Sheriff of Nottingham 1658/9 Mayor 1662/3
Will proved 3rd Mar 1663/4 "Will of John TOPLADY, alderman of Nottingham.
To eldest son, William, the *messuages, cottages, lands and tenements in Swanwicke (Derb.), and 10a. in Sandfield, Nottingham,and unexpired term of years in *messuage known as the Sarrizens Head, Nottingham, silver watch, 2 silver seals, gold ring and silver-gilt spoon.
To youngest son John, capital *messuage in Nottingham in the Longe Rowe, known as the Bull Head, 3a. meadow in Nottingham, 3a. arable and meadow in Radford Field, *messuage in Castlegate and unexpired term of years in *messuage in Longe Rowe, silver watch, gold ring, 4 hooped rings, 2 silver spoons and a purse.
To daughters Mary and Hannah, unexpired term of years in the manors of North Willingham and Ludford (Linc.), and *messuages there, equally between them.
To above Mary, gold bodkin, diamond ring, 5 gold rings, 7 silver spoons and half of late wife's clothing.
To maid servent Sarah Moreley, 40s.
To father Francis Toplady, uncle John Dalton of Darly, gent., and James Seeles, gent., *messuage in St Peter's Gate and *messuage in Longe Rowe, Nottingham, to be sold to raise money to pay debts.
Francis Toplady, John Dalton and James Seeles appointed executors. 18th Dec 15 Ch. II (1663)"
*Messuage:- Pronunciation: 'mes-wij Function: noun Etymology: Anglo-French, probably alteration of Old French mesnage dwelling house, ultimately from Latin mansion- mansio habitation, dwelling, from manere to remain, sojourn, dwell : a dwelling house with the adjacent buildings and curtilage and other adjoining lands used in connection with the household.
15th April 1687, "Castle & Feathers" formally occupied by John Toplady was leased to Alderman Hall for 31 years. (but this could refer to his son, another John)Francis (Father) Sheriff 1631/2
21st Dec. Mayor 1653/4 1660/11661/2 John Piper, Mayor, superceded by Francis.
John (Son) Sheriff 1658/9 Mayor 1662/3
William (Son) Sheriff 1662/3 Mayor 1682/3 May 26th 1690 Appointed Alderman
Joseph (Son) Alderman and Justice of the Peace from 1653
Educated at Ripon School Yorkshire
Chamberlain 1629 Sheriff of Nottingham 1631/2, Aldeman 1638 Mayor of Nottingham 1653/4 and 1660/1 & part of 1661/2, superceding John Parker
Declined post of Mayor 1645:-
September 24th 1645
"Maister Topladye
Upon severall questions and debates concerninge Alderman Topladye
After he was nominated Maior, This question was stated:-
QUESTION
Whether the said Alderman bee guilty of any delinquencye or malignancye
(or any thinge that hath appeared or doth appeare to this house)
Since hee tooke the protestacion and national covenant, and since the
publicacion of the declaracion of both kingdomes, or not?
RESOLVED
Resolved and voted in the negative, that hee is not guilty (as in the question
is demanded), nullo contradicentre.*
And thereupon Maister Topladye, before this Companye, did relinquish and wave
the former voate and nominacion (of hym to bee Maior for the next yeare)
and desired to bee spared from that place without any fyne or predudice to hym,
and that this companye would proceede to nominate an other to bee Maior for the
said yeare.
All which this company condicended into, and graunted nullo contradicentre* and
proceeded to a new nominacion."
Alderman Gamble was the new nomination.
*nullo contradicentre:- No one contradictingFrancis (Father) Sheriff 1631/2 Mayor 1653/4 1660/1
John (Son) Sheriff 1658/9 Mayor 1662/3
William (Son) Sheriff 1662/3 Mayor 1682/3
Joseph (Son) Alderman and Justice of the Peace from 1653Grave and epitaph in the body of St Mary's Church, "Here lyeth the body of Francis Toplady, late Alderman of this Town. He dyed the 28. day of June 1665. the 84. year of his age."
Will proved 8th August 1665
In 1643, as Alderman, let in (according to Col. HUTCHINSON's wife, Lucy (Civil War diaries))
the Newarkans (Royalists from Newark-on-Trent) to the Town of Nottingham.
"The townsmen were every night sett upon the guard of the towne, according to the wards of th e aldermen, but the most of them being disaffected, the governor, fearing treachery, had dete rmined to quarter the horse in those lanes which were next to thec
astle, and to block up th e lanes for the better securing them.
