Nicholas Loftus (1592-1666) was an Irish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and

public official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their s ...

. He was the son of Sir

Dudley Loftus Dr Dudley Loftus (1619 – June 1695) was an Anglo-Irish jurist and noted orientalist. Loftus was born the second son of Sir Adam Loftus and his wife Jane Vaughan, daughter of Walter Vaughan, into a family of 17 siblings on his great-grandfather ...

and the grandson of Adam Loftus, the

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

and an influential political figure in Tudor Ireland. His mother Anne Bagenal was from a leading

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

family headed by Sir

Nicholas Bagenal Sir Nicholas Bagenal or Bagenall or Bagnall (; 1509 – February 1591) was an English-born soldier and politician who became Marshal of the Irish Army (Kingdom of Ireland), Army in Ireland during the Tudor era. Early life He was born the se ...

. She later remarried to the prominent judge Lord Sarsfield, who thus became Nicholas' stepfather. Nicholas' elder brother Sir Adam Loftus was made

Vice-Treasurer of Ireland The Lord High Treasurer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland, chief financial officer of the Kingdom of Ireland. The designation ''High'' was added in 1695. After the Acts of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain a ...

during the administration of Thomas Wentworth while Nicholas was appointed as an Irish

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

official, with the title

Clerk of the Pells The Pell Office was a department of the Exchequer in which the receipts and payments were entered upon two rolls of parchment, the one called the ''introitta'', which was the record of monies received, and the other the ''exitus'', or the record of ...

, under him. He was elected as a member of the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chamb ...

in 1613 and 1634, representing the seat of Fethard in

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

. In the 1640 Parliament he sat for

seat.Kearney, p.261 In 1623, he married Margaret Chetham, the daughter of Thomas Chetham, a prosperous landowner from Nuthurst (now

New Moston New Moston is a suburb of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies four and a half miles north east of Manchester city centre, between Moston, Failsworth and Chadderton. New Moston Primary School was founded in 1901. New M ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, who later acquired an estate at

Hacketstown Hacketstown (, IPA: �bˠalʲəˈhaceːdʲ, historically known as Ballydrohid (), is a small town in County Carlow, Ireland, near the border with County Wicklow. It is located on the R747 regional road at its junction with the R727. The R ...

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...

, and his first wife Mary Forster. By his wife he had fourteen children, of whom six sons and five daughters reached adult life. After his death in 1666, he was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Nicholas Loftus. The second son Henry was the father of Nicholas Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus, who inherited his uncle's estates after the failure of his male line.

References

Bibliography

* Kearney, Hugh F. ''Strafford in Ireland 1633-1641: A Study in Absolutism''. Cambridge University Press, 1989. 1592 births 1666 deaths 17th-century Irish politicians People from Rathfarnham Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Wexford constituencies Irish MPs 1613–1615 Irish MPs 1634–1635 Irish MPs 1639–1649 Irish MPs 1661–1666 {{Ireland-bio-stub