Editing Capel Lofft

{{Short description|British lawyer, writer and astronomer (1751–1824)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2012}}

'''Capel Lofft''' (sometimes spelled '''Capell'''; 14 November 1751 – 26 May 1824) was a British lawyer, writer and [[amateur astronomer]].<ref name=":1">{{cite DNB |wstitle= Lofft, Capell (1751-1824) |volume= 34 |last= Holden |first= Hubert Ashton |author-link= Hubert Ashton Holden |pages=69-71 |short= 1}}</ref>

{{Infobox writer
| name             = Capel Lofft
| image            = Capel Lofft.jpg
| caption          = Portrait by William Ridley, 1802
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1751|11|14}}
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1824|5|26|1751|11|14}}
| occupation       = Lawyer, poet, writer, astronomer
| notable_works    = {{Unbulleted list|''Eudosia, or a Poem on the Universe''|''Elements of Universal Law''}}
| birth_place      = [[London]], England
| death_place      = [[Moncalieri]], [[Piedmont]], [[Italy]]
}}

==Life==
Born in London, he was educated at [[Eton College]] and [[Peterhouse, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=LFT769C|name=Lofft, Capell}}</ref> He trained as a lawyer at [[Lincoln's Inn]], where he was [[called to the bar]] (qualified as a [[barrister]]) in 1775. In addition to his legal practice, he became a prolific [[jurist|writer on the law]] and political topics. In politics, he was an advocate of parliamentary and other reforms, identifying with the [[Foxite Whig]] faction. He also engaged in voluminous correspondence with prominent [[author]]s.

His legal career was ended by a case in [[Stanton, Suffolk]]. On the night of 3 October 1799, Sarah Lloyd, a 22 year old servant, was incited by a [[suitor]] to steal 40 shillings. She was caught, tried, and sentenced to [[death by hanging]]. Capel Lofft fought{{why|date=November 2019}} strenuously but unsuccessfully for a reprieve. Lloyd was to be executed on 23 April 1800 in [[Bury St Edmunds]]. Lofft accompanied the cart transporting Lloyd on that morning, holding an [[umbrella]] over Lloyd to shield her from rain, and remained by her side until she was hanged. The authorities{{which|date=November 2019}} took a dim view of Lofft's fight on Lloyd's behalf,{{why|date=November 2019}} and he was [[struck off]] the Roll (list of qualified lawyers).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stanton.onesuffolk.net/assets/Village-information/Stanton-local-history.pdf|title=Stanton history}}</ref>

Lofft wrote the preface to poet and former Quaker [[Thomas 'Clio' Rickman]]'s ''An Ode, in Celebration of the Emancipation Of The Blacks of Saint Domingo, November 29, 1803''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpwNAAAAQAAJ&q=capel+lofft+clio+rickman&pg=PP11|title=An Ode, in Celebration of the Emancipation Of The Blacks of Saint Domingo, November 29, 1803|last=Rickman|first=Thomas "Clio"|publisher=Thomas "Clio" Rickman|year=1804|location=London|pages=4, 5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Dictionary of National Biography|last=Smith|first=Charlotte Fell|publisher=Smith, Elder & Co.|year=1896|volume=48|location=London|pages=266}}</ref> He commended [[Toussaint Louverture]] – "of whom Posterity will know how to speak" – and hoped that "a Nation [Haiti] which has emerged into Freedom should prove itself capable and worthy of the blessings [sic] by its use of it".<ref name=":0" />  He became the patron of [[Robert Bloomfield]], the author of ''The Farmer's Boy'', and was responsible for the publication of that work. [[George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron|Byron]], in a note to his ''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers'', ridiculed Lofft as "the [[Maecenas]] of shoemakers and preface-writer general to distressed versemen; a kind of ''gratis accoucheur'' to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know how to bring forth."

