appears to have been possessed of considerable property, among which he mentions his ‘thimble mills.’ He appoints his friends Edmund and Harry Waller of Beaconsfield (descendants of the poet) to be overseers of his will. He left seven sons, one of whom founded a charity for the poor of Great Marlow, where descendants of the family are still residing. His will was proved in London 16 June 1742, his death having taken place on the previous day.
[Authorities cited; information from the Rev. H. O. F. Whittingstall, vicar of Great Marlow.]
LOFTUS, ADAM (1533?–1605), archbishop of Armagh and Dublin, the second son of Edward Loftus of Swineside in the parish of Coverham, Yorkshire (Atthill, Middleham, p. 26), was born probably in 1533 (Funeral Entries in Ulster's Office, i. 44; but cf. Monck Mason, St. Patrick's, App. p. lvii, and also Notes and Queries, 4th ser. xi. 19). He was educated at Cambridge, probably at Trinity College (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr.), and afterwards became rector of Outwell St. Clement, Norfolk (Blomefield, Norfolk, vii. 475). In Rymer (Fœdera, xv. 464) mention is made of a certain Adam Loftouse being presented by the crown (Philip and Mary) in 1557 to the vicarage of Gedney in Lincolnshire, from which it has been inferred that he was at that time a Roman catholic (cf. Fitzsimon, Justification of the Masse, Douay, 1611, p. 300, where he is described as ‘an apostate priest’). If so, he evidently conformed to the established church on the accession of Elizabeth, and was appointed chaplain to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Sussex, with whom he apparently went to Ireland in May 1560. In April 1561 he is spoken of (Shirley, Orig. Letters, xxxv.) as chaplain to Alexander Craik, bishop of Kildare and dean of St. Patrick's. On 8 Oct. following he was presented by the crown to the rectory of Painstown in the diocese of Meath (Morrin, Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 441). His learning and discretion soon found recognition, and on 30 Oct. 1561 Elizabeth, on the recommendation of Sussex, and apparently also of Archbishop Parker (Parker Corresp. p. 117), directed a congé d'élire, notwithstanding such instruments had been rendered unnecessary in Ireland by a recent act of parliament, to be issued to the dean and chapter for his elevation to the archiepiscopal see of Armagh (Morrin, Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 471). The last legal occupant of the see had been George Dowdall [q. v.], who died on 15 Aug. 1558. On 7 Feb. 1560 Donatus MacTeige had been appointed to the archbishopric by the pope, but neither he nor his successor, Richard Creagh [q. v.], was recognised by the English government. Armagh, however, at this time was in the possession of Shane O'Neill, and on 2 Sept. 1562 Sussex explained that, owing to the absence of sundry of the chapter, ‘whereof the greatest part be temporal men and Shane O'Neill's horsemen,’ the dean could not proceed to the election (Shirley, Orig. Letters, xlv.). In January 1562 Loftus accompanied Sussex to England, apparently on business connected with the archbishopric; for on 5 Oct., shortly after his return to Ireland, he received a commission to order ecclesiastical causes in the diocese, and to take the temporalities of the see from 30 Oct. 1561 until his consecration (Morrin, Cal. Pat. Rolls, i. 473). On 2 March 1563, in pursuance of a royal mandate dated 20 Jan., addressed to Hugh, archbishop of Dublin, and two other bishops (ib. p. 481), the form of capitular election having been abandoned, Loftus was consecrated archbishop of Armagh by Hugh Curwen [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin, assisted by other bishops, and in this way was preserved unbroken the line of episcopal succession in the church of Ireland. The literature, controversial and otherwise, relating to Loftus's consecration is considerable. The chief points in dispute are, first, whether he had at the time attained the canonical age of thirty, and secondly, whether the mandate was carried into effect so far as concerned the other bishops (cf. Ware, Bishops; Mant, Hist. of the Church of Ireland, i. 269, and note on flyleaf; W. M. Brady, The Irish Reformation; W. Lee, Some Strictures on Dr. Brady's Pamphlet, Dublin, 1866; W. H. Hardinge, Narrative in Proof of the Uninterrupted Consecrational Descent of the Bishops of the Church of Ireland, Dublin, 1867; A. T. Lee, The Irish Episcopal Succession, London, 1867; P. F. Moran, The Episcopal Succession in Ireland, Dublin, 1866).
Owing to the restricted power of the English government in Ireland, Loftus's authority in his diocese was more nominal than real. The entire temporalities, he subsequently complained, were worth only about 20l. a year, with the house and lands of Termonfeckin, near Drogheda, where he usually resided when state affairs did not require his presence in Dublin. In September 1564 he obtained leave of absence for four months (Cal. Fiants, Eliz., No. 674), and on 6 Jan. 1565, as the result of his visit to court, Elizabeth granted him the deanery of St. Patrick's, vacant by the death of Craik, in commendam, till other suitable provision could be made
