himself ascribed his misfortunes to Loftus's malice (Rawlinson, Life of Perrot, p. 310).
Though Loftus had opposed Perrot's scheme, he strongly approved of the establishment of a university in Dublin, and it was largely by his instrumentality that the corporation of Dublin was induced to make a grant of the priory of All Hallows ‘and the parks thereof,’ which was the first practical step to the foundation of Trinity College (Gilbert, Cal. of Ancient Records of Dublin, ii. 240). There appears to be no copy extant of Loftus's speech to the corporation suggesting the grant, but the gist of it is given by Ware (Annals of Ireland, s. a. 1590). A second speech of his, thanking the queen for yielding to the prayer of the corporation, has been printed by Hearne (Pref. to Camden, Annals, p. lvii, and also in Stubbs, Hist. of the Univ. of Dublin, App. p. 350). When the proposal was sanctioned by the queen, Loftus subscribed 100l. to the foundation. By the charter of the foundation he was appointed the first provost. He held this office for little more than a year, but it was he who gave the foundation its ecclesiastical tone. ‘The place,’ he said on surrendering the office on 7 June 1594 to Walter Travers, a conformist, although of strong puritan bias, ‘requires a person of an exemplary conformity to the doctrine and discipline of this church as they are established by law. … Both papists and schismatics are (tho' in different degrees of enmity) equally our implacable enemies’ (Lansdowne MSS. 846, ff. 205–7; compare Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland; Urwick, Early History of Trinity College, Dublin; Stubbs, History of the University of Dublin; Heron, Constitutional History of the University of Dublin).
Early in 1590 some serious allegations of misconduct in the chancellorship were preferred against him by Robert Legge, deputy remembrancer in the exchequer. Legge was afterwards dismissed from his office by Fitzwilliam, but he found an ally in Barnaby Riche, and also, it was suspected, in Lord Buckhurst. On 2 Aug. 1592 Loftus addressed a letter to the privy council noticing Legge's charges, and praying that they might be thoroughly investigated. But his own answer, delivered on 17 Sept., appears to have been regarded as satisfactory, for on 21 Nov. he wrote to Burghley thanking him for the withdrawal of the accusation. Later on there were some rumours that commissioners were to be appointed, but nothing seems to have been done in the matter, much to Loftus's annoyance, who complained that their ‘not being searched into has given boldness to every discontented and malicious detractor to revenge themselves by such monstrous and false accusations against him’ (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. iv. 308, 350, 564, 581–587, v. 273).
Some time, apparently in 1589 or 1590 (ib. iv. 340), Loftus purchased the estate of Rathfarnham in county Dublin from Barry, viscount Buttevant ({sc|D'Alton}}, Hist. of Dublin, p. 785), where he erected a stately castle. On 4 March 1594 he was appointed, along with Sir Robert Gardiner and Sir Anthony St. Leger, to treat with the Earl of Tyrone and Hugh O'Donnell (Cal. Fiants, Eliz. No. 5851). Their negotiations (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. v. 221–6) were in a measure successful, and Tyrone promised to keep the peace until his grievances were impartially considered. In November 1595, ‘though the time of the year be unseasonable for my old and sickly body to undertake any long journey,’ he accompanied the deputy, Sir William Russell, into Connaught for the purpose of allaying disorders there (ib. pp. 430, 437). On the death of Lord Burgh in 1597, he and Sir Robert Gardiner were on 15 Nov. appointed lords justices for civil affairs till the arrival of Essex in April 1599 relieved him from a charge which had proved particularly onerous owing to the rebellion of the Earl of Tyrone and the general collapse of the government after the overthrow of Bagenall at the battle of the Yellow Ford. But on Essex's hasty departure Loftus was, on 25 Sept. 1599, sworn in with Sir George Carey, and continued in office until the arrival of Lord-deputy Mountjoy on 24 Feb. 1600. On the accession of James he was on 25 March 1603 confirmed in his office of lord chancellor ‘pro fidelitate industria sana conscientia atque doctrina.’ It is improbably said (Fitzsimon, Justification of the Masse, p. 300) that towards the end of his life he manifested a disposition to Roman catholicism, and that he was upbraided for his apostasy by Sir George Carey. He died at his palace of St. Sepulchre's, Dublin, on 5 April 1605, being seventy-two years of age, and was buried in the choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The spur and ball, together with the boar's head—the Loftus crest—which were hung from the wall over the vault, have within the last two years or so been removed, and there is nothing now to mark the place of his burial.
Loftus married Jane, eldest daughter of Adam Purdon of Lurgan Race, co. Louth. She died in July 1595, and was buried in St. Patrick's. By her he had twenty children, viz.: Sir Dudley, who married Anne Bagenall, daughter of Sir Nicholas (not, as according to the peerages, Sir Henry) Bagenall; Sir
