Joan Gideon Loten (also spelt Johan or John, in school records as Johannes Gideon Looten; 16 May 1710 – 25 February 1789) was a Dutch servant in the colonies of the Dutch East India Company, the 29th Governor of Zeylan, Fellow of the Royal Society (elected 1760) and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (elected 1761).

Nine months after his return from the Dutch East Indies he moved to London, where he lived for 22 years and interacted with scholarly societies and shared his natural history illustrations and collections.

The sunbird species Cinnyris lotenius is named after him Joan Gideon Loten, born in Schadeshoeve, a farmstead at Groenekan, near Utrecht he was the eldest son of secretary of the waterboard Joan Carel Loten (1669–1769) and Arnoldina Maria van Aerssen van Juchen (1685–1775).

His father's mother Constantia Hoeufft was an orthodox Calvinist, but Joan was raised as a part of the Dutch Reformed Church.

By means of patronage of members of his family (likely Balthasar Boreel[3]) Loten was appointed junior merchant of the Company in 1731.

[4][5] In January 1732 Loten left the Dutch Republic sailing off from Texel aboard the East India man Beekvliet headed to Batavia (Jakarta) to become a prosecutor at Semarang.

On 24 August 1733 he married Anna Henrietta van Beaumont (1716–1755), a member of a prominent family in Batavia (for example, her uncle Isaak Augustijn Rumpf had been Governor of Dutch Ceylon from 1716 to 1723).

[7] During this period general Van Imhoff attempted to promote trade in opium in Batavia and sent out a hundred boxes to Loten.

In 1748 Beens raped a princess travelling on a boat bringing the wrath of her husband Prince Chala, of the Kingdom of Bony.

In June 1752 he was appointed Governor of Ceylon and travelled to Colombo on the Ghiessenburg along with his wife, daughter Arnoldina Deliana Cornelia and son-in-law (Dirk Willem Van Der Brugghen).

During the five-week voyage, Loten made calculations on a solar eclipse predicted for 6 November 1752 and visible in Batavia.

[16] Loten also clashed with Anthonij Mooijaert, an administrator in Jaffna who was extorting money from local rulers and fishery businesses with support from van Gollenesse.

[17] Although Loten was successful in the Dutch East Indies, in later years he became embittered against the company and the way the Court of directors in Amsterdam and the Government at Batavia treated its former servants.

On 30 July 1755, Loten's two-year-old grandson Albertje (Albert Anthoni Cornelis Van Der Brugghen) died, and the information was kept secret from his ailing wife.

The draughtsman Pieter Cornelis de Bevere was also aboard and produced a number of illustrations for Loten including of birds from Java, Banda and Ternate.

Loten left for Holland on 29 October 1757 aboard the Vrouwe Petronella Maria with a break in the Cape of Good Hope where he met up with Governor Rijk Tulbagh.

Once he returned to the Dutch Republic, he felt like an outsider, excluded from the circles of the aristocratic and patrician class and estranged from his orthodox and narrow-minded Utrecht Calvinistic relatives.

Through Daniel Solander, he found the physician Dr John Fothergill who gave him opiates for the control of asthma.

His son-in-law van der Brugghen died in 1770 and the Lotens made visits to Utrecht again and much of his time was spent dealing with his health.

Brother Arnout Loten was caught up in the Utrecht Patriot revolt or Patriottentijd and lost his position in the city council and would regain it only in 1787.

Matthieu Maty a Dutch-born Frenchman who had become librarian at the Natural History Museum let Loten visit regularly.

Joseph Banks, the later President of the Royal Society, accompanied Captain James Cook as a private naturalist on HMS Endeavour (1768–1771).