Edward Topham

(d. 15 October 1770), Master of Faculties and judge of the Prerogative Court in York, whose feud with Dean Fountayne was lampooned by Laurence Sterne in The History of a Warm Watch Coat.

On leaving the university, Topham travelled on the continent and spent six months in Scotland, publishing on his return in 1776 a volume of Letters from Edinburgh, 1774 and 1775, containing some Observations on the Diversions, Customs, Manners, and Laws of the Scotch Nation.

[3] Meanwhile, Topham's talent as a writer of prologues and epilogues introduced him to the leading actors of the day, and led to his first appearance as a playwright.

An epilogue, spoken by Charles Lee Lewes in imitation of a Molière character, filled Drury Lane for several nights.

[5] Its "unqualified and audacious attacks on all private characters" were at the start "smiled at for their quaintness, then tolerated for their absurdity", and ultimately repudiated with disgust.

[7] It was in this paper that the fantastic productions of the Della Cruscans, a small set of English poetasters dwelling for the most part at Florence, made their appearance.

Topham contributed articles under the title of The Schools, in which he gave reminiscences of many of his companions at Eton, and his Life of the Late John Elwes, Esquire (1790) made its first appearance in its columns.

It is said to have raised the sale of The World by a thousand copies a day; but an even better hit was made by the correspondence between the rival pugilists Richard Humphries and Daniel Mendoza.

When George Nassau Clavering, Third Earl Cowper, died in Florence on 22 December 1789, his character was assailed with virulence in The World.

Topham was indicted for libel, and the case was tried before Buller, who pronounced the articles to have been published with intent to throw scandal on the peer's family and as tending to a breach of the peace.

After five years, Topham disposed of his paper, abandoned Mary Wells for someone else, and retired with his three surviving daughters to Wold Cottage, about two miles from Thwing, East Riding of Yorkshire.

[11] While Topham was living at Wold Cottage, a meteoric stone fell at around three o'clock on the afternoon of Sunday, 13 December 1795, within two fields of his house.