The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 2 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 2 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
St. Ives was distinguished in the last century by the birth and
residence for some years of a very eminent scholar, the Rev. Jonathan
Toup. His father, who died in 1721, was lecturer of that Town, as the
church being a daughter church to Lelant, is entitled to service from
the vicar only once in three weeks; his mother was the heiress of the
family of Busvargus, long settled at Busvargus in St. Just.
He was born in 1713; and it is apprehended received the rudiments of
classical learning from his father. He became a Commoner of Exeter
College, Oxford, and having taken the usual degree of Bachelor of
Arts, obtained Holy Orders in 1736. He was Curate of Philleigh in that
year, and of Burian in 1738. He continued to pursue, with
extraordinary diligence, the study of Greek. He became Rector of St.
Martin’s, near Looe in 1750, through some private interest; but the
Vicarage of St. Merran and a Prebend in the Cathedral of Exeter in
1774, were procured from the Bishop of Exeter by his literary friend
Doctor William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester.
Mr. Toup took his Master of Arts degree at Cambridge in 1756, when he
had advanced towards the middle of life, and apparently as a
qualification for his second living.
His chief work is, perhaps, “Emendationes in Suidam; in quibus plurima
loca Veterum Græcorum, Sophoclis et Aristophanis in primis, tum
explicuntur tum emaculantur.” These were printed in three parts, which
came out in three volumes in the years 1760, 1764, and 1766; and were
followed in 1775 by “Appendiculum Notarum in Suidam.” All these have
since been reprinted at Leipsic in four volumes octavo; and the whole
has been recently incorporated into a most splendid and learned
edition of Kusterus’ Suidas, by the very Reverend Thomas Gaisford,
D.D., Dean of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Greek in the
University of Oxford.
Mr. Toup gave also to the world by far the best edition that has
appeared of Longinus. He also assisted the celebrated Mr. Thomas
Warton in his edition of Theocritus; and added, “Curæ posteriores,
sive Appendicula Notarum atque Emendationum in Theocritum, Oxonii
nuperrime publicatum.” He also published a letter to Bishop Warburton
under the title of, “Epistola Critica ad Virum celeberrimum Gulielmum
(Warburton) Episcopum Glocestriensem.”
Nothing in particular is remembered of Mr. Toup’s private life. He
died unmarried at the Rectory of St. Martin’s in 1785; and the
delegates of the Oxford press, in regard for so eminent a scholar, and
in return for a present of MSS. made by his niece and executrix, have
erected a monument to his memory in St. Martin’s Church.
Another gentleman, although not a native of the town, may be noticed
here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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