25.4 Penniston Topper: 6th great granduncle (1744-1804) Royal Footman hero

My research so far shows that the menfolk in my Topper line were all very much on the right side of the law and weren’t afraid of putting themselves in the way of danger to prevent or prosecute crime.

My 4xgreat grandfather Charles James Topper (1801-1879) worked in London, first as a Thames Lighterman, then a Bow Street Officer and ended his career with 30 years’ work for the GWR at Brentford Docks, as a Foreman Porter. He gave evidence at The Old Bailey against criminals he had apprehended, or crimes he had witnessed, in his time at Bow Street and with the GWR. Unfortunately, he was accidentally run over by railway trucks at the Docks in his ‘70s, and killed.

My 5xgreat grandfather, Thomas Topper, (1769-1838) was a Telegrapher for the Admiralty – and possibly also an officer in the Royal Navy earlier in his career. While working as a Shutter Telegrapher at the Admiralty’s London West Square Telegraph Tower in 1817, he witnessed from his window an attempted murder prompted by a family rift, and is reported as having grappled with the perpetrator, enabling others present to subdue and take him in charge, leaving his victims with knife wounds and covered in blood.

My 6xgreat grandfather, his father Thomas Walker Topper (1742-1806) was born in Lincolnshire, at Somerby near Grantham, but moved to London to join the Royal Mews in the Stables of King George III. While I am unaware of any heroics on his part, his younger brother Penniston Topper (1744-1804), ‘nearly 50 years the King’s Footman’, reportedly stepped in to apprehend Margaret Nicholson, a woman later declared insane, who attempted to stab King George III as he stepped from his carriage in 1786.

Penniston Topper was baptised at Somerby by Grantham in Lincolnshire on 10 March 1744, the son of Edward Topper and his wife Elizabeth. He was one of six known children of this couple baptised at Somerby. His older brother Thomas Walker Topper joined the Royal Household as a Footman allocated to H.M’s Stables in 1765, and it seems that Penniston had also moved to London by 1767, when he married at St George, Hanover Square on 5 May that year. 

The Database of Court Officers: 1660-1837 (luc.edu) (and copies of the Indexes of the Royal Household at FindMyPast) show that Penniston was appointed Groom of the Hobby Stable on 1 July 1769, perhaps on recommendation of his brother. The book ‘Notes and Queries’ at Google Books suggests that a Hobby Groom was a rider available to take messages at all times and particularly in an emergency. 

Interestingly, on the same page as Penniston's warrant of 1769, is listed Sarah Peat, ‘Heater of the Water for Horses’. Perhaps she was a relative of Ann Peat, my 6xgreat grandmother and the wife of Thomas Walker Topper.

From 12 November 1769, he was appointed Footman of the Royal Stables (the warrant shown below from the Index to the Royal Household was signed on 13 January 1770 by the third Duke of Ancaster).

A note in the Index of the Staff of the Royal Household adds “nearly 50 years a Footman to H.M and said to be the person who saved H.M. from an attack by Margaret Nicholson’.  If this length of service were true, he would have started in the Royal Household in about 1760, when he was about 15. Even so, he died in service in 1804, so served at least 35 years. 

The summary of his career, and the note about the attack, from FMP is shown below:

The note re: Ann Topper refers to the pension she was paid as his widow from 1804-1812 (when she presumably died).

The attack on King George III took place on the morning of 2 August 1786 outside St James’ Palace.  It was of course widely reported in contemporary news and was even illustrated in a number of aquatints of the time. Margaret Nicholson: Her Attack on George III in 1786 - Geri Walton gives a good summary and cites some contemporary sources. 

The Hereford Journal of 10 August reproduced - as did many regional papers – the account of this act of High Treason taken from the London Gazette’s extraordinary edition earlier in the month. It includes a paragraph on how ‘the attendant Yeoman’ seized her, and ‘the King’s Footman, Toplin’ seized the knife. Given the note in the Royal Household records, I believe that ‘Toplin’ should read Topper – and that this was Penniston.

The Scots Magazine at FMP includes a footnote to the effect that the Earl of Salisbury offered a reward of £100 to the Yeoman and £50 to the Footman who had ‘first secured Mrs Nicholson after her attempt on the King’. As the Index to the Royal Household summary shows, he consistently refused to accept the reward.

Wikipedia has a print issued at the time (and one of several much advertised, along with the ‘True Memoirs of Margaret Nicholson’ in October 1786). It shows the King, his Yeomen left and right and, behind centre, the Footman – an artist’s illustration of Penniston Topper! This thumbnail snip could be my 6th great granduncle!

Penniston Walker’s wife was Ann Stevens, who he married at St George Hanover Square in London on 5 July 1767. Both sign the Register, and both were single, married by ‘Licence of the A.B. of Canterbury’. One of the witnesses was Thos. Willes, the other’s name is difficult to read but might be Ann or Aron Halam/Holmes.

I have found baptisms for six children of Penniston and Ann in London between 1769-1785. Penniston, as noted above, died in 1804, two years before his brother Thomas Walker Topper. Whereas the latter seems to have ended his life in debt and in poor circumstances, leaving what little he had to his two surviving unmarried daughters in a short will hastily written just before his death, Penniston wrote a long will in 1803 full of convoluted and repetitive clauses typical of the time. In essence he left his ‘dear wife Ann’ her choice of his household goods, furniture, linen, plate and china. He left his property and monies in trust with two friends from the Royal Household, Thomas Shefford and Henry Madgwick to allow Ann to live her natural life in their house, and for proceeds of rents and investments and other property to be shared equally between his children Penniston Topper, George Topper, Diana (wife of James Lintott), Caroline Topper, Mary Ann Topper and Charlotte Topper.

The Pennistone name passed down as a first or middle name for many descendents of Penniston Topper, but I have not reconstructed their various families so far. I do know that his son Penniston, born in 1773, became ‘oil man to the Duke of York’ (whatever that is) and was a victim of 'highway robbery' (a drunk stole his pocket watch while he was out in the street) in 1813. The 20 year old drunk, George Hand, was sentenced to 7 years transportation (a 'lesser crime' as he did not use violence). The younger Penniston was also in the Royal Navy early in his career. More to research.

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