Arthur Loftus (politician, died 1781)

Arthur Loftus was born in Ireland as the second of three sons to Simon and Hannah Loftus (née Johnson). His father had been recently transferred back to Ireland, having served as a captain in Colonel Harrison's Regiment in the Battles of Malplaquet and Glen Shiel. Loftus is thought to have grown up in a military-style household in the parish of Clara alongside his brothers and sister. The brothers were all 1 year apart from one another, and all three eventually joined the military. Loftus was granted a commission in the British Army as an ensign in the same regiment as his father weeks before his father's death. ==Military career==

A month after Loftus joined Colonel Harrison's Regiment of Foot, he was promoted to lieutenant, likely as part of the Irish establishment. Having served in his father's regiment for twenty years, Loftus transferred to the 22nd Regiment of Foot in October 1760, and was promoted to the rank of Major. The regiment took part in the capture of Martinique and the Siege of Havana in 1762, where Loftus was commended for his leadership of a force of six hundred and two rank and file. The regiment moved in 1763 to West Florida, which at the time encompassed all territory between the Mississippi and Apalachicola Rivers with its capital at Pensacola, which is where Loftus was stationed. Loftus Heights In 1763, Britain signed a peace treaty with France, ending the seven years' French and Indian War. All French Illinois country east of the Mississippi were ceded to British control, an area so vast that “England found herself in possession of more territory at the close of the French and Indian war than her king and ministry could well govern”. The first expeditionary force to exert control over the territory was assigned to Loftus, who was charged with taking possession of the fortress of Chartres, the administrative centre for the region. The plan had been conceived by Colonel Robertson and involved mounting a waterborne expedition to travel the nine-hundred-mile stretch of the Mississippi from New Orleans and taking possession of Fort Chartres, a journey that was expected to take two to four months, assuming the full cooperation of the French. Colonel Robertson had arranged for boats and equipment to be procured in New Orleans but had been unable to recruit a guide for expedition. Despite Loftus applying severe discipline amongst his men, the French Governor reported twenty desertions before the expedition had started. Loftus picked up the boats and provisions and set off heavily laden on February the 27th. The Mississippi river was in full flow, creating strong currents, which, when combined with adverse winds, made progress both laborious and slow. Disease began to take hold, resulting in one death and frequent desertions. After three weeks and two hundred and forty miles, the flotilla was attacked by Tonica Indians at Roche Davion. Loftus abandoned the expedition, having lost around a quarter of his men, mostly through desertions. The failure of the expedition arguably encouraged the Indians to resist British rule, resulting in Pontiac’s War. ==Political career==

Loftus spent the next two years with his regiment "employed at various stations" around England. In 1768, Loftus resigned his commission in the Army and relocated to Ireland at the same time that his former commander at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, George Townshend, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Weeks later, Loftus was elected to the Irish Parliament for Fethard (Wexford), a borough seat in the pocket of his distant undertaker cousin, the Honourable Henry Loftus. Loftus served as a Member of Parliament for the boroughs of Fethard from 1768 to 1775 and Clonmines from 1776 until his death in 1781. Both boroughs were controlled by his cousin, who commanded up to ten seats in the Irish House of Commons, constituting a powerful voting bloc known as the Loftus Squadron. Loftus was said to have been a "worthy man" and a good attender of Parliament but, at the age of forty-six, was reportedly already infirm. By 1774, his attendance at Parliament became intermittent and he was granted an annual pension. Despite his infirmity, Loftus was again returned to Parliament for the Loftus Squadron in 1776 and was rewarded the office of the collector of taxes for Dundalk. Loftus supported the Government for the rest of his life, voting against Modification of Poyning's Law. Loftus died at his house in Dorset Street, leaving his wife, Dorothy, and a daughter. ==Notes and references==