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 son Charles
James Topper was born in 1801 and was to become my 4xgreat grandfather.
Their third son, Alfred Davey or Alfred David Topper (records vary), was baptised at
St Mary, Lambeth on 12 Nov 1806. His father was a telegrapher for the
Admiralty, working first (as far as I know) at the shutter telegraph at the
Royal Hospital Chelsea. By 1806 it seems he had moved to West Square,
Lambeth (from the telegraph window there he was witness to an attempted
murder, on which he gave evidence at the Old Bailey).
On the 13 November 1823, he was ‘bound’ apprentice to his
older brother Charles James Topper as a Thames Lighterman. He was 17 at
the time (from the Register of Thames Lightermen at FindMyPast). Three
years later, on 2 September 1826, he married Sarah Sophia Stevenson at St
George Hanover Square. His brother and sister-in-law Charles James and Elizabeth
Topper were witnesses.
He appears to have given up the Lighterman trade, just as
his brother did, as in the same year he married, he is reported as giving
evidence at a trial at The Old Bailey. The report at Page Image -
Central Criminal Court (oldbaileyonline.org) is of the trial of a Robert
Barton for giving a forged cheque for £5 at St Margaret, Westminster, on 30
October 1829.
Alfred declares he has been a postman for three years, which would mean he started work at the post office around the time of his marriage. Sadly, the defendant was sentenced to death.
The
history of Bristol Temple Meads station - Network Rail shows that Isambard
Kingdom Brunel’s gothic station was opened at the end of August 1840, a year
before the census and about the same time that their (by then) youngest son
Walter was born, in London, so their move must have been fairly recent. Whether
Alfred was a porter at the station is not known; by the 1851 census the
family has moved back to London, to 11 Hudson Terrace, West Ham. Alfred is
definitely working with the railway now, as he is described as a Labourer –
Rail. Their two youngest sons, Walter 10 and Robert, 7, are the only ones left
at home, and are still at school. Again, their neighbours’ occupations are
associated with the railways, including boiler makers and engineers. Ten years
later, the couple seem to have fallen on hard times (or into ill-health) as
they are both enumerated as inmates at the Leyton Union Workhouse. Alfred is
60, his wife 58, and his occupation is given as Boiler Maker, hers Charwoman.
Alfred may have died in 1866 as there is a death index entry
for the December quarter of that year. However, the age at the GRO is given as
68 (he would have been 60), so this may not be the correct record.
I have not found too much out about their seven children,
apart from some early deaths and some possible occupational and criminal
records.
1. The eldest – Alfred George – was baptised at Christ
Church St Marylebone on 24 June 1827, the record annotated with his birth date
of 26 May 1827, eight months after his parents married. He appears as the
eldest child with his parents in Bristol at the time of the 1841 census,
aged 16, with no occupation listed. He is not listed in the 1851 census.
At FindMyPast there is a record of a death of an Alfred G Topper in the British Armed Forces And Overseas Deaths And
Burials collection.
It reads: Name of
deceased: Topper, Alfred G, registered ticket number: 305.394, Place of death:
Bolivar, belonging to the Port of London, Master’s name: Bergman/Berryman?,
Date of engagement: 3/11/52, Date and place of death: died @ Nevis? 11/3/53,
when paid: 11/6/53, where paid: Poplar, Amount: £1, 9/5-, When sent to Board of
Trade: 1/4/53.
There is nothing in
this record (original at TNA) which confirms this man’s age or origins,
or even if his second name was George. If it is the same man, he would have
been about 25 years old.
According to the
Lloyds Register of Shipping for 1853, the Bolivar was a Brig built at Whitehaven
in 1824; in 1853, her intended destination was the West Indies. This would tie
in with Alfred G Topper’s death on the vessel ‘at Nevis’, part of the Leeward
Islands making up the West Indies. I have found no other records for Alfred
George, so perhaps he did follow in his forefathers’ maritime footsteps.
2. Their second son, baptised with his siblings in 1836 in
Cheam, Surrey, appears to have been Thomas Robert, probably born around 1828. There
is a death index entry for a Thomas Robert Topper in Bristol in 1841, and a
burial record for him on 6 June that year at Temple Church in Bristol, aged 14.
