Edward, who married Anne, daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Duke of Castle-Jordan, King's County, and died without issue at the siege of Kinsale, 10 May 1601; Adam, a captain of horse, unmarried, killed in the O'Byrnes' country, and buried in St. Patrick's, 29 May 1599; Sir Thomas of Killyan, who married Ellen, daughter of Robert Hartpole of Shrule in Queen's County (widow of Francis Cosby of Stradbally in the same county), died 1 Dec. 1635, and was buried in St. Patrick's; Henry, a twin with Thomas, who died young; Isabella, first wife of William Usher, son and heir of John Usher of Dublin, alderman; Anne, who married first, Sir Henry Colley of Castle Carbury, co. Kildare, secondly, George Blount, esq., of Kidderminster in Worcestershire, and thirdly, Edward, first lord Blayney; Jane, who married first, Sir Francis Berkeley of Askeaton, co. Limerick, and secondly, Henry Berkeley, esq.; Martha, first wife of Sir Thomas Colclough of Tintern Abbey, co. Wexford, buried in St. Patrick's on 19 March 1609; Dorothy, wife of Sir John Moore of Croghan, King's County; Alice, wife of Sir Henry Warren of Warrenstown, King's County, buried in St. Patrick's, 15 Nov. 1608; Margaret, wife of Sir George Colley of Edenderry, King's County; also eight other children who died in infancy (Lodge, Peerage, ed. Archdall; cf. also Cal. State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. iii. 252, iv. 534–6).
There are several portraits of Loftus in existence. Two of these are in Trinity College, Dublin—the one in the provost's house, the other, formerly in the possession of the Marquis of Ely, but lately presented to the college by Lord Iveagh, in the fellows' common room. Both portraits are in excellent preservation. There is another portrait in the Palace, Armagh. The Rev. W. Reynell, of Henrietta Street, Dublin, has an engraving of a picture taken when he was much older, but the artist's name does not appear. The writer of a note in ‘Notes and Queries,’ 4th ser. xi. 18, Henry L. Tottenham, esq., of Guernsey, possessed a beautiful miniature, said to have been taken from life, ‘representing him as a grave, thoughtful, noble-looking man, nearly bald, with small moustache and a full white beard.’ Loftus was a man of singular ability, undoubted piety, and an eloquent preacher. The charge of avarice brought against him by Elrington in his ‘Life of Ussher,’ and by Ware, appears to rest on very slight foundation.
[Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall, vol. vii.; Monck Mason's St. Patrick's; Shirley's Original Letters in illustration of the History of the Church in Ireland; Morrin's Cal. of Patent Rolls; Brady's Irish Reformation; Cotton's Fasti Eccles. Hib.; State Papers, Ireland, in the Rolls Office; Brady's State Papers concerning the Irish Church; Hamilton's Cal. State Papers relating to Ireland; Brewer's Cal. of Carew MSS.; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. xi. 18; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr.; Stuart's Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh; O'Flanagan's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland; Erck's Repertory of Inrolments on Patent Rolls, James I; Elrington's Life of Ussher; D'Alton's Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin; information kindly furnished by the Rev. W. Reynell.]
LOFTUS, ADAM, first Viscount Loftus of Ely (1568?–1643), lord chancellor of Ireland, born about 1568, was the second son of Robert, and the nephew of Archbishop Adam Loftus [q. v.] His grandfather was Edward Loftus of Swineside, parish of Coverham, Yorkshire. In or about 1592 the chancellor-archbishop, who knew how to look after his own family, bestowed upon his nephew a prebend of St. Patrick's, Dublin, without cure. The young man was then in holy (perhaps only deacon's) orders, and had been for three or four years a master of arts, probably of Cambridge (Irish Calendar, 17 Sept. 1592). Two years later he held the archdeaconry of Glendalough, and on 17 Sept. 1597 he was made judge of the Irish marshal court. The patent calls him bachelor of civil law, and notes his good knowledge therein (Lib. Munerum, pt. ii. p. 100). During the Elizabethan wars martial law was commonly exercised, and the object of Loftus's appointment was to secure that its decrees should be ‘orderly and judiciously examined and determined.’ He was the only holder of this office, which became almost useless in the next reign. Loftus afterwards complained that its ill-paid duties had obliged him to abandon a lucrative practice in the ecclesiastical courts. On 8 Nov. 1598 he was made a master in chancery, and a year later he obtained an interest in lands leased by his uncle with the consent of the chapters of St. Patrick's and Christchurch (Morrin, ii. 502, 563). In 1604 the archbishop officially described his nephew, a professor of civil law and his own vicar-general, as archdeacon of Glendalough, and as keeping a sufficient minister to do the parochial duty. The archdeacon was soon afterwards knighted. Later, Laud protested strongly against this arrangement, but Loftus kept Glendalough till his death. In 1607 he seems to have gone to England; on 21 March Archbishop Jones, whose chancellor he then was, recommended him strongly to Lord Salisbury. Three months later he obtained a life annuity
