Adam Loftus

Adam Loftus was an English Roman Catholic priest from North Yorkshire who conformed to Anglicanism following the ascension to the throne of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Loftus subsequently served as Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1581. Loftus is particularly important to Irish history as the first Provost of Trinity College Dublin and for his central role in the 1584 torture and execution of Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley, who was Beatified by Pope John Paul II as one of the Irish Catholic Martyrs in 1992. Loftus is also notable, through the marriage of his daughter Anne to the son and heir of Sir Henry Colley and their subsequent issue, as the ancestor of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.