[Sketch of Charlotte Elizabeth by Mrs. Balfour; Gent. Mag. 1846, ii. 433-4; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland; Memoir of Charlotte Elizabeth. 1852.]
TONNA, LEWIS HIPPOLYTUS JOSEPH (1812–1857), author, was born on 3 Sept. 1812 at Liverpool, where his father was vice-consul for Spain and the Two Sicilies. His mother was the daughter of Major H. S. Blanckley, consul-general in the Balearic Islands. In 1828 he was at Corfu, a student, when the death of his father threw him on his own resources, and he entered as interpreter, with the mling of 'acting schoolmaster,' on board the Hydra, then employed in the Gulf of Patras. In January 1831 ha was transferred to the Rainbow with Sir John Franklin [q. v.], and in October 1833 to the Britannia, flagship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm [q.v.] On returning to England in 1835 he obtained—apparently through Malcolm's influence—the post of assistant-director and afterwards of secretary of The Royal United Service Institution. This he held till his death on 2 April 1857, rendering to the institution 'zealous and effective' service. He was twice married: first, in 1841. to Mrs. Phelan [see Tonna, Charlotte Elizabeth]; secondly, in 1848, to Mary Anne, daughter of Charles Dibdin the younger [see under Dibdin, Henry Edward], who survived him. There was no issue by either marriage.
Tonna was the author of numerous small books and pamphlets, almost all on religious and controversial subjects, written from the ultra-protestant point of view. Among these may be named:
- 'Erchomena, or Things to Come," 1847, 16mo.
- 'Nuns and Nunneries: Sketches compiled entirely from Romish Authorities,' 1852, 12mo.
- 'The Real Dr. Achilli: a few more words with Cardinal Wiseman,' 1850, 8vo.
- 'The Lord is at Hand.'
- 'Privileged Persons.'
[Gent. Mag. '1857, ii. 85; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Ships' Paybooks &c. in the Public Record Office.]
TONNEYS, TONEYS, or TONEY, JOHN (d. 1510?), grammarian, was perhaps a native of Tony, Norfolk, and was educated from childhood at the Austin Friary, Norwich. He became a friar and was sent to Cambridge. He proceeded D.D, in 1502, and became prior of the Norwich house and provincial of his order in England. He studied Greek,and Bale told Leland that he had seen s Greek letter by him. He wrote 'Rudimenta Grammatices,' said to have been printed by Pynson (8vo), of which no copy is known. Leland saw many copies of his book on grammar in the Augustinian Library, London. Bale ascribes to him nine works, sermons, letters, lectures, collectanea, and rhymes, of which nothing further is known. He died about 1510, and was buried in London. A 'Master Toneys' appears to have been in Wolsey's service in 1614, and a Robert Toneys attested Princess Mary 'a marriage to Louis XII of France in the same year, and was afterwards canon of Lincoln and of York (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vols. i. and ii.)
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr.; Blomefield's Norfolk, iv. 91; Ossinger's Bibl. August, p. 896; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed, Herberr, i. 236; Baker's Chronicle, p. 292; Bale's Scriptt. Brit. viii. 55; Leland's Collectanea, ii. 51.]
TONSON, JACOB (1656?–1736), publisher, born about 1656, was the second son of Jacob Tonson, chirurgeon and citizen of London, who died in 1668. He is believed to have been related to Major Richard Tonson, who obtained a grant of land in co. Cork from Charles II, and whose descendants became Barons Riversdale (Burke, Extinct Peerage). By his father's will (P. C. C. Hene 147) he and his elder brother Richard, as well as three sisters, were each entitled to 100l., to be paid when they came of age (Malone, Life of Dryden, p. 522). On 5 June 1670 Jacob was apprenticed to Thomas Basset, a stationer, for eight years (ib. p. 536). Having been admitted a freeman of the Company of Stationers on 20 Dec. 1677, he began business on his own account, following his brother Richard, who had commenced in 1676, and had published, among other things, Otway's 'Don Carlos.' Richard Tonson had a shop within Gray's Inn Gate; Jacob Tonson's shop was for many years at the Judge's Head in Chancery Lane, near Fleet Street.
It has been said that when Tonson bought the copy of 'Troilus and Cressida ' (1679), the first play of Dryden's that he published, he was obliged to borrow the purchase money (20l.) from Abel Swalle, another bookseller. However this may be, the names of both booksellers appear on the title-page, as was often the case at that time. Tonson was sufficiently well off to purchase plays by Otway and Tate. In 1681 the brothers Richard and Jacob joined in publishing Dryden's 'Spanish Friar,' and in 1683 Jacob Tonson obtained a valuable property by purchasing from Barbazon Ailmer, the assignee of Samuel Simmons, one half of his right in 'Paradise Lost.' The other half was purchased at an advance in 1690. Tonson