This would make sense as his parents were shown living at nearby St Mary
Redcliffe in the 1841 census (which, incidentally, was taken on the
night of his burial).
3. Their daughter Sarah Sophia, named after her mother, was
also baptised in 1836 at Cheam. She does not appear with the rest of the family
in 1841, so it is possible that she died before they moved to Bristol. However,
I have not found any burial record for her.
4. William Charles Topper was born around 1832, one of the
four children to be baptised at Cheam in 1836. He appears with his parents and
siblings in Bristol on the 1841 census, aged 9. It is possible that he
is the same William Charles Topper, aged 12, sentenced to two months hard
labour and whipping at Bristol sessions in 1846 for larceny (FindMyPast). A
William Charles Topper, son of Alfred, married Emma Baxter in Shoreditch on 12
November 1860. He is described as a Mariner, his father as a Labourer. The
groom is shown as 24 (whereas ‘our’ William would have been about 24). In 1851,
Alfred Davey Topper is described as a Labourer (rail), although by 1861 he is a
Boiler Maker. Unfortunately, I have not been able to prove this connection, and
have found no other reliable records for him, although there is a William and
Emma Topper living in Stratford in the 1861 census, but the names of
relatives don’t tie up, and he is described as a labourer rather than mariner,
and born in Stratford.
5. Their second daughter, Elizabeth Jane, was born around
1835 and baptised with three siblings at Cheam in 1836. She appears with the
family in Bristol in the 1841 census, aged 6. I haven’t found any other
reliable records for her; she doesn’t appear with the family in Stratford in
the 1851 census, when she would have been about 16 years old.
6. Walter Topper was born about 1840 according to his age
given in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. He also appears to have died
fairly young; there is a death index entry for him at West Ham in 1854, and a
burial record on 29 January 1854, when he would have been 14.
7. Their youngest son, Robert Topper, seems to have become
insane and attempted to kill his wife. He was born in Bristol in 1843, and
married Sarah Ann Lunniss at Potton, Bedfordshire, in 1870, when he was 26. In
1872, the Bedfordshire Times and Independent of 23 November 1872 carries a
notice of the transfer of the license of the Barley Mow beer house in Potton to
Robert Topper from George Lunniss (presumably a relative of his wife).
The role of publican does not seem to have suited him, as a
report in the same paper from 19 July 1873 shows:
It seems that George Lunniss was Sarah’s father.
By the 1881 census they are living in Cambridgeshire, where he is working, like his father, as a Boiler Maker. Ten years later they are living in West Ham, like his parents before him.
On 20 July 1896, he was
brought to trial at The Old Bailey for “Feloniously shooting at Sarah Ann Topper, with intent to
murder. Second Count— With intent to do grievous bodily harm”.
Sarah Ann is the
first to give evidence:
It sounds from her description that he had been ‘wandering’
in his mind for about a year. His defence is rather odd, and her response
perhaps explains it:
“The Prisoner's statement before the Magistrate: "The night before last my wife got hold of me by the throat and nearly strangled me; that was what excited me, and caused me to do what I did."
SARAH ANN
TOPPER (Re-called).
My husband and I were always living together—it was an unusual thing for him to
come home and ask to have a wash; he generally came in—he had a blow on his
head which affected him.”
Robert was found guilty of the second count – unlawful wounding – and was sentenced to six months hard labour at Pentonville Prison.
A correspondent to the Women’s Signal (FindMyPast – BNA) of
30 July 1896 is unforgiving in her view on Robert Topper’s crime:
By 1896, Robert and Sarah had had eight children, although
at least one had died in infancy. Things did not improve, although whether his
behaviour was due to drink or mental illness is not known; on 31 July 1901,
Robert was admitted to the Essex County Asylum, although discharged two months
later. He was not listed with his wife and children in the 1901 census earlier
that year (they are at Catherine Street, Canning Town, their three eldest sons
all boiler makers).
It seems that he had at least one return to insanity, as he
is enumerated at Ilford Asylum as a patient at the time of the 1911 census.
He is aged 68, a boiler maker at the railway works by trade, married and
described as ‘lunatic at 68’ – presumably his age at admission, ie quite
recently.
His death is recorded at the Romford Asylum, Essex, in May 1915. His widow died in 1931 in West Ham.
For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view
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