25.10 4th great granduncle Walter Prest Topper (1818-1886): Rail and coffee

My 5xgreat grandparents Thomas Topper and Elizabeth Selway married at St George, Hanover Square, London, on 12 April 1798. Their marriage lasted 40 years, before Thomas Topper’s death, aged 69, of apoplexy, on 27 September 1838.

Their youngest known son was Walter, given the same middle name of Prest as his older brother George, who ran away from school aged 13, in 1825. Walter was born in 1818 in Lambeth, and baptised there on 23 November 1818. His father – my 5xgreat grandfather Thomas Topper, would have been working at the shutter telegraph for the Admiralty at the time. A year before his birth, his father was reported in the newspapers as having witnessed an attempted murder from the telegraph at West Square.

Unlike his older brothers, he does not appear to have been admitted to the Royal Hospital School at Greenwich (at least, there are no records at TNA for him). Perhaps his brother’s voluntary absence from the school was enough to persuade his parents to educate him elsewhere; at the time he would have been 7 years old, just about the same age his brothers were admitted.

There is a possible record for him in the 1841 census, his age rounded down to 20, living at Esher Street, Westminster, with his widowed mother Elizabeth. Her age though is shown as 51, not the 60 that she would have been. He is shown as a Labourer.

He married Maria Louisa Blatch at St Mary Haggerston on 17 November 1846, his older brother Thomas Robert was a witness. Walter is described as a ‘conductor’, and his father, Thomas Topper, is a ‘late Navy Officer’. The bride’s father is also ‘late’, formerly a shoemaker. 

On 23 September 1850, Bell’s Weekly (FindMyPast) published a report of the inquest into the deaths of nine men at which Walter Topper gave evidence:

It seems Walter Topper was by then living at Braintree, Essex, and working as a railway guard on a steam engine which ran into nine men who were ballasting on the line, in fog. 

The newspaper report sets out the initial evidence of the other witnesses, and after hearing of the good credentials of the driver, the inquest was adjourned. 

On 28 September 1850, the Norfolk News (amongst others) reported on the opening of the inquest, when the jury proceeded to the site of the accident to view the ‘horribly mutilated’ bodies – one of which was completely unrecognisable as a human form. 

In the report of the resumption of the inquest, Walter’s surname is spelt Tapper, but the evidence reported is the same. After much further input from witnesses, the coroner advised the jury to bring in a verdict of misadventure, which they duly did.

Walter was once more in the news a year later, in the Chelmsford Chronicle on 7 March 1851 (from FindMyPast), when he gave evidence for a second time on an incident on the railway.

Walter is described as a ‘guard on the Eastern Counties Railway’. The fuller report exonerated the stoker, Henry Hawshire, and blamed the deceased, the driver.

A few weeks later, the 1851 census was taken, and Walter Topper is found living at Manor Road, Braintree, Essex, aged 31, with wife Louisa, aged 28. They have no children. He is described as a Railway Guard. 

He – or his wife – perhaps felt that the death and destruction wrought by the railways was too much; by early 1855, he has become licensee of the Castle Inn, Northbridge, Colchester, Essex and is reported in the Chelmsford Chronicle of 19 January 1855 as in debt. The license of the inn was transferred from him to his brother-in-law, ‘Mr Blatch’.

It seems that he owed money to Cobbolds Brewery of Colchester for goods - presumably beer. He agreed to pay the debt but the brewery wanted to take his brother-in-law to court. The newspaper report has some intricate legalese which I don't quite understand in relation to the transfer of the license. 

The Castle Inn at Colchester was an ancient building – reputed to be 16^th century. It ceased to be a pub in the 1950s. The entry on the Castle, 2 North Station Road, Colchester (pubwiki.co.uk) shows a ‘W.Toppin’ as licensee in 1855, and there is no mention of Mr Blatch.

The Essex Standard on 19 October 1853 shows that Walter took on the Castle that year. Under the heading 'Transfer of licenses', it notes "The Castle North Bridge, from Wm. Minter to Walter Topper".

After leaving the licensed trade, he seems to have returned to work on the railways, as the records of the Old Bailey Online - trial of Antonio Hill show. The trial took place on 23 November 1857, where Antonio was accused of “Feloniously cutting and wounding William Thomas, with intent to do him some grievous bodily harm” while their ship was berthed at the Royal Victoria Docks in London. Walter Topper gives evidence as a ‘Dock Officer’:

Perhaps he decided to follow his older brother Charles James Topper – formerly a Bow Street Officer and then foreman porter at Brentford Docks – into law enforcement. According to Royal Victoria - Hidden London (hidden-london.com), the Docks opened in 1855, promoted by railway contractors, and were presumably recruiting in large numbers.

A year later, Walter is back in the news, this time giving evidence as a ‘Constable of the Dock Company’ at the Victoria London Docks. The Essex Standard of 19 March 1858 (FindMyPast) briefly gives the details:

Walter clearly didn’t stick with the Docks constabulary very long. By the 1861 census he is living at 65 High Street, Shadwell, in Stepney (now on the Docklands Light Railway) with wife Louisa, his occupation shown as ‘Coffee House Keeper’. They have three boarders, all merchant seaman, including one from Spain. Their neighbours are largely seamen or licensed victuallers or ‘beer house keepers’.

Shadwell High Street: by Love Lane - London Picture Archive shows the street in 1919, looking fairly dilapidated. Shadwell - Wikipedia describes the area, close to the docks where Walter used to work, as a deprived area with opium dens, prostitutes and a heady mix of nationalities particularly amongst the seamen who lodged there. Shadwell High Street, London - May 1927 - Goad Old Street, Map - Goad Old Street Maps is a map from sixty years later, where no.65 High Street is shown as ‘Off & D’ – possibly an off-licence – on the corner with Glamis Road.

In the post office street directory of 1865 at Ancestry, he is listed at 42 Westminster Bridge Road, in ‘Coffee Rooms’. In a city guide on 1870, he is at Coffee Rooms at 60 Cross Street, in Islington. This is now part of a row of boutique shops and cafes, although as can be seen from Google Street View: 60 Cross St - Google Maps no.60 itself is rather garishly fronted with the advertising signage of ‘MediVet’.

He is still at 60 Cross Street, Islington, at the time of the 1871 census, ‘Coffee House Keeper’. Their three lodgers include a dressmaker, a traveller (ie commercial traveller) and Thomas Chambers, 27, ‘out of employ’. Their neighbours are butchers, licensed victuallers and grocers, a slightly more salubrious company than the seamen of Shadwell. A street directory of 1875 (Ancestry) shows that he has moved premises to 103 Essex Street, round the corner from Cross Street; his neighbours are still generally in the licensed or food trades, and he is still running a Coffee House. 103 Essex Road - Google Street View shows a narrow doorway between two shop fronts as no.103, but perhaps previously the coffee house occupied one of these shops.

By the 1881 census, aged 63, he has no occupation listed. He and Louisa are living at 34 Timber Yard, Islington, still roughly in the same area they have lived for the past two decades. He died in May 1886, aged 68 and was buried at Newham Cemetery on 25 May. The death of his wife was recorded four years earlier, in the March quarter of 1882. 

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