Henry Loftus, 1st Earl of Ely
The Earl of Ely | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Bannow (Parliament of Ireland constituency) and County Wexford (Parliament of Ireland constituency) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Henry Loftus 18 November 1709 |
| Died | 8 May 1783 (aged 73) Bath, Great Britain |
| Party | Independent |
| Parent(s) | Nicholas Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus and Anne Ponsonby |
| Occupation |
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Henry Loftus, 1st Earl of Ely KP, PC (Ire) (18 November 1709 – 8 May 1783), styled The Honourable from 1751 to 1769 and known as Henry Loftus, 4th Viscount Loftus from 1769 to 1771, was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician, who commanded the Loftus Squadron, a small but disproportionately powerful voting bloc in the Irish House of Commons.
Loftus was the second son of Nicholas Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus and Anne Ponsonby, daughter of William Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Duncannon, living at Loftus Hall in the County of Wexford. He served as Sheriff of the county in 1744 and was resident in the Barony of Bargy at Richfield manor in 1745, serving as a member of parliament to the Irish House of Commons in his father's seat of Bannow from 1747.
For the first fifty years of his life, as the younger son, Loftus lead a modest life in relative obscurity, subsisting on the patronage he could obtain from his first cousin William Ponsonby, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.