Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna

This article is about the evangelical protestant pamphleteer. For the ecclesiastical lawyer (1852–1938), see Lewis Dibdin.

Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna (3 September 1812 – 2 April 1857) was an English polyglot and campaigner on behalf of evangelical protestantism.

Born Liverpool, son of the Spanish vice-consul and consul for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, his father died in 1828 while he was a student in Corfu and he was compelled to find employment as an interpreter aboard the Hydra. He served on various ships until returning to England in 1835 to become a director of the Royal United Services Institute.[1]

Tonna married Charlotte Elizabeth Browne, a widow, in 1841 and the two were prolific pamphleteers for the evangelical Protestant cause.[1] When Giacinto Achilli was interned following the fall of the Roman Republic, Tonna was prominent in the campaign for his release and return to England.[2] Following Charlotte's death in 1846, in 1848 he married Mary Anne Dibdin, daughter of Charles Dibdin (the younger). Neither marriage produced children and Tonna died in London.[1]

Honours

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Laughton (2004)
  2. ^ Gilley (2004)

Bibliography

  • Gilley, S. (2004) "Achilli, (Giovanni) Giacinto (b. c.1803)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 22 July 2007 (subscription required)
  • Laughton, J. K. (2004) "Tonna, Lewis Hippolytus Joseph (1812–1857)", rev. Stephen Gregory, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 23 July 2007 (subscription required)
  • Lewis, D. M. (ed.) (1995). The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, 1730–1860 (2 vols. ed.). {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)