There are competing theories for the origin of the name "Toby Jug". Although it has been suggested that the pot is named after
Sir Toby Belch in Shakespeare's play
Twelfth Night, or Uncle Toby in
Laurence Sterne's
Tristram Shandy, the most widely accepted theory is that the original was a Yorkshireman, Henry Elwes, 'famous for drinking 2,000 gallons of strong stingo beer from his silver tankard, while eating nothing....He was nicknamed Toby Fillpot, and after his death in 1761 the London publisher of popular prints, Carrington Bowles, issued a
mezzotint portrait of him. It became a best-seller - as did the Burslem Potter Ralph Wood's "Toby" jugs based on the portrait.' Toby Fillpot was also the subject of a popular poem, 'The Brown Jug', by
Francis Fawkes: DEAR TOM , this brown jug, that now foams with mild ale, (In which I will drink to sweet Nan of the Vale) Was once Toby Fillpot, a thirsty old soul As e'er drank a bottle or fathomed a bowl; In boosing about 't was his praise to excel, And among jolly topers he bore off the bell. It chanced, as in dog-days he sat at his ease, In his flower-woven arbour, as gay as you please, With a friend and a pipe, puffing sorrows away, And with honest old Stingo was soaking his clay, His breath-doors of life on a sudden were shut, And he died full as big as a Dorchester butt. His body when long in the ground it had lain, And time into clay had resolved it again, A potter found out in its covert so snug, And with part of fat Toby he formed this brown jug; Now sacred to friendship, to mirth, and mild ale, So here 's to my lovely sweet Nan of the Vale. ==Cultural references==