| Alice
Loftus (1579 – 1608) |
| Alice
was Abp. Adam's sixth surviving daughter, all of whom were to marry
well, fitting for the daughters of the most powerful man of his time
in Ireland. Little is really known about Alice beyond speculation,
which is tragically the case with most women of the period. History
seems to record the wild and often foolish peregrinations of the men
of that age and seldom spared a thought for the women whose main task
it was to replenish the World's supply of wild and foolish men. How
different will the history books of tomorrow be? There are, however,
at least as many magnificent portraits of ancestral ladies as there
are their men-folk. Sadly, because of the lack of biographical detail,
these frequently strayed from their actual lives
when old family estates were broken up around Britain. They
can be found like history’s orphans gathering dust in the corners
of antique shops the world over, waiting to be adopted by an interested
browser keen to acquire a borrowed ancestry,
lost in someone else’s identity. Lady Alice Warren (née Loftus)
died at the age of 29 at her home in Warrenstown, having left issue
of at least one son (William?) to her husband Sir Henry Warren of
Bally Bret. |
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| Martha
Loftus (1575 – 1610) |
| Lady
Martha Colclough (née Loftus) was Adam’s fourth daughter, married
to Sir Thomas Colclough of Tynterne Abbey, Co. Wexford. By him she
had eleven children with five daughters and three sons surviving (the
eldest called Adam after his grand-father) over the twenty years or
so of their marriage. Sir Thomas Colclough was an avaricious property
developer, forever in the courts contesting litigious claims against
him, including some from members of his own family. He successfully
acquired properties around New Ross and Fethard in Wexford, which
were to come into the Loftus family in the next generation, rapidly
becoming the principle source of family power and influence, with
as many as eight seats in the Irish Parliament lasting until the Act
of Union in 1801. The Hook in Wexford was to be the new family domain
and the future location of Loftus Hall. Martha died aged 35, leaving
Thomas free to marry Eleanor, daughter of Dudley Bagenal of Dunleckney,
ensuring that Thomas was never to join his first wife in her family
vault. |
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| Isabella
Conway (?? – 1612) |
| Even
after the death of Abp. Adam and Jane Loftus, there continued a strong
association with the Purdon family. Isabella Conway (née Purdon)
was the last of that family to be buried with her kinswoman Jane.
There is some confusion, however, as to who Isabella really was. It
is most likely that she was Mary Conway’s sister; they just both happened
to marry into the Conway family (Isabella married William Conway,
Robert’s brother). Another appendix has Isabella as daughter of Mary
and Robert; the truth will likely never be known. |
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Letitia
Loftus (1610 – 1633);
Jane Franke (1633 – 1659);
Sir William Parsons (1632 – 1659) |
| Abp.
Adam Loftus’s eldest son Sir Dudley Loftus became head of the family
in 1605 and himself died only eleven years later. He evidently chose
not to accompany his parents in the family vault in the Cathedral
where he himself was christened and married, which in itself is a
mystery. Perhaps out of respect for his Father, or more likely to
escape from beneath his over-bearing shadow or maybe he just he preferred
to join the Knights' Templars at his Manor of Kilcloggan (formerly
the Templar’s preceptory, now called Templetown)? Dudley marked a
break in the families’ use of the vault that was to skip a generation,
so that none of Abp. Adam’s grandchildren are registered at St. Patrick’s.
Whether this was intended or represents a gap in the record is not
known. Nevertheless, Sir Dudley’s eldest son Sir Adam Loftus did
break the seals to the vault twenty years later for his eldest daughter
Letitia Parsons. Letitia was married to Richard Parsons in around
1632 and died at the age of 23 having born him a son and a daughter,
who were both to join her in the Loftus family vault. Sir William
Parsons was interred alongside his mother in the family vault in January
1659 only to be joined nine months later by his sister Jane (married
to Captain Franke) both aged 26, both dying like their mother still
young. |
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| Sir
Thomas Loftus (1571 – 1635) |
 Thomas
Loftus was the fourth son - the survivor of twins of Abp. Adam and
Jane Loftus. His twin (Henry Loftus) died young, his fate unknown,
as he is not registered in the family vault. Career options were
surprisingly limited for the younger sons of Abp. Adam and Thomas
was no exception. He too pursued a military career, although this
was one old soldier who outlived his exploits. As Constable of Castle
Wicklow, he was knighted by the Earl of Essex and granted lands in
Co. Meath, where his descendants lived for over two hundred years
in grand houses that are still lived in today. His father turned
the Great Seal of Queen Elizabeth into three magnificent cups, the
second of which (right) was left to Sir Thomas on his death. What
became of Sir Thomas’ is unknown. Not much has survived about this
man during his lifetime, and he might have been forgotten altogether
but for the fact that he is the ancestor of the only documented unbroken
male Loftus line that survived into the new millennium. Sir Thomas
Loftus died at his home of Tymaghoe just before the Christmas of 1635. |
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| Sir
Robert (1598-1640) and Lady Eleanor Loftus (?? – 1639) |
 In
1639, the Loftus family vault was for the first time called upon to
accommodate cousins not descended from Abp. Adam Loftus. Lady Eleanor
Loftus (née Rush) was married to Sir Robert Loftus the eldest son
of Lord Adam Loftus, first Viscount Ely (left). Lord Adam Loftus is
often confused with his namesake uncle Abp. Adam Loftus because they
were both Lord Chancellors of Ireland and both immensely powerful.
Lord Adam was in fact the son of Robert Loftus, Abp. Adam’s elder
brother who travelled with him to Ireland leaving his inherited estates
in Yorkshire for a time. They fathered two quite separate dynasties
that were eventually to come together through marriage. Lady Eleanor
had a bitter property dispute with her father-in-law and in 1639 managed
to have him imprisoned for breach of promise. Eleanor was to die
the year following her short lived victory and was interred in her
cousin’s family vault probably as an act of defiance against Lord
Adam Loftus. Sir Robert followed his wife into his cousin’s family
vault the following year pre-deceasing his father who died a broken
man at his second son’s estate at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire a
few years later. |
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