John Tobin (28 January 1770 – 7 December 1804) was a British playwright, who was for most of his life unsuccessful, but in the year of his death made a hit with The Honey Moon.
In 1787 he left Bristol to be articled to a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn, and, some ten years later, on his employer's death without a successor, he took over the practice in partnership with three other clerks in the office.
In 1800 his "School for Authors", which afterwards achieved success, was rejected, and it was not until April 1803 that he (due to the good opinion of Joseph Shepherd Munden) saw a piece of his own on the boards, a farce, "All's Fair in Love".
In 1804, having submitted his fourteenth production, a romantic play in blank verse called 'The Honey Moon,' to the management at Drury Lane (it had failed to win acceptance at Covent Garden), he left his rooms near the Temple and went for his health to Cornwall.
The ship put back, and he was buried in the little churchyard of Cove, near Cork, where the remains of Charles Wolfe, author of the "Burial of Sir John Moore", were laid nineteen years later.
[1] The Honey Moon was given at Drury Lane on 31 January 1805, with Elliston and Bannister in the leading rôles, and proved a decided success.