| Jane
Loftus (1540-1595) |
| Jane
Loftus née Purdon of the Race of Lurgan, Louth and wife to Abp. Adam
Loftus for thirty five years was the first to be laid to rest in the
family vault, having born him twenty children, seven of whom died
in infancy. Jane was married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as were
most of her offspring but, in many ways, Jane’s life and origins are
a mystery; her family were established Anglo-Irish (parents Adam Purdon
and Jane Little). She married Adam at the age of twenty (not young
for those days) and at a time in Adam’s life when he was catapulted
into prominence in Ireland, having only been there a year of so.
For reasons of family or mere serendipity, her eldest son and all
those who followed bore the name Dudley, the name of her eldest brother,
and a name that remained in the family until my father died in 2001.
Dudley was a controversial name in Elizabethan times and you can’t
help but wonder why it was prominent in the family at this time, given
Adam’s close association with Queen Elizabeth I herself. Who were
the Purdon family? Sixteen of Jane’s descendants were to join her
in the family vault: these included five of her children, five of
her great grandchildren and six of her great-great grandchildren. |
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| Mary
Conway (?? – 1595) |
| If
Jane is a mystery, Mary Conway (née Purdon) is a curiosity: she died
a month after Jane and was sufficiently intimate with the Loftus family
for Adam Loftus to grant her a place next to his wife in the Loftus
family vault but not, it seems, her husband Robert Conway (DCL).
It is thought that she was a cousin of Jane’s and remained a life-long
friend and kinswoman even after her marriage to Robert – The relationship
must have been a close one indeed. |
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| Captain
Adam Loftus (1565 – 1599) |
| Four
years after Mary was laid to rest, Abp. Adam Loftus buried his own
son in the family vault, something no father should have to do. Captain
Adam Loftus was Adam’s third son who died a bachelor aged 34 defending
his father’s home at Rathfarnham Castle from disaffected raiders of
the O’Byrne family sallying forth from their strongholds in the Wicklow
Mountains. The young Captain of horse would not be the last to die
in this way, as history inevitably divided the family into those who
supported Catholic emancipation and those who opposed it. |
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| Sir
Edward Loftus (1563 – 1601) and Anne Loftus (?? – 1601) |
| Sir
Edward Loftus died at the age of 38 at the siege of Kingsale; dying
for what he believed in. He was Abp. Adam’s second son, the second
also to predecease him. Appointed a Serjeant at Law, he was knighted
by the Lord Lieutenant for his part in the wars in Ireland. His wife
of 15 years, Anne (née Duke), was carrying their daughter and tragically
died in child birth two months after his own decease. The daughter
died a few days later without, it seems, having been christened, as
she is not registered in the family vault. Anne was laid to rest
in the vault by her father-in-law in July of 1601. Her husband was
not to join her in the vault until the following year for reasons
unknown. |
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| Archbishop
Adam Loftus (1533-1605) |
 Much
has been written about the talented but zealous Archbishop (Abp) Adam
Loftus whose life was suffused with intrigue and controversy. Adam
was born in 1533 the second son of a monastic bailiff in the heart
of the Yorkshire Dales who died when Adam was only 8, leaving his
estates to his elder brother Robert. As an undergraduate at Cambridge
University, he reportedly attracted the notice of the young Queen
Elizabeth, as much it seems by alluring physique as through the power
of his intellect, having shone before her with his powers of oratory.
There is good reason to believe that this particular encounter may
never have taken place but they certainly met more than once and the
Queen was to become his patron, a relationship that was to last her
entire reign, coming to Adam’s rescue at a number of times in his
life when other less tolerant patrons might have withheld sanction.
Adam Loftus was appointed as one of the Queen’s Chaplains before she
sent him to Ireland around 1559 as Chaplain to the Lord Deputy, where
he was rapidly promoted to Primate of Ireland, becoming Archbishop
of Armagh at the unprecedented age of 28. Following a catastrophic
clash with Shane O’Neill, the real power in the province during these
years, he came to the See of Dublin in 1564 and was offered the Deanery
of St. Patrick’s Cathedral “in lieu of better times ahead”. As Archbishop
and Protestant Primate of Ireland and later Lord Chancellor, Keeper
of the Royal Seal, etc. Adam became the most powerful administrator
in Ireland, which he seems largely to have accrued to the benefit
of his family. Much has been written about Adam during this time,
which has no place here, but between 1584 and 1591, he had a series
of clashes with Sir John Perrot on the location of an Irish University.
Perrot wanted to use St. Patrick’s as the site of the new University,
which Adam sought to preserve as the principal place of Protestant
worship in Dublin as well as a valuable source of income for himself.
Adam won the argument with the help of his ever patient Patron, and
Trinity College was born at its current location, named after his
old college at Cambridge (with Adam its first Provost in 1593) leaving
St. Patrick’s Cathedral unassailed. It was fitting, therefore, that
Adam should be buried in the building he helped to preserve for future
generations, with the many faces of his portraits still hanging within
the learned walls of the University which he co-founded. Having buried
his wife and two sons in the vault he had prepared for his wife, Abp.
Adam Loftus was 71 when he finally died at his Episcopal Palace in
Kavan Street “worn out with age” and was interred with his family
in the same vault. The descendents of Adam’s eldest son and heir,
Sir Dudley Loftus, are living today and include the Loftus family
of Mount Loftus, as well as the Tottenham-Loftus family now living
in Canada. |
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