I can't find this chap's Baptism on this site or Ancestry. I am not on FMP or any other sites.
I don't have Cathedral records around that date either.
1841 Census says hes 4 years old
Parents are William Topham - Fishmonger & wife Sarah
When he got married he gave his address as Old Haymarket and surprisingly he too was a Fishmonger
I did find a baptism on here for his sister Mary Ann 2.1.1842 but oddly no siblings on this site
Could someone check the parish records for his Baptism and send me a copy please?
Both marriages are on FMP, if you want those let me know, but the census returns show him (and some family) as born Nottingham. FMP has the following which matches, no original i'm afraid:
First name(s) John
Last name Topham
Birth year -
Baptism year 1836
Baptism date 18 Dec 1836
Father's first name(s) William
Father's last name Topham
Mother's first name(s) Sarah
Mother's last name Topham
Baptism place Nottingham
Church St Mary
Denomination Anglican
Residence Fisher Gate
County Nottinghamshire
Country England
Record set Nottinghamshire Baptisms
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Parish Baptisms
Collections from England, Great Britain
A William Topham from Nottingham died in Sheffield on 5 May 1862 - “aged 46, Mr. William Topham, fish salesman, Sheffield, formerly of Nottingham” (Nottinghamshire Guardian Tuesday 13 May 1862).
The Nottingham Post says that Fisher Gate, part of Mediaeval Nottingham, was the home of people who fished in the local rivers so who knows, the Tophams might have had links to fish-related activities going back generations - or maybe not - lots of Tophams worked in Nottingham's famous lace industry.
The name John Topham crops up a lot in the Sheffield papers. Some of the articles are fish-related and so may concern the John Topham, fish salesman, who married Sarah Brooker:
Sheffield Independent 13 December 1867: John Topham fined 1 shilling (and 4 bob costs) for an “unjust weight”.
Sheffield Independent and the Telegraph Saturday 8 February 1868: John Topham and another fish dealer, William Steele, show up as witnesses against Louis Harrison fish dealer of Silver St Head (who was found guilty of having dodgy old fish for sale).
Sheffield Independent 2 March 1870: “A fancy for herrings and hens” - a bloke called Benjamin Bryan was arrested on the premises of John Topham, herring merchant, Aldine Court, “looking after” herrings and hens. I think they mean looking to grab some, not caring for them, because he (Bryan) got 6 weeks in Wakefield for that.
The Sheffield Independent 18 November 1870: Mary Brittain and her husband William allegedly nicked two conger eels and a live crab. A copper found Mrs. Brittain acting suspiciously with a conger eel concealed about her person, and went to her house where there was another conger eel and a live crab under the sofa. John Topham said that he hadn’t sold the Brittains any fish, but his delivery on the train that morning had been opened up before it got to him.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph 23 August 1871: death of John Topham, “fish and game dealer” “after a few day’s illness”.
Sheffield Independent 26 August 1871: death of John Topham, fishmonger, Gun Lane, aged 34 on the 22 August.