Just the night before these lanes should have bene blockt up, Alderman TOPLADY, a greate mallignant, having the watch, the enemie was, by treachery, lett into the towne, and no alarum given to the castle; though there were two musketts at the gate wherethey entered both of them were surrendered, without one shott to give notice, and all the horse, and about two parts of the castle souldiers, betrey'd, surpriz'd, and seized on in their beds but there were not above fourscore of the castle foot taken; the rest hid themselves, and privately stole away , some into the country, some by night came up to the castle and got in, in disguises, by the river side. When, at the beating of reveille, some of the soldiers that had been on the wat ch all night, were going down into the town to refresh themselves; they were no sooner out o f the castle-gates, but some of the enemy's musketeers discharged upon them, and they hastened back. The governor dispatched messengers by a private sally-port to Leicester and Derby to desire their assistance, to help the castle, in which there was but fourscore men.
There was an old church, called St. Nicholas Church, whose steeple so commanded the platform that the men could not play the ordnance without woolpacks before them. From this church the bullets played so thick into the outward castle yard, that they could not pass from one gate to the other, nor relieve the guards, but with very great hazzard, and one weak old man was shot the first day, who, for want of a surgeon, bled to death before they could carry him up to the governor's wife, who at that time supplied that want as well as she could; but at night the governor and his men dug a trench between the two gates, through which they afterwards better secured their passage. In the meantime the cavaliers that came from Newark, being about six hundred, fell to ransack and plunder all the honest men's houses in the town, and the cavaliers of the town, who had called them in, helped them in this work. Their prisoners they at first put into the sheep-pens in the market place. The cavaliers called in all the country as soon as they were in the town, and made a fort at the Trent bridges, and thither they carried down all their considerable plunder and prisoners.
The next day after Sir Richard BYRON had surprised the town, Mr. HASTINGS, since made Lord of Loughborough, then governor of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, came with a body of about four hundred men but being displeased that the plunder was begun before he came, here turned again and left the Newark gentlemen to themselves. Five days the enemy staid in the town. Captain WHITE wi th his troop, who quartered at Leicester, brought about four hundred men. As soon as they come into the town Sir John GELL's men, seeing the cavaliers had a mind to be gone, interrupted them not, but being as dexterous at plunder as fight, they presently went to TOPLADY's house, who had betrayed the town, and plundered it and some others. GELL's men were nimble youths at that work, yet there was not very much mischief done by them. TOPLADY's house fared the worst, but his neighbours saved much of his goods; he himself, with several other townsmen and countrymen, who had been very active against the well affected, at this time were brought up prisoners to the castle. There were not above five-and-twenty of the Newark soldiers taken."Nottingham Castle and the Civil War
Despite the ruinous state of the Castle, King Charles I raised his Standard of war on a mound called Derry Mount north of the main gateway on 22 August 1642 in an effort to rally support for his cause. The expected rush of recruits failed to materialise and a disappointed monarch withdrew to Salisbury leaving the Castle to fall into Parliamentary hands.
Colonel HUTCHINSON, a local landowner and later to be one of the signatories to the King's death warrant, was appointed Castle governor. His wife Lucy recorded that she found the Castle 'very ruinous and uninhabitable.'
The Royalists, under the command of Sir John DIGBY, hoped to secure all of Nottinghamshire for the King and after occupying Newark their efforts to secure Nottingham suffered a set-back . A stalemate resulted when Colonel HUTCHINSON rallied Nottingham's willing citizens to form one regiment of foot and one of horse. Made defensible, the Castle was adapted for cannon and became a Parliamentary refuge surrounded by Royalist strongpoints.
Several royalists attacks were repulsed and the one in January 1644 was a close call. When the Royalists attacked the town, the Roundheads abandoned their positions and fled to the Castle. The attackers then fired into the Castle from the surrounding houses - St. Nicholas church had been demolished earlier by the Governor when Royalists had used its tower to fire into the Castle.
The Governor counter-attacked resulting in vicious fighting in the streets leading up to the Castle, and the Royalists, exhausted by their march through the snow eventually fled, leaving 'a great track of blood which froze as it fell upon the snow.'Demolished
With the execution of Charles I in 1649 defences all over the country were dismantled including Nottingham Castle which was razed to the ground by order of the Council of State. Never taken by storm, the Castle was demolished by gunpowder, lever and pick and what was left became quarry for the scavengers of the town.