The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1771.

In 1785 delegates of the Oxford University Press presented this six volume set of Shakespeare’s works to Miss Phillis Blake in honor of her uncle Jonathan Toup. Toup was a Greek scholar who earned his M.A. from Exeter College, Oxford, and was chiefly known for his publications on Suidas, Longinus, and Theocritus.

Each of the six volumes is inscribed with the following handwritten dedication by the delegates of the Oxford University Press:

A present from the Delegates of the University Press, Oxford,
to Miss Phillis Blake, 1785:
in acknowledgement of her communication of the valuable MSS
of her late Uncle, Jonathan Toup, A.M.: - to whose memory a
monument is likewise created at their charge in the chancel of
St. Martin’s Church, near Looe, in Cornwall.

The six volume set was later inherited by Jonathan Toup’s descendant Jonathan Toup Nicolas, a member of the Royal Navy, whose chief naval exploits are narrated in William James, Naval History of Great Britain (London: R. Bentley, 1837), Volume 5 and Volume 6.

The following inscription appears within the title pages of Volume 1 and details the inscription on the monument at St. Martin's Church in Cornwall.

INSCRIPTION

Inscriptions
on two Mural Tablets in the Chancel of St. Martin’s Church,
near Looe, in Cornwall.

1.
Near this Place lie the Remains
of Jonathan Toup, A.M.
Rector of this Parish 34 years,
Victor of S. Merrins,
and Prebendary of Exeter.
His Abilities,
and critical sagacity,
are known to the Learned throughout Europe:
His Virtues,
From the retired privacy of his Life,
Were known but to Few:
To those Few
They have endeared his Memory.
J.T. was born December 13, 1713: died Jan. 19. 1785.

2.
The Tablet above
Was inscribed to the Memory of her Uncle
By Phillis Blake:
The charge of it was afterwards defrayed
By the Delegates of the Oxford Press,
as a small Testimony
of their Respect for the Character of Mr. Toup
and of their Gratitude
for his many valuable contributions.