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

25.9 4th great granduncle George Prest Topper (1811-?): Runaway

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 fourth son, George Prest Topper was baptised at Norwich on 4 August 1811 (his birth date shown as 20 July that year, and his mother’s maiden name helpfully included as Selway). His parents were in Norwich at the time while his father – my 5xgreat grandfather Thomas Topper - worked on the Admiralty’s shutter telegraph there.

On 10 February 1819, aged 7, he was admitted to the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich – now the Royal Naval College buildings – like his older brothers Charles James Topper (my 4xgreat grandfather) and Thomas Robert Topper. It seems that the school didn’t suit him, as his father placed a notice in the Morning Advertiser on 31 May 1825, asking for information about him for his ‘disconsolate parents’:

The description is clear, with the ‘old straw hat’ a rather poignant touch. Unfortunately I have not been able to find out whether he was indeed returned to his disconsolate parents, or what might have happened to him after 1825. Did he run away to sea? 

I have found no navy or merchant marine records for him, he doesn’t appear in the 1841 census under the name George Topper (or variants) with other matching details, and I haven’t found a death or burial record for him either. A George Topper did marry at St George Hanover Square in 1830, but he would only have been 19 at the time. The bride’s name was Elizabeth Bowen. Ancestry has a copy of the register, but it gives no other information other than both were ‘of this parish’. St George Hanover Square was the venue for other family events in previous decades, but by 1830, his parents were at Upper Garden Street, and the closest church would have been St James the Less. 

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

25.8 4th great granduncle Alfred Davey Topper (1806-1866): Letter Carrier

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.

 On 14 February 1836, in Cheam, Surrey, he and his wife baptised four of their children on the same day (Sarah Sophia, William Charles, Elizabeth Jane and Thomas Robert). Alfred is described as a Letter Carrier on the baptism record. By the time of the 1841 census, the family has moved to Bath Road, St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol – an area close to Temple Meads Railway station. Alfred is now working as a porter, and many of his neighbours have occupations related to the railways.

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.

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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

25.7 4th great granduncle Thomas Robert Topper (1799-1872): Letter carrier

 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 first child, a son, was born a year after their marriage on 20 March 1799. Thomas Robert Topper was baptised at the church of St Luke, Chelsea on 14 April that year. His father was a telegrapher for the Admiralty, which in the late 1790s had established a line of shutter telegraphs which ran between the Admiralty and Portsmouth (south) and Great Yarmouth (North East). The telegraph ‘line’ – intended to be a temporary arrangement to support communications during the run-up to the Napoleonic wars - included a base at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. This may be why Thomas Topper and his new wife were based in Chelsea after their marriage.

In 1809, aged 10, Thomas Robert and his younger brother Charles James Topper were admitted to the Greenwich Hospital School (now the Royal Naval College buildings) on petition of their father, according to a document held at TNA. While his brother initially became a Thames Lighterman, Thomas Robert seems to have followed his father into communications. Ancestry has digitised copies of UK Postal Service appointment books which show that on 31 July 1823, Thomas Topper Junr was appointed as a Foreign Letter Carrier, vice Long, deceased.

I have not found a marriage record for him, but he appears to have married a woman called Mary. From census and baptism records, I have found that they had at least ten children between 1826 and 1847. I have not found a baptism for what appears to be their first child, also Thomas Robert, born around 1826, but Mary is named as mother of their second child, Mary Ann, baptised at St John the Evangelist, Lambeth, on 27 January 1828, daughter of Thomas Robert (Letter Carrier) and Mary, of Broad Walk. Thomas Robert junior became a printer and had emigrated to South Africa by 1850. His sister Mary Ann was a witness at his 1848 marriage in Shoreditch (as was sister Caroline and their father Thomas Robert Topper).

In 1852, Thomas Robert Topper senior gave evidence at The Old Bailey at the trial of John Dempsey, accused of stealing a purse from his wife Mary Topper as they were shopping at Newgate Market:

Also in 1852, their daughter Mary Ann married Thomas Hodgson, a solicitor’s clerk. Her father and sister Caroline were witnesses. By then, her father is described as ‘’Sub-sorter, General Post Office’. 

By the 1861 census she and her husband have one son, Thomas, and are living at Trafalgar Road, Shoreditch. Her father is living in the same house, now a 62 year old widower, and ‘superannuated sub? GPO’.  He is still with them ten years later at the time of the 1871 census. They are all still at the Trafalgar Road address, and the Hodgson family has expanded to three children. Thomas Robert is 72 and ‘a pensioner G. Post Office’.

Thomas Robert Topper died on 31 May 1872 and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery, one of London’s ‘magnificent seven’ cemeteries. His daughter Mary Ann and her family were buried there forty years later. Another family tree researcher has posted an image of his ‘in memoriam’ card on Ancestry:

Of what I know of his and Mary’s other children, Ellen Louisa married George Holyoake Beaumont in 1855, her father described as ‘Officer in the Post Office’. He also witnessed the marriage. George Beaumont is described as a Barrister’s Clerk, Managing, on the 1871 census. The name Holyoak was passed to all their children as a middle name. Two other sons joined their older brother Thomas Robert in the Transvaal, dying in South Africa (George Henry and Charles John). Youngest daughter Grace Jemima Topper did not marry; in 1901 she is shown as housekeeper to an ornamental glass mounter and his family in Hackney. She died, aged 59, in 1907.

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