15.1 4xgreat grandfather Charles James Topper (1801-1879): Lighterman, Policeman, Docks Porter, Accidental Death

 When my 3xgreat grandmother Elizabeth Topper was baptised at St Mary Lambeth on 4 October 1826, her parents are named as Charles Topper, Bow Street Officer, and his wife Susan, of Mason Street.

Finding a Bow Street Runner in the family was an exciting discovery; researching him further in the British Newspaper Archive at FindMyPast, The Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online and general searches at all the main Family History sites shows that he had an interesting and varied career spanning over 50 years until his accidental death in 1879. His father, brothers and grandfather also all had interesting lives and made their marks – usually on the right side of the law – in the newspapers and criminal records.

He married Susannah Griffin (also known as Susan) at St George Hanover Square on 10 November 1824. The parish register entry shows that the witnesses were Alfred Davey Topper (later found to be his brother) and Elizabeth Topper, probably his mother.

Charles signs the register, as do the two witnesses, but Susannah simply makes her mark.

The couple had four more known children after Elizabeth Topper: Charlotte (1828), Charles (1830), Ellen (1839) and Susan Selway Topper (1841).

Charles James Topper was born on 19 April 1801 in Chelsea, and baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, on 17 June that year, son of Thomas Topper and his wife Elizabeth. 

He appears to have started his working life as a Lighterman; he was admitted to Greenwich Hospital School aged 8 with his brother Thomas Robert ((according to the transcript of a petition held at TNA). Their father is named as Thomas Topper. He was later shown as master to his brother Alfred David (or Davey), who was apprenticed to him in 1823 (Register of Thames Watermen and Lightermen at FindMyPast).

On 31 August 1824, the Morning Advertiser reports on the Lambeth Regatta (The British Newspaper Archive | findmypast.co.uk) where competition for the ‘new Wherry and other prizes, given … as an encouragement to the Waterman’, where Charles James Topper, with fellow rower George Maynard, won the Prize Wherry after several exciting heats.

A few months later he has married, and by the time his first child, Elizabeth Topper, was born in 1826, he is employed as a Bow Street Officer. He is also described as a Serjeant of Police on his son's baptism record in 1830.

Keen to find out if there were any records of his time as a Bow Street Officer, I searched the records of The Old Bailey Online. Three years after daughter Elizabeth was born, Central Criminal Court (oldbaileyonline.org) has an account of him giving evidence in the trial of James Bagley and George Rider, who were accused of stealing “1 cap, value 9s., the goods of John Morton , from the person of William Morton.” 

The accused were found guilty but recommended to mercy and therefore ‘discharged and whipped’.

In 1833, the same source sees him giving evidence in the trial of 18 year old Charlotte Baker, servant of Elizabeth Bangham of Hammersmith, accused of stealing a ‘reading glass’ from her mistress and exchanging it for a pair of boots at a ‘sale shop’. She was found guilty and ‘confined for one month’.

 

The Bow Street runners were disbanded in 1839 (associated officers had been incorporated into the new Metropolitan Police ten years’ earlier). In 1838, after more than ten years' service with the police, he takes up a role as Porter for the GWR at Brentford Dock. By then he would have been 37 years old.

I have not found him in the 1841 census. His wife Susan Griffin is enumerated at Stanford, Berkshire, with their four youngest children – including Susan, aged just a few months – and is described as ‘Ind[ependent], which is a little odd. However, they are together as a married couple living at Botwell, Hayes, Middlesex, by the time of the 1851 census. His birthplace is confirmed as Chelsea, and his occupation is now shown as Foreman Porter GWR. Son Charles James and daughter Susan are still at home with them:

On 9 May 1853, he is once again on familiar ground at the Central Criminal Court (oldbaileyonline.org). He declares himself ‘porter to the Great Western Railway, at Bull's Bridge wharf’ and gives evidence in the case against Thomas Hammond, accused of stealing a box of biscuits which had been loaded onto a truck. The accused’s father had been buried on the day he was finally apprehended; he was recommended to mercy on account of his good character, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.

Charles James Topper’s occupation is also given as Porter on his daughter Charlotte’s marriage certificate in the same year. In the 1861 census, he is still described as a Porter for the GWR, still at Botwell, Hayes, Middlesex. Their children have all left home, but their 11 year old granddaughter Elizabeth Windebank (their daughter Elizabeth Topper’s child), is with them on census night. Ten years later, he is living at Catherine Wheel Yard, New Brentford, close to the docks where he worked. His wife isn’t in the household on census night, but their 15 year old grandson Charles Jones is.

Charles James Topper’s service with GWR at Brentford Docks lasts for 41 years until his death – by an accident at work – in 1879, aged 78. The Acton Gazette at The British Newspaper Archive | findmypast.co.uk reveals some of the gruesome details and the coroner’s reprimand to his employers:

The Middlesex Chronicle of 4 October at The British Newspaper Archive | findmypast.co.uk reports in more detail: Charles James Topper was ‘better known as ‘Old Topper’, and in the words of his son who gave evidence at the inquest ‘very active and hearty for his age’.

His death certificate echoes the coroner’s verdict: ‘Violent death Run over by Railway Trucks accidentally’.

His occupation is given as ‘Foreman of porters at dock’, and the place of death is ‘At Brentford Dock on Great Western Railway, New Brentford’. The certificate also gives the date of the inquest (1 October 1879). 

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view