According to Cussans (see head-note on
"Origins"), the Toulmins were originally
French
Protestants (presumably Calvinist) and then Dutch, before 1568, and it may be
noted
that Joseph Toulmin (*13215) m. the daughter of the Rev. Melchior Justus van
Effen,
of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars.
Flora Briggs's remark (App.A) that "they
were
protestants and natural dissenters, so became adherents of the Methodist
Church"
is an oversimplification: it seems more accurate to say that streaks of
nonconformity
emerged for a century or so at a time.
I will round up here some of
the
information that has emerged: refer to the skeleton tree at the front of this
volume
for a reminder of the branches of the family.
Abraham Toulmin of Chard and the next
couple of generations are extremely
shadowy
figures, but Savage/life tells us that *13, the father of Mary (*131),
Abraham
(*132), and supposedly Caleb (*133) was "brought up in the established
church"
but joined the "Sabbatarian Baptists". Mary duly married the son of Rev.
John
Savage, pastor of the seventh-day baptist church, Mill Yard, Goodman's Fields,
and was
mother of Samuel Morton Savage (1721-1791), a Calvinist Independent (who
also
preached to a Presbyterian congregation).
Abraham belonged to David Jennings's
strictly
Calvinist Independent congregation at Old Gravel Lane (Appendix N), and was
baptised
there as an adult. Caleb's son Joshua
Toulmin (*1331) was minister
successively
of Presbyterian (1761-4), Baptist (1765-1803), and Unitarian
(1803-1815)
congregations. Joshua's eldest son
Harry Toulmin (*13311) was a
Unitarian
minister at Monton, Lancs (1786-8) and Chowbent (1787-93) (Appendix N),
and was
noted as a Unitarian after emigrating to America, indeed resigning as
President
of Transylvania Univ, Lexington, Ky "under disapproval of his Socinian
[ie
Unitarian] errors".
The association with the Old Gravel Lane
congregation continued over four
generations
and into the next century, Alfred Toulmin of Hackney (*132153,
great-grandson
of Abraham) being buried there on Oct 7 1824, though I doubt if any
of the
family were then left at Wapping. Some
of Abraham's descendants in Hackney
remained
faithful nonconformists, burials being recorded at the Independent chapel,
St
Thomas Sq, Hackney in 1827 (infant son of Frederick Toulmin, *132151) and the
New
Gravel
Pit chapel (Presbyterian) in 1818 and 1821 (in the family grave of Nathaniel,
*13216). However, other grandsons of Abraham reverted
to the established church,
Charles
Toulmin (*13224) being ordained priest 16 Dec 1804, at Kings Lynn, and
Joseph
(*13215) rather dramatically having 4 of his children baptised at St John's
parish
church, Hackney on 27 Apr 1810.
Subsequent connections with the C of E
include
the ordination of Frederick Bransby Toulmin (*1321563) as Rector of Hatfield
Peveril
(in the gift of Childwickbury) and
several marriages into the clergy in the
19th
century. Charlotte Toulmin (*1321421) m. the Rector of Langton Maltravers and
Vicar
of Wendover; Edith Mabel Toulmin
(*13215626) m. the Rev. Alan Chaplin; Lilian
Toulmin
(*13215628) m. the Rev.H. Darwin Burton; and Ethel Mary Toulmin (*13215923)
m. the
Rev. Charles Herbert Roberts, son of Rev Dr Horace Roberts, Cambridge. On
the
other hand, Mary Florence Toulmin (*1321565) married a Roman Catholic, Sir
Charles
Young, and the Evans-Freke grandchildren of Mary Toulmin (*13215622) are
also
apparently Catholic.
Flood (p.7), speaking particularly of the
family of William Toulmin (*1321), seems
to have
got events reversed when she said "They all seemed to be nominally Church
of
England,
that is they were christened, married and buried according to its rites,
but
some of them became Unitarians and were buried in nonconformist
places." The
division
between the nonconformist and establishment Toulmins was perhaps reflected
in her
remark (p.8): "Joshua (*1331)
sounds a dull old dog. All the Toulmins
I
have
heard of seem to have been of the gay and festive kind, like W. of T. (*1321)
and his
son Joseph!"
The streak of dissent seems to have emerged
in the northern Toulmins at about the
same
date. Three of the Bolton Holmes family
are specified, from 1695 to 1730, as
Dissenters
in the parish registers: Joshua 1659-1725 (**133), Thomas d.1728
(tentatively
identified as an elder brother, **131), and his son George (**1311)
(see
App.B, section 1a and App.C); Thomas's house, Sandside, was licenced for
nonconformist
meeetings (probably Presbyterian, v. note under **131). I do not know
of any
records of Toulmins in specific nonconformist registers in Lancashire; apart
from
Friends' meetings, the oldest registers to survive in Lancaster are for the
Mount
Street Independent chapel from 1760.
However, Thomas Toulmin (1676-1728,