Dr Dudley Loftus (1619 – June 1695) was an Anglo-Irish jurist and noted orientalist. Loftus was born the second son of Sir Adam Loftus and his wife Jane Vaughan, daughter of Walter Vaughan, into a family of 17 siblings on his great-grandfather’s estate of Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin when 18, then entered Oxford University in 1639 on the advice of Bishop Usher, taking his Master of Arts degree in 1641. Loftus is interred in the family vault in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.