Jacob Tonson [SEP] date of birth
Jacob Tonson
Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the elder (1655–1736) was an eighteenth-century English bookseller and publisher.
Tonson published editions of John Dryden and John Milton, and is best known for having obtained a copyright on the plays of William Shakespeare by buying up the rights of the heirs of the publisher of the Fourth Folio after the Statute of Anne went into effect. He was also the founder of the famous Kit-Cat Club. His nephew, Jacob Tonson the younger (1682–1735)
's reply to Collier, and at a later date "The Faithful Friend" and "The Confederacy" by his friend, Sir John Vanbrugh.
Before the end of the century Tonson had moved from the Judge's Head to a shop in Gray's Inn Gate, probably the one previously occupied by his brother Richard. It is not unlikely that Richard was dead, and that Jacob, who had no children, and seemingly never married, now took into partnership his 
nephew Jacob, whose son was afterwards to be