25.3 The Topper family: Lincolnshire to the Royal Household in the 18th century

Earlier research has found that my 5xgreat grandfather Thomas Topper was the son of Thomas Walker Topper and his wife Ann Peat.

Thomas Walker Topper worked as a Footman and then Groom to their Majesties King George III and his Queen, Charlotte, from 1765-1801. I have not found a likely baptism for him in London, where he married and is named as father on the baptisms of at least 13 children, and where he died in 1806.

Also listed in the Royal Household Index in the alphabetical listing (T) (PDF) of officers, are two other men called Topper working in the Royal Stables:

Topper, Penniston Groom of the Hobby Stable 1 July 1769 (LS 13/203, f. 62v). Footman 13 Jan. 1770 (Ibid., f. 65). D. 18 Feb. 1804 (GM LXXIV (1) [1804], p. 191; LS 13/204, f. 70v).

Topper, George Stud Helper 17 Feb. 1790 (MOH WB 1, p. 138). Stud Groom 20 Feb. 1793 (Ibid., p. 143). Last occ. Est. of 17 August 1807 (MOH LB C, p176). Vac. by Est. of 5 Apr. 1812 (MOH EB 4, p. 10).

I had already noticed the unusually named Penniston Topper in the BMD indexes at various sites at St Martin in the Fields/St George Hanover Square, the same churches frequented by Thomas Walker Topper. Given that both churches are close to the Royal Mews at Charing Cross where they worked, this can’t be seen as too much of a coincidence, but as he was appointed four years after Thomas Walker Topper, I thought that he may be his younger brother.

A search for a marriage across the family history sites between a Mr Topper and a Miss/Mrs Walker in the years before 1740 finds just one entry:

·       Edward Topper & Elizabeth Walker were marryd June ye 23^rd 1730 at Somerby by Grantham, Lincolnshire (FindMyPast, Ancestry, FamilySearch, FreeREG)

Were Penniston and Thomas Walker Topper born in Lincolnshire and moved to London to seek their fortunes in the Royal Household?

FindMyPast has the baptism of Pennistone or Pennystone Topper (transcripts vary), son of Edward Topper and his wife Elizabeth at Somerby by Grantham on 10 March 1744. Further up the digitised page, is the baptism of ‘Walker Topper’, 10 April 1742! This is written in a different hand, and no parents are named. However, I believe this is my Thomas Walker Topper (perhaps he didn’t favour the first name Walker, instead using his mother’s maiden name as his middle name), and his brother Penniston.

My 7xgreat grandparents therefore seem to be Edward Topper and Elizabeth Walker from Somerby by Grantham, Lincolnshire.

I have already found as much information as is currently available online for Thomas Walker Topper’s career in the Royal Household, his marriage, children and death. But what of his siblings?

My 7xgreat grandparents Edward Topper and his wife Elizabeth are named as parents on six baptisms in all at Somerby by Grantham after their marriage there in 1730:

• ·       Ann Topper, baptised 1731
• ·       Elizabeth Topper, baptised 1734
• ·       Edward Topper, baptised 1736
• ·       William Topper, baptised 1740
• ·       Thomas Walker Topper, baptised 1742
• ·       Penniston Topper, baptised 1744

I have not found a likely baptism for Edward Topper, but his wife Elizabeth Walker appears to have been baptised at Somerby by Grantham on 6 July 1710, according to a transcript (no image) at FMP. Her parents (my presumed 8xgreat grandparents) were Thomas Walker and his wife Sarah.

As Thomas Walker Topper was given his mother’s maiden name as a first name (and used it as his middle name at least by the time he was married), I wondered if his brother’s first name also derived from a maiden name – either of his father’s mother, or mother’s mother. Unfortunately I haven’t found any likely marriages that would tell us the surname of Elizabeth, wife of Edward Topper, nor the maiden surname of Elizabeth Walker’s mother. I did, however, find out quite a lot about Penniston/Pennistone/PennystoneTopper.

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