Robert Toppes
Knowlege of Toppes is patchy and there are many questions which are difficult to answer. We do know he became Sheriff of Norwich in 1430 at the age of 25, married twice and left his son Robert the Manor of Great Melton. Toppes must have been a respected and influential figure to have been accorded the distinction of Mayor and Burgess in Parliament each on four separate occasions.
Toppes is described as a citizen of London and Norwich and variously as a mercer, merchant and worsted weaver. He had extensive business interests, owning property in Norwich, elsewhere in Norfolk and in Suffolk.
In
his will he bequeathed money to many churches in the major wool centres
of East Anglia, including Worstead and every church in Norwich.
Amongst these, Toppes left money toward the re-building of St Peter Mancroft, his own parish church. He also left a sum for the maintenance of the Norwich to London road. As well as exporting woollen cloth to the Continent, he also imported a vast range of other goods including German pottery.
