The Ely papers, as the quantity of reference numbers cited above would suggest, are not one but a host of scattered deposits in PRONI, amounting in total to around 1,550 documents, covering the period 1630 to 1928 and documenting the estates, mainly in Cos Fermanagh, Wexford and Dublin, the business affairs and the frequent accessions of peerage honours of the Loftus family, from 1751 Barons and Viscounts Loftus and Earls and Marquesses of Ely.