TOPPING, James (1756-1821), of Whatcroft Hall, Cheshire.

Topping, a barrister practising on the northern circuit, fought a bloodless duel with Richard Burke on 12 Mar. 1784, after he had abused Earl Fitzwilliam in the latter’s hearing.Burke Corresp. v. 130. He owed his seats in Parliament to Lord Grenville, who, as prime minister, secured his return for Bodmin on a vacancy in 1806, on Lady Grenville’s family interest. The seat was not secure, and after an ineffectual canvass at the ensuing general election Topping withdrew.Fortescue mss, Grenville to Gilbert, 25 Oct., reply 29 Oct. 1806. He was found another seat, for Thirsk, where a member of the government, William Frankland, made way for him on obtaining a berth elsewhere.

Topping made no mark in the House. On 3 Mar. 1807 he obtained leave to go his circuit. At the dissolution he was left without a seat. Joseph Jekyll who called him ‘Tiger Topping’, quoted George Wood as saying of him: ‘he was always either smearing you with honey or excrement’ and reported him as ‘at loggerheads’ with the renegade Sir John Coxe Hippisley on the Catholic question in May 1813.Dorset RO, Bond mss D367, Jekyll to Bond, 19 [Mar. 1812], 22 May 1813. But this was no bar to his professional advancement. On 14 June 1815 he reappeared in the House—as counsel for Lord Rosebery’s divorce bill. He died 12 Jan. 1821.