Christopher Toppan (1671-1747)

Full name
Rev. Christopher Toppan

Vital Statistics

 * Sex : Male
 * Born: 1671 in England
 * Died: 23 at Newbury, Massachusetts

Paternal Pedigree

 * Rev. Christopher Toppan was the fifth child of Dr. Peter Toppan (1634-1707) and Jane Batt (1631-1707).
 * Dr. Peter Toppan was the son of Abraham Toppan (1606-1672) and Susannah Taylor (1607-1689).
 * Abraham was the son of William Toppan (?-?) and Cecelia (?-?)
 * William, son of Edward Tophan (?-?) (?-?)
 * Edward, son of Thomas Topham (d. 1589)
 * Thomas, son of Robert Topham (d. ca. 1550)
 * Robert Topham (d. ca. 1550)

Siblings

 * Peter (1662-?) (died young)
 * Elizabeth Toppan (1665-?)
 * Peter Toppan (1667-?)
 * Samuel Toppan (1670-1750)
 * Jane Toppan (1674-1725)

Spouses

 * 1) Sarah Angier (?-1738/9) 13 December, 1698
 * 2) Elizabeth Dummer 28 June, 1739

Children (by Sarah Angier)

 * Christopher Toppan (1700-?
 * Edmund Toppan (1701-?)
 * Rev. Bezaleel Toppan (1705-1762)
 * Sarah Toppan (1707-?)
 * Eunice Toppan (1710-?)
 * Susanna Toppan (c1713-?)

Early Life and Education
Rev. Christopher Toppan, A.M. D.D., was born in Newbury on 15 December, 1671. He graduated from Harvard College in 1691, and was ordained pastor of the First Church in Newbury on 9 September, 1696. He remained the church's pastor - the church's fourth - for 51 years.

Joshua Coffin, in his "History of Newbury," records: "Dr. Toppan was a man of talents, energy, and decision of character, and 'would speak his mind.'" He notes that once, he announced to the congregation that he was baptizing an infant on the mother's account only, since he was unsure of the father's sincerity.

Toppan was a theologian and a classical scholar, but it was also said that he inherited his father's love of science and medicine. It was said that he did not ask for any fees for surgeries he performed.

His sense of fairness and justice is exemplified by a letter he wrote calling for natives to "have convienient lands allowed them for themselves and thier posterity as they were the first proprietors of the lands in this country." While it could be said that this was simply the early version the reservation system he has in mind, the cultural sensitivity of this statement, for its time, should be noted.

Cotton Mather and the snake
One of his frequent correspondences with the theologian Cotton Matter was later made the subject of a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Mather, who had an interest in the supernatural, was attracted to stories that a two-headed snake had been seen in Newbury, and wrote to Rev. Toppan about the matter. Toppan's response to the "Amphisbena" (the mythological snake with a head on each of its ends) was:


 * "Concerning the amphisbena, as soon as I received your commands I made diligent enquiry of several persons who saw it after it was dead, but they could give me no assurance of its having two heads."

Later, after finding someone who did see it, he adds to his letter:


 * "This person is so credible that I can as much believe him as if I had seen it myself. He tells me of another man that examined it as he did, but I cannot meet him."

The resulting poem, The Double-headed Snake of Newbury, recounted the (supposedly) fictitious account of a double-headed snake, and Mather's use of the tale to inspire religious zealotry.


 * Far and wide the tale was told,
 * Like a snowball growing while it rolled.
 * The nurse hushed with it the baby's cry;
 * And it served, in the worthy minister's eye,
 * To paint the primitive serpent by.
 * Cotton Mather came galloping down
 * All the way to Newbury town,
 * With his eyes agog and his ears set wide,
 * And his marvellous inkhorn at his side;
 * Stirring the while in the shallow pool
 * Of his brains for the lore he learned at school,
 * To garnish the story, with here a streak
 * Of Latin, and there another of Greek:
 * And the tales he heard and the notes he took,
 * Behold! are they not in his Wonder-Book?

Modern-day examples, the latest in early 2006, have been found of snakes with two heads (albeit on the same end.) In the Singapore Zoo, a turtle with two heads is on display., all leading to the conclusion that perhaps a two-headed snake had been seen after all.

Death
Rev. Christopher Toppan died 23 July, 1747, and is buried in the graveyard opposite the church on High Street. The gravestone's incription reads:


 * Here lies buried the body of the Rev. Christopher Toppan, Master of Arts, fourth Pastor of the First Church in Newbury; a gentleman of good learning, conspicuous for Piety and Virtue, shining both by his Doctrine and Life, skilled and greatly improved in the Practice of Physick and Surgery who deceased July 23, 1747, in the 76th year of his age, and 51st in his Pastoral Office."

Contributors
Nhprman