Loftus family genealogy

Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland

Arms: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, per chev. ar. and sa. a chev. erm. betw. three trefoils slipped counterchanged; 2nd and 3rd, gyronny of eight, a saltire engr. betw four fleurs-de-lis, the stems converging towards the centre all counterchanged.

Adam[1] Loftus, Archbishop, m. Jana, dau. of T. Purdon, and had:

2. Sir Dudley Loftus, of Rathfarnham, co. Dublin, who m. Anne, dau. of Henry Bagnell, of Newry, Milés, and had:

3. Sir Adam Loftus, Milés, who married Jane, daughter of Walter Vaughan, Esq., of Goldengrove, and had:

4. Letitia, and other children.

Notes

[1] Adam: Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was born at Swineshead, Yorkshire, in 1534. He was the younger of the two sons of Edward Loftus, Esq., of Swineshead, temp. Henry VIII.; Robert being the elder son, and ancestor of Viscount Loftus, of Ely (extinct 1725). The eldest son of this Robert was Adam Loftus of Monasterevan, Queen’s County, who was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1619, and created a peer in 1622. Jane, daughter and heiress of the last Viscount Loftus of Ely, married Charles, Lord Moore, eldest son of Henry, third Earl of Drogheda; and her son, Henry Moore, the fourth Earl of Drogheda, inherited Monasterevan and the other Loftus estates.

The eldest son of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, was Edward Loftus, the Queen’s Sergeant, who was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 5th Sept., 1602; the second, but eldest surviving son was Sir Dudley, of Rathfarnham, county Dublin, who on the 2nd December, 1593, was knighted by Sir William Fitzwilliam, Lord Deputy of Ireland. From Sir Adam Loftus, eldest son of Sir Dudley, of Rathfarnham, descended Viscount Lisburne (extinct 1691). Lucia, daughter and heiress of the last Viscount Lisburne, married Thomas, first Marquis of Wharton; and her son Philip, Duke of Wharton, inherited the estates. The second son of Sir Adam Loftus, of Rathfarnham, was Dudley Loftus, LL.D., Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, who married Frances, granddaughter and heiress of Thomas Nangle, Baron of Navan.

From Nicholas Loftus, Esq., of Fethard, county Wexford, second son of Sir Dudley, of Rathfarnham, descended the Earl of Ely (extinct 1783); Henry, the last Earl of Ely left three sisters, his co-heiresses:—1. Mary, who mar. William Alcock, Esq., of Wilton, county Wexford; 2. Anne, who married Charles Tottenham, Esq., of New Ross; 3. Elizabeth, who married Sir John Tottenham, Bart., of Tottenham Green (brother of Charles, her sister’s husband). From this Elizabeth’s son, Sir Charles Tottenham, descends the Marquis of Ely.

The third son of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, was Sir Thomas Loftus, Knt., of Killyon, county Meath, represented by Colonel William James Loftus, of Ballynermine and Oldtown, county Dublin.

The graceful deportment of Archbishop Adam Loftus at a Cambridge examination attracted Queen Elizabeth’s notice; and, after his ordination in 1559, he was appointed chaplain to Dr. Craike, Bishop of Kildare. Loftus was advanced rapidly in the church; when but twenty-seven, he was consecrated Archbishop of Armagh; six years later, he exchanged Armagh for Dublin. With him a general system of education was a favourite project; by his influence, in 1570, an Act was passed directing that free schools should be established in the principal town of each diocese, at the cost of the clergy. He was appointed. Lord Chancellor in 1573; and was foremost in supporting and carrying out Queen Elizabeth’s foundation of Trinity College (of which he was the first Provost), on the site of the suppressed Monastery of All Hallows. He expired at the palace of St. Sepulchre’s, Dublin, 5th April, 1605, and was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.