Adam Loftus (archbishop)
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The Most Reverend Adam Loftus |
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| Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland |
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| Church | Church of Ireland |
| Province | Dublin |
| Diocese | Dublin and Glendalough |
| Installed | 9 August 1567 |
| Term ended | 5 April 1605 |
| Predecessor | Hugh Curwen |
| Successor | Thomas Jones |
| Other posts | Archbishop of Armagh (2 March 1563 – 9 August 1567) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1533 Yorkshire Dales, England |
| Died | 5 April 1605 (age 71/72) Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | English |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Parents | Edward Loftus |
| Spouse | Jane Purdon (m. c. 1560) |
| Children | Dudley Loftus and 10 others |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Adam Loftus (c. 1533 – 5 April 1605) was Archbishop of Armagh, and later Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1581. He was also the first Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.
Adam Loftus was born in 1533, the second son of a monastic bailiff, Edward Loftus, in the heart of the English Yorkshire Dales. Edward died when Loftus was only eight years old, leaving his estates to his elder brother Robert Loftus. Edward Loftus had made his living through the Catholic Church, but the son embraced the Protestant faith early in his development. He was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he reportedly attracted the notice of the young Queen Elizabeth, as much by his physique as through the power of his intellect, having shone before her in oratory. This encounter may never have happened, but Loftus certainly met with the Queen more than once, and she became his patron for the rest of her reign. At Cambridge Loftus took holy orders as a Catholic priest and was appointed rector of Outwell St Clement in Norfolk. He came to the attention of the Catholic Queen Mary (1553–58), who named him vicar of Gedney, Lincolnshire. On Elizabeth's accession in 1558 he declared himself Anglican.
Loftus made the acquaintance of the Queen's favourite Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex and served as his chaplain in Ireland in 1560. In 1561 he became chaplain to Alexander Craik, Bishop of Kildare and Dean of St Patrick's in Dublin. Later that year he was appointed rector of Painstown in Meath, and evidently earned a reputation as a learned and discreet advisor to the English authorities in Dublin. In 1563, he was consecrated archbishop of Armagh at the unprecedented age of 28 by Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin.
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