American Toby Jug Museum 

Raleigh toby jug produced by Staffordshire Fine Ceramics of Tunstall, England, circa 1975. Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) is one of the most colorful figures in English history. He was a soldier, explorer, writer and businessman. He attended Oxford before leaving to join a band of gentlemen volunteers who were helping the Huguenots in France. In 1578, he returned to England and joined his half-brother on a voyage of discovery and piracy in America. Whether the tale that he placed his coat in the mud for Queen Elizabeth is true or not, he did become the queen's favorite. She granted him an estate of 12,000 acres in Ireland. She also gave him trade privileges, the right to colonize in America and knighted him in 1585. Raleigh conceived and organized the colonizing expeditions of America that ended tragically with the lost colony on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. He subsequently embarked on several journeys of exploration and was made governor of Jersey in 1600. He met his downfall upon the accession of James I when was found guilty of participation in a plot to kill the king, for which he was eventually executed. A thick rope forms the handle of the jug.