Nicholas Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus

Nicholas Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus PC (I) (c.1687 – 31 December 1763) was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.[1]

Nicholas Loftus
Member of the Irish Parliament
for Fethard
In office
1710–1713
Member of the Irish Parliament
for Clonmines
In office
1713–1715
Member of the Irish Parliament
for County Wexford
In office
1715–1751
Baron Loftus
In office
1751–1763
Viscount Loftus
In office
1756–1763
Personal details
Died31 December 1763
SpouseAnne Ponsonby
Children7, including Nicholas, Henry, Edward, and Nicholas
Parent(s)Henry Loftus and Anne Crewkern

Loftus was the son of Henry Loftus and Anne Crewkern. He served in the Irish House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Fethard between 1710 and 1713, Clonmines from 1713 to 1715 and County Wexford between 1715 and 1751. Upon leaving the Commons, Loftus was elevated to the peerage as Baron Loftus, of Loftus Hall in County Wexford in the Peerage of Ireland on 5 October 1751, and assumed his seat in the Irish House of Lords.[2] He was invested as a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1753. He was further honoured when he was created Viscount Loftus of Ely in County Wicklow, also a title in the Irish peerage, on 19 July 1756.[3]

He married Hon. Anne Ponsonby, daughter of William Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Duncannon and Mary Moore, in April 1706.[4] They had five children:[5]

Loftus also had two illegitimate children by his Irish housekeeper, May Hernon:

References

edit
  1. ^ John Debrett, Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1820), 922.
  2. ^ Edward Kimber, The Peerage of Ireland. A Complete View of the Several Orders of Nobility (1763), 106-7.
  3. ^ Edward Kimber, The Peerage of Ireland. A Complete View of the Several Orders of Nobility (1763), 106-7.
  4. ^ Edward Kimber, The Peerage of Ireland. A Complete View of the Several Orders of Nobility (1763), 106-7.
  5. ^ John Debrett, Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1820), 922.
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Viscount Loftus
1756–1763
Succeeded by
Baron Loftus
1751–1763