Lofft had an interest in [[astronomy]] and is known to have observed several [[Transit (astronomy)|transits]] and [[eclipses]]. These include the [[Transit of Mercury|transits of Mercury]] on 7 May 1799 and 9 November 1802,<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101064253063;view=2up;seq=422;skin=mobile|title=The Monthly magazine. v.7 (1799). – Full View {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library|journal=Monthly Magazine and Critical Register of Books|year=1796 |language=en|access-date=2017-07-04|last1=Blake |first1=William }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101064253139;view=2up;seq=482;skin=mobile|title=The Monthly magazine. v.14 (1802). – Full View {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library|journal=Monthly Magazine and Critical Register of Books|year=1796 |language=en|access-date=2017-07-04|last1=Blake |first1=William }}</ref> the [[solar eclipse]]s on [[Solar eclipse of June 16, 1806|16 June 1806]] and [[Solar eclipse of November 19, 1816|19 November 1816]],<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101064253204;view=2up;seq=110;skin=mobile|title=The Monthly magazine. v.22 (1806). – Full View {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library|journal=Monthly Magazine and Critical Register of Books|year=1796 |language=en|access-date=2017-07-04|last1=Blake |first1=William }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101064253394;view=2up;seq=442;skin=mobile|title=The Monthly magazine. v.42 (1816). – Full View {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library|journal=Monthly Magazine and Critical Register of Books|year=1796 |language=en|access-date=2017-07-04|last1=Blake |first1=William }}</ref> and the [[lunar eclipse]]s on 4 December 1797 and 10 June 1816.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.20727708;view=2up;seq=452;skin=mobile|title=The monthly magazine, or, British register. c.1 v.4 1797. – Full View {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library|journal=Monthly Magazine and British Register|year=1796 |pages=4 v |language=en|access-date=2017-11-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79289539;view=2up;seq=12;skin=mobile|title=The monthly magazine, or, British register. c.1 v.42 1816. – Full View {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library {{!}} HathiTrust Digital Library|journal=Monthly Magazine and British Register|year=1796 |pages=4 v |language=en|access-date=2017-11-22}}</ref>

The deaths of Lofft's father and uncle in 1811 left him with a large property and [[family estate]].{{cn|date=November 2019}} A supporter of [[Napoleon]], he wrote [[letter to the editor|letters to the editor]] of the [[Morning Chronicle]] (31 July and 10 August 1815) opposing the Government's decision to send [[Napoleon I|Napoleon]] to [[St Helena]]. Lofft attempted to serve a writ of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' (a legal instrument against [[wrongful imprisonment]]) while the captive Napoleon was being held aboard a ship in [[Plymouth]].{{cn|date=November 2019}}

In 1816 Lofft moved to Europe for his daughters' education.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJjnOs2igqwC&q=capel+lofft&pg=PA155|title=Memoirs of Celebrated Men of the Nineteenth Century|date=1842|publisher=J. Chidley|pages=165|language=en}}</ref> He died in 1824 aged 72 at [[Moncalieri|Montcalieri]], near [[Turin]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJjnOs2igqwC&q=capel+lofft&pg=PA155|title=Memoirs of Celebrated Men of the Nineteenth Century|date=1842|publisher=J. Chidley|language=en}}</ref> His 'law and miscellaneous' library was auctioned in London by R. H. Evans (along with the books of Henry Cooper Esq) on 8 June 1825. A copy of the catalogue is at Cambridge University Library (shelfmark Munby.c.129(9)).

==Family==
Lofft married Anne, daughter of [[Henry Emlyn]], in 1778.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=8791|title=Emlyn, Henry|first=Christopher|last=Marsden}}</ref> Their fourth son [[Capell Lofft the younger]] (1806–1873), was also a writer. 

==Works==

* 1775: ''The Praises of Poetry, a Poem''
* 1776: ''Reports of Cases adjudged in the Court of King’s Bench''
* 1779: ''Principia cum Iuris universalis tum præcipue Anglicani''
* 1779: ''Elements of Universal Law''
* 1781: ''Eudosia, or a Poem on the Universe''
* 1785: ''An Essay on the Law of Libel''
* 1788: ''Three Letters on the Question of Regency''
* 1789: ''Observations on the first part of Dr. Knowles’s Testimonies from the Writers of the first four Centuries''
* 1790: ''An History of the Corporation and Test Acts''
* 1790: ''A Vindication''
* 1790: ''Remarks on Burke’s letter upon the French revolution''
* 1791: ''Preface to an Argument on the distinction between Manslaughter and Murther''
* 1791: ''An Essay on the Effect of a Dissolution of Parliament on an Impeachment by the House of Commons for High Crimes and Misdemeanours''
* 1792: ''Milton’s Paradise Lost (first book only)''
* 1803: ''The first and second Georgic of Virgil attempted in blank verse''
* 1809: ''On the Revival of the Cause of Reform in the Representation of the Commons in Parliament''
* 1812: ''Aphorisms from Shakespeare''
* 1814: ''Laura, or an Anthology of Sonnets (in five volumes)''<ref name=":1" />

==References==
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{{Reflist}}

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*{{EB1911|wstitle=Lofft, Capel|volume=16|pages=862–863}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lofft, Capel}}
[[Category:1751 births]]
[[Category:1824 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:British abolitionists]]
[[Category:English barristers]]
[[Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn]]
[[Category:18th-century British astronomers]]
[[Category:19th-century British astronomers]]
[[Category:English legal writers]]