Lord Robert Tottenham Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Rt Revd
Lord Robert Tottenham
Honorific-Suffix:DD MA
Order:Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora[1]
Term Start:1804
Term End:1820
Order2:Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin
Term Start2:1820
Term End2:1822[2]
Order3:Bishop of Clogher
Term Start3:1822
Term End3:1850[3]
Birth Date:5 September 1773
Death Date:28 April 1850
Nationality:Irish
Alma Mater:Christ Church, Oxford
Spouse:Hon. Alicia Maude
8th child and 6th daughter of
Cornwallis Maude, 1st Viscount Hawarden[4]

Robert Ponsonby Tottenham (5 September 1773 – 28 April 1850; Robert Ponsonby Loftus until 1806) was an Irish Anglican Bishop in the first half of the 19th century.[5]

He was born the younger son[6] of Charles Loftus, 1st Marquess of Ely and Jane Myhill, daughter of Robert Myhill of Killarney, in Woodstock, County Wicklow[7] on 5 September 1773 [8] and educated at Christ Church, Oxford.[9] He was Precentor of Cashel from 1798 until 1804[10] when he was elevated to the episcopate[11] as Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora.[12] Upon his father's death, he inherited the family's Tottenham Green estate, changing his surname back to the older family name of Tottenham. In 1820 he was translated[13] to Ferns[14] and two years later to Clogher, where he replaced the disgraced Bishop Jocelyn.[15] [16] He died in post[17] on 28 April 1850.[18]

He married the Hon. Alicia Maude, daughter of Cornwallis Maude, 1st Viscount Hawarden and his third wife Anne Monck, and had numerous children of whom seven reached adult life, including the youngest, George Tottenham, Dean of Clogher 1900-03.

There is a memorial tablet to him in Clogher Cathedral.[19]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.churchofirelandclare.com/img/PG000022.pdf Church of Ireland- Clare
  2. "Enniskellen long ago" Bradshaw,W.H: Dublin, George Herbert, 1878
  3. Web site: Died . Ireland Old News . Ballina Chronicle . 8 May 1850 . 6 December 2020 .
  4. " A General and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire" Burke,J London, Colburn,H/ Bentley, R 1832
  5. [Burke's Peerage]
  6. http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/frost/chap10_killaloe_protestant_bishops.htm Clare Library
  7. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/accessions/2007/07returns/07ac624.htm National Archives
  8. http://www.thepeerage.com/p6821.htm thePeerage.com
  9. http://tottenham.name/People_BishopOfClogher.html Tottenham name
  10. [The Morning Chronicle]
  11. http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=%22+Banks+Ireland%22&type=Subject&filter%5B%5D=genre_facet%3A%22Records+and+correspondence%22 National Library of Ireland
  12. "A New History of Ireland" Moody, T.M; Martin, F.X; Byrne, F.J; Cosgrove, F:Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1976
  13. Web site: RDS . 2011-03-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110726164116/http://www.rds.ie/cat_historic_member_detail.jsp?itemID=1094357&item_name= . 2011-07-26 . dead .
  14. Fryde, E. B; Greenway, D. E; Porter, S; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third Edition, revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
  15. Cotton, Henry (1849). The Succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies of Ireland. Fasti ecclesiae Hiberniae. Vol. 3, The Province of Ulster. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. pp. 73–77
  16. Dictionary of Irish Biography (D.I.B.): Jocelyn, Percy. https://www.dib.ie/biography/jocelyn-percy-a4281
  17. http://clogher.anglican.org/1500/index.php?p=20cent Clogher Anglican
  18. [The Times]
  19. "Clogher clergy and parishes: being an account of the clergy of the Church of Ireland in the Diocese of Clogher, from the earliest period, with historical notices of the several parishes, churches, etc" Leslie, J.B. p 23/4: Enniskille; R. H. Ritchie; 1929