Joseph Lofthouse was born at Wadsley, Yorkshire, England on December 18, 1855. He was trained for foreign missionary work at the Church Missionary Society College, Islington, England and was sent in 1882 as a missionary to Hudson Bay. He served at Fort York and Fort Churchill, and in 1899 was appointed archdeacon of York, Moosonee.
In 1902, when the Diocese of Keewatin was formed, Archdeacon Lofthouse was appointed its first bishop. He was bishop for 19 years until 1921 when he resigned his see, and returned to England. Bishop Joseph Lofthouse Sr died at Dawlish, England, on December 16, 1933.
The Diocese of Keewatin came into being in 1902. Prior to that time the territory that it now occupies was part of the both the Diocese of Moosonee and the Diocese of Rupert’s Land. In 1902 the diocese stretched all the way from the border with the USA in the south to the far reaches of the Arctic in the north. When the Diocese of the Arctic was formed in 1930 the Diocese of Keewatin gave up its territory north of Churchill.