I did not suppose they would have made the attempt without having well reconnoitred the situation of the enemy to receive them; since they were long apprised of our intended attack, and made active preparations for defence.’ Russell, on hearing the news, wrote to Shrewsbury: ‘I am very sorry for poor Talmash; but before I left him I foresaw what would happen, both as to the success, and his own life. He is now dead, but I never saw a man less cut out to order such a business in my life’ (Shrewsbury Correspondence, pp. 45–7, 199).
There is a marble monument to Tollemache in Helmingham church; a bust surrounded by warlike symbols, with a long inscription which gives an outline of his life. He fell, it says, ‘not without suspicion of being made a sacrifice in this desperate attempt through the envy of some of his pretended friends.’ This suspicion of treachery was widespread and well founded. He himself is said to have shared it, and to have sent a message to the queen giving the names of certain persons, ‘that she might be on her ground against those pernicious counsellors who had retarded the descent, and by that means given France time to fortify Brest’ (Oldmixon, p. 92; see Churchill, John, first Duke of Marlborough and Godolphin, Sidney. Cf. also Wolseley, Life of Marlborough, ii. 314, and Engl. Hist. Rev. ix. 130, xii. 254). The evidence seems to show that any information that may have reached James II from Godolphin or Marlborough was no more than a confirmation of what the French government already suspected. But it is known that it was on information Louis XIV received from England that he sent Vauban to Brest. The great engineer arrived there on 13 May, and consequently had nearly a month in which to make ready for the reception of the English expedition (see Angoyat, i. 198; Quincy, iii. 78).
But a different version of what Tollemache said is given in a letter written from Ford Abbey on 25 June 1694 by F. Gwyn to Robert Harley: ‘Talmash's [body?] passed by us here on Friday for London. He complained extremely before his death, that before he went from Portsmouth he had an account of the good [posture?] affairs were in at Brest to receive us, and therefore desired to know whether he should persist in his attempt, but receiving no answer he thought it his duty to go on, and found it impracticable as he before had represented, but still he thought it his duty to try. He also complained of Lord Cutts for not obeying orders, and sent a message about it to the queen a little before his death’ (Welbeck MSS. iii. 551).
The following is the picture of Tollemache drawn by Dr. Nicholas Brady in his funeral sermon: ‘His conversation was familiar and engaging, his wit lively and piercing, his judgment solid and discerning; and all these set off by a graceful person, a cheerful aspect, and an inviting air.’ Burnet says ‘he was a brave and generous man, and a good officer, very apt to animate and encourage inferior officers and soldiers; but he was much too apt to be discontented and to turn mutinous.’ To this Lord Dartmouth added that he was ‘extremely lewd.’ His character is reflected in the handsome resolute face engraved by Houbraken from the portrait by Kneller which remains in the collection of Lord Dysart at Ham House.
[There is a short memoir of Tollemache by Birch in Houbraken's and Vertue's Heads of Illustrious Persons, p. 145. Dr. Brady's sermon was published in 1684, but tells little. There are letters of his to George Clarke [q. v.], the Irish secretary at war, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. For his military career generally, see Dalton's English Army Lists; Walton's British Standing Army; McKinnon's Coldstream Guards; Edye's Royal Marines; Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; Luttrell's Diary. For the Brest expedition the best sources are Lord Caermarthen's Journal of the Brest Expedition (1694); Mercure Historique et Politique, Juillet 1694; Burchett's Memoirs of Transactions at Sea; Augoyat's Aperçu sur les Ingénieurs, &c.; Quincy's Histoire Militaire de Louis le Grand; Shrewsbury Correspondence, ed. Coxe; Burnet's History of his Own Time, 1823.]
TOLLER, Sir SAMUEL (d. 1821), advocate-general of Madras, was son of Thomas Toller (1732–1795), who succeeded his father-in-law, Samuel Lawrence, as preacher to the presbyterian congregation in Monkwell Street.
Samuel, who admitted at Lincoln's Inn 27 March 1781, was called to the bar, and in March 1812 was appointed advocate-general at Madras. He was subsequently knighted, and died in India on his way to Bangalore on 19 Nov. 1821. In 1793 he married Miss Cory of Cambridge, by whom he had issue.
Toller was the author of two legal works of considerable value: 1. ‘The Law of Executors and Administrators,’ London, 1800, 8vo; 7th ed. by Whitmarsh, 1838; 2nd American edit. by Gordon, Philadelphia, 1824, 8vo, 3rd American edit. by Ingraham, 1834. 2. ‘Treatise of the Law of Tithes: compiled in Part from some Notes of Richard Wooddeson’ [q. v.], London, 1808, 8vo; 3rd ed. 1822.
