Long, John (d. 1589), Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh, was born in London c.1547–8 and educated at Eton. He wrote four epigrams in Latin that were presented, along with other verses from Eton scholars, to Queen Elizabeth at Windsor castle in 1563. He was admitted to King's College, Cambridge, as a scholar on 13 August 1564, but there is no evidence that he had taken a degree when he left Cambridge in 1567. He became vicar of Stanwell, Middlesex, before being plucked from obscurity when the lord deputy of Ireland Sir John Perrot (qv) nominated him to the see of Armagh on 7 July 1584. His consecration took place six days later. He was not close to the queen and, as a result, was not permitted to hold other church offices to supplement the meagre resources of his diocese. Further, it was only in March 1585 that the queen assented to Perrot's urgings that Long be made an Irish privy councillor.
Upon Long's elevation to the leadership of the Church of Ireland, its pitiful state and unpopularity were apparent to all – he noted, with some exaggeration, that there were not forty native-born protestants in the country. Initially he and Perrot determined on using the ecclesiastical court of high commission, on which Long sat, to prosecute catholics, but in early 1585 the queen ordered them not to risk inflaming the already alienated catholic majority, and thereafter they made no attempt to persecute catholics. Perrot's political enemies, particularly Adam Loftus (qv), archbishop of Dublin, began to accuse Perrot of having catholic sympathies. In the ensuing controversies Long was to the fore in defending his patron from such charges, and he promoted the spread of protestantism through preaching and education, rather than by religious persecution. He argued that the Irish rejected the reformation not out of wilfulness or malice, but out of ignorance of the fundamental tenets of Christianity. To rectify this he founded a school at Waterford and supported Perrot in his unsuccessful efforts to establish a university in Dublin during 1584–6. In summer 1586 the bishop of Kildare preached against the toleration of catholicism and was obliquely critical of Long, to which Long responded that toleration was acceptable so long as it was accompanied by evangelisation.
Long resided mainly at his episcopal palace at Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. The position of archbishop of Armagh brought prestige, but very little income. He was pardoned in 1586 for non-payment of his first fruits and twentieth part, and lived well beyond his means, dying deeply in debt. After his death, he was accused of forging a document that gave him the right to lease diocesan property and of further diminishing the resources of his diocese. He died at Drogheda before 16 January 1589 and was buried in the vault of Primate Octavian del Palatio at St Peter's church, Drogheda. His widow, Anne, with whom he had children, was absolved on 15 May 1590 of debts to the crown left by her husband, which in November 1589 were estimated at £1,000.