. 4-8), but except on two other occasions he does not appear to have spoken again in the house (ib. lviii. 1115, lix. 723-8). On the formation of Lord John Russell's first administration Ducie was appointed a lord-in-waiting to the queen (24 July 1846), a post which he resigned in November 1847. He served on the charity commission which was appointed on 18 Sept. 1849 (Parl. Papers, 1850, vol. xx.) He died on 2 June 1853 at Tortworth Court, Gloucestershire, aged 61, and was buried in Tortworth Church on the 10th of the same month. Ducie was a staunch advocate of free trade, and the speech which he delivered in favour of the repeal of the corn laws at the Hall of Commerce, London, on 29 May 1843, attracted considerable attention. He was best known, however, as a breeder of shorthorns and as one of the leading agriculturists of the day. He was master of the Vale of White Horse hounds from 1832 to 1842, and was president of the Royal Agricultural Society 1851–2. During the last seven years of his life he was a prominent member of the Evangelical Alliance. The sale of his famous collection of shorthorns in August 1853 realised over 9,000l. The 'Ducie cultivator,' the invention of which is generally ascribed to him, appears to have been invented by the managers of his ironworks at Uley, Gloucestershire. He married, on 29 June 1826, Lady Elizabeth Dutton, elder daughter of John, second baron Sherborne, by whom he had eleven sons and four daughters. His widow died on 15 March 1865, aged 58. He was succeeded in the peerage by his eldest son, the Hon. Henry John Reynolds-Moreton, lord Moreton, the third and present earl.
An engraved portrait of Ducie by J. B. Hunt, after G. V. Briggs, R. A., will be found in the 'Sporting Review,' vol. xxviii. opp. p. 64.
[Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, ii. 42, iii. 122, xix. 147, 360; Gloucester Journal, 4 June 1853; Times, 4 June 1853; Illustrated London News, 17 July 1852 (portrait), 11 June 1853,17 Sept. 1853; Mark Lane Express, 5 June 1843; Cecil's Recordsof the Chase, 1877, pp. 199–201; Sporting Review, xxviii. 64-6, xxx. 140–1; Gent. Mag. 1853, pt. ii. p. 87; Ann. Reg. 1853, App. to Chron. pp. 231-2; Stapylton's Eton School Lists, 1864, p. 84; Doyle's Official Baronage, 1886, i. 642; Burke's Peerage, 1890, pp. 442-3, 1244; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. ii. pp. 330, 341.]
MORETON, ROBERT de, first Earl of Cornwall (d. 1091?). [See Mortain, Robert of.]
MORETON, WILLIAM (1641–1715), bishop successively of Kildare and Meath, born in Chester in 1641, was eldest son of Edward Moreton (1599–1665), prebendary of Chester. The father, son of William Moreton of Moreton, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, was incorporated at Oxford M.A. 1626 and D.D. 1636; was appointed vicar of Grinton, Yorkshire (1634); rector of Tattenhall, Cheshire, chaplain to Sir Thomas Coventry, lord keeper, and prebendary of Chester, all in 1637; and vicar of Sefton, Lancashire, in 1639. It appears that his property was sequestrated in 1645 (Earwaker, East Cheshire, ii. 24), and that he was nominated by Lord Byron a commissioner to superintend the capitulation of Chester to the parliamentary forces in January 1646 (Rushworth, iv. i. 139). Restored to his benefices at the Restoration, he died at Chester on 28 Feb. 1664-5, and was buried in Sefton Church, where a Latin inscription commemorates his equanimity under misfortune (Wood, Fasti, i. 495; Harwood, Alumni Eton.)
Matriculating at Christ Church, Oxford, on 5 Dec. 1660, William graduated B.A. 19 Feb. 1664, M.A. 21 March 1667, and B.D. 3 Nov. 1674. In 1669 he became rector of Churchill, Worcestershire, and was also for some time chaplain to Aubrey Vere, earl of Oxford. In 1677 he accompanied James, duke of Ormonde, lord-lieutenant, to Ireland, as his chaplain; and on 12 Dec. of that year was created D.D. of Oxford by special decree. A few days later (22 Dec.) he was appointed dean of Christ Church, Dublin, in which capacity Mant speaks of him as 'the vehement and pertinacious opponent of the Archbishop of Dublin's episcopal jurisdiction.' On 13 Feb. 1682 he was appointed to the see of Kildare with the preceptory of Tully, and was consecrated in Christ Church, Dublin, on the 19th by the Archbishop of Armagh. The sermon, preached by Foley, bishop of Down and Connor, was published. Moreton was made a privy councillor of Ireland on 5 April 1682, and was created D.D. of Dublin in 1688; but when Tyrconnel held Ireland for James II he 'fled to England and there continued till that nation [the Irish] was settled.' Some time after his return to Ireland
