[2] He was a member of the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia with architects Thomas Nevell and Robert Smith.

[5] Pennsylvania did not have an official militia, since it had been founded by pacifist Quakers, and so prominent Pennsylvanians like Benjamin Franklin established a voluntary organization, known as the Philadelphia Associators, to help defend the province.

[7] In 1758, when British General John Forbes was preparing an expedition into western Pennsylvania to expel the French, he put Loxley in charge of military supplies stored in Philadelphia.

[8] Loxley did not see action in the French and Indian War, but in 1764, a frontier vigilante mob known as the Paxton Boys marched on Philadelphia.

Loxley arranged his cannons and artillerymen in the streets while Franklin negotiated with the Paxton leaders, which ended the crisis.

[9] With the coming of the American Revolution, one of Loxley's first acts was to turn over the city stores he was in charge to the Patriots.

[10] After news was received of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Philadelphia Associators was reorganized, with Captain Loxley placed in command of the 174 men of the 1st Company of the Artillery Battalion under Major Samuel Mifflin.

[10][11] In July 1776, Loxley took his company in boats down the Delaware River to an engagement with British gunboats at the Battle of Red Bank.