My 4xgreat grandfather 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 Selway.
He had an interesting and varied career, starting as a
lighterman on the Thames (having attended Greenwich Hospital School, son of Thomas
Topper), then pursuing a long career as a Bow Street Officer before spending
some 30 years as a Foreman of porters for the GWR at Brentford Docks. He died
there after an accident in 1879. He married Susannah Griffin and had five
known children, the youngest called Susan Selway Topper. This middle name was
to help in confirming his mother’s maiden name. We also know that Charles
James Topper had at least one brother, Alfred David/Davey Topper, who is
mentioned as being apprenticed to his brother as a Lighterman.
A search for baptisms of other children of Thomas Topper
and his wife Elizabeth in/around Chelsea in the late 1700s and early
1800s at FamilySearch found:
- Thomas Robert Topper baptised St Luke, Chelsea 14 April 1799 (born 20 March 1799) son of Thomas Topper and Elizabeth
- Alfred Davey Topper baptised 12 November 1806, St Mary Lambeth, son of Thomas and Elizabeth
- Walter Prest Topper baptised 23 November 1818, St Mary Lambeth, son of Thomas and Elizabeth
There is also a baptism for a George Prest Topper at St
Martin at Palace, Norwich on 20 September 1811 (born 4 September), son of
Thomas Topper and Elizabeth (late Selway).
There are records at TNA that show that at least three of these sons were educated at Greenwich Hospital
School on petition of their father Thomas Topper (mother Elizabeth
is also mentioned): Thomas Robert, Charles James and George Prest.
If son Thomas Robert’s birth is the first in this couple’s
marriage, it would suggest a search for a marriage record before or including
1799.
Ancestry’s Westminster marriages collection has a
record for St George, Hanover Square, for 12 April 1798:
It reads:
Thomas Topper and
Elizabeth Selway, both of this parish were married in this church by banns this
twelfth day of April in the year 1798 by me Thos. Ash Curate.
This marriage was
solemnized between us Thos. Topper Elizabeth Selway
In the presence of
Caleb Greville TH Thompson
So they married just under a year before their eldest son
was baptised. Their son Charles James Topper gave his mother’s maiden
name to his youngest daughter Susan as a middle name. Where the middle names of
his brothers George Prest and Walter Prest Topper come from was a mystery.
There is a death index entry for Thomas Topper for
1838, just after the start of civil registration. The resulting deathcertificate shows that he died at No.54 Lower Sloane Street in Chelsea, aged
69, on 27 September 1838.
His youngest son Walter Topper of the same address was the
informant. Thomas Topper’s occupation is given as Telegraph Assistant.
He died of apoplexy. He was buried (FMP) at St Luke, Chelsea on 4
October 1838, his age given on the record as 69, and his address Lower Sloane
Street.
Google Street View for 54-56 Lower Sloane Street (47
A3216 - Google Maps) shows an imposing red brick Victorian building of
several stories, part of which is now The Sloane Club.
His age at death would suggest a year of birth of around 1769. A general search across the family history sites for a baptism for a Thomas Topper in London around that time finds an entry squeezed into a transcript (BT) of the Register of St Martin in the Fields, London, for 1769:
It shows:
[baptised Dec] 31 Thomas Topper of Thomas Walker &
Elizabeth [born] Dec 3
The line is just squeezed in before the beginning of entries
for 1770.
So my 6xgreat grandparents are Thomas Walker Topper
and Elizabeth.
I am intrigued as to how a
man who would send his sons to Greenwich Hospital School specifically to train for seafaring trades would end up as a Telegraph Assistant by the 1830s.
Was he a waterman himself? None of the children’s baptisms give information
about his occupation or even specific residence at the time. And what was he
doing in Norwich for the baptism of his fourth son? So what more can the
records tell us?
I looked at the various records found for his sons. No
occupation is given in the Greenwich Hospital School transcripts (although the
original records may have more information). The only clue is from the marriage
certificate of his youngest son Walter Prest Topper in 1846, where his father
is shown as ‘Thomas Topper, (late) Navy Officer’.
I then searched across all the family history sites to find
any other mentions of him other than his baptism, marriage and death.
At The Genealogist there is a record from Newgate
Prison (Calendar of Prisoners) for a Thomas Topper, aged 22, who was found
guilty of stealing breeches (property of Mr Cookes) on 23 May 1793. He is
described as ‘5’2”, dark hair and eyes pox marked born in London Mariner’. He
was ‘sent to New Prison’ although the record does not say for how long. If this
were my Thomas Topper he would have been about 24 years old rather than
22, but the occupation of Mariner may fit.
FindMyPast (British Newspaper Archive) has a report
of a trial for attempted murder from the London Courier and & Evening
Gazette of 14 October 1817, where one Thomas Topper is the first witness
(extract below):
As he was described as a Telegraph Assistant on his death
certificate, this may be the same man. Perhaps he gave up his work in the Navy
(he would have been nearly 50 by this time).
A description of West
Square, Lambeth at Wikipedia - West Square - Wikipedia – shows
that “In 1812, the Admiralty erected
a tower on No. 36, on the east side of the square, for the shutter
telegraph apparatus used to convey messages between Whitehall and New Cross,
and thence to and from Chatham and Sheerness.”
Thomas Topper presumably worked this kind of telegraph for his Naval
paymasters, at least in 1817. Optical
Telegraph (vauxhallandkennington.org.uk) notes of the Telegraph Tower in
West Square “The line through West Square (using shutters) was opened in 1796
and closed in 1814. It was reopened to Chatham (using semaphores) in 1816 and
closed in 1822.”
Thomas Topper’s proficiency in telegraphy may also be the reason he and his family were in Norwich at the time of son George Prest Topper’s birth in 1811, The history of the shutter telegraph in Norfolk, in the fight against Napoleon’s army and other enemies, is nicely described and illustrated at the Colonel Unthank site - Norfolk’s Napoleonic Telegraph | COLONEL UNTHANK'S NORWICH (colonelunthanksnorwich.com).
He says “a naval base was established at Great Yarmouth in 1796 and rapid communication with the Admiralty in London required something more than flags and burning barrels of tar … Stations might consist of a living room, a room for operations, a small garden and coal shed. Four to six naval men ran the station in twos or threes with one manning the shutters while the other(s) looked through high-power telescopes … the 1808 line to Great Yarmouth involved intervals up to 11.7 miles and required three right-angle bends, including one at Norwich”.
Thomas Topper was perhaps proficient in both the shutter telegraph and semaphore.
BNA also has a notice from The Morning Advertiser of the 25 May 1825 asking for information on the whereabouts of his runaway son George Prest Topper (the one born in Norwich), who has absconded from The Royal Naval School Greenwich:
On his widow's death certificate nearly 20 years later, she is described as Elizabeth Topper, widow of Thomas Topper, Manager of a Telegraph.
The certificates and these newspaper clippings do seem to indicate that Thomas
Topper was both in the Navy in some capacity, and also worked as a
Telegrapher. Whether or not he also stole Mr Cookes’ breeches five years before he married is unclear!
For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view
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