[1] He is first heard of in the reign of King Henry IV, when he was an esquire of the body, in personal attendance on the Royal Family.
[1] He was a senior official who held the position of Controller of the Household to King Henry's second son Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence.
[1] They were visiting England in 1410, having appointed Thomas Shorthalls, later another colleague of Toppesfeld on the Court of Exchequer, as their attorney.
[4] Thomas Duke of Clarence-effigy Clarence, his employer, had left Ireland for good in 1409; he was killed fighting in France in 1421.
[6] He was not necessarily a qualified lawyer, as this was not a requirement to be a Baron in the fifteenth century, a fact which gave rise to frequent complaints about the poor quality of the judges.