TOLL, Thomas II (1623-82), of King's Lynn, Norf.

His father’s only child, Toll was probably groomed by Thomas Toll I* to succeed to his mercantile interests and civic position in King’s Lynn. In 1648 his father’s influence with the Committee of Navy and Customs obtained for him the office of customs comptroller in the town. But his right to that place was challenged by a rival, Thomas Shadwell, who claimed to have been appointed by Parliament under letters patent.16HMC 7th Rep. i. 64. In an effort to secure Toll’s position, his father then promoted a bill in Parliament to make void Shadwell’s claim. Although this passed the Lords on 12 October 1648 and was then referred by the Commons five days later to the Navy Committee, the hearing at which counsel for both sides were to appear was never held.17LJ x, 521a, 527b, 536b, 542b, 547a, 600b; CJ vi. 54a-b; HMC 7th Rep. i. 64. Thereafter the bill was soon forgotten amidst the upheavals of the following months. The Tolls nevertheless enjoyed the office, said to be worth £300 per annum, until 1656 when the court of exchequer ruled that Toll had gained the office illegally and ordered him to surrender his profits to Shadwell.18CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 461; The Mystery of the Good Old Cause (1660), 32, E.1923.2; R.H. Mason, Hist. of Norf. (1882-5), 306. Even that probably did not resolve the dispute.19CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 226.

In the meantime Toll had taken on other public roles. In 1649 he was named to the Norfolk assessment commission for the first time and in early 1653 he was added to the commission of the peace.20A. and O; C231/6, p. 254; Over the next few years he regularly attended the quarter sessions held at King’s Lynn.21Norf. QSOB, 72-87. What may however have made the biggest difference to his public position was the death of his father in October 1653. The immediate consequence was that he inherited the bulk of the family properties in and around King’s Lynn.22PROB11/238/266. Those included leases on sequestered lands at Terrington, which had been granted to his father by the county committee in 1650, but that grant was overturned in March 1654 when it was ruled that soldiers in the regiment of Edward Whalley* were instead entitled to them.23CCC, 1475-6; SP23/11, f. 77; G. Jaggar, ‘Col. Edward Whalley, his regimental officers and Crown lands’, Norf. Arch. xxxvi (1977), 153-4. Others meanwhile may have seen him as his father’s political successor. In 1655 he was one of the Norfolk commissioners for the decimation tax and was among those who wrote to the lord protector in November of the year to indicate their willingness to implement it.24TSP iv. 171. That same month he was among those added by the council of state to its trade committee.25CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 1. But by then he had other duties to detain him in King’s Lynn for the time being.

In August 1655 senior figures on the King’s Lynn corporation seem to have sought out Toll for rapid promotion. Although he had been elected as a freeman five years earlier, he had never taken the necessary oaths. He finally took them on 3 August 1655 and was immediately nominated as an alderman. He took the alderman’s oath a fortnight later. All this then made it possible for him to be elected as mayor on 29 August.26King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 459, 460v, 468; Cal. Lynn Freemen, 162, 165. Once war with Spain had been declared, its effects on the town dominated his year as mayor. In early 1656 he was busy pressing sailors for the navy.27CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 489. Soon he and the corporation petitioned the council of state for naval protection for their shipping against attacks on it from the Spanish Netherlands.28CSP Dom. 1655-6, pp. 210-11. That May he was one of two local men appointed by the corporation to command the two militia companies to be raised at King’s Lynn.29King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 483. Another major event during his term in office was the election for the 1656 Parliament. In August he presided over the election by the corporation of John Disbrowe* and Philip Skippon* as their MPs, although the freemen then made their own return in favour of Disbrowe and Guybon Goddard*. Toll delivered both indentures to the sheriff.30King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/10, f. 491; CJ vii. 441b-442a. During his year as mayor, a number of senior army officers, including Disbrowe, Charles Fleetwood*, Hezekiah Haynes* and John Biscoe*, were offered the freedom of the town.31Cal. Lynn Freemen, 166n.

The dispute over the King’s Lynn parliamentary franchise resurfaced at the 1659 election, but both sides separately elected both Toll and Griffith Lloyde*.32King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/11, ff. 10v-11, 13. His only recorded speech at Westminster was on 3 February in support of his father-in-law, Robert Jermy*, during the debate over the double return for Castle Rising. Having been present at the poll, Toll was able to tell the Commons that the return in favour of Jermy had been signed by more of the burgesses.33Burton’s Diary, iii. 50. He was granted leave on 11 April, ‘notwithstanding the order for appointing the call of the House’.34CJ vii. 634a; Burton’s Diary, iv. 389. He was therefore presumably absent the following week when the army forced the dissolution of this Parliament.

During August 1659, in response to the attempted royalist risings, the council of state ordered Toll to put the King’s Lynn militia into a state of readiness.35CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 51, 115, 120. Parliament meanwhile appointed him as a lieutenant-colonel under his father-in-law.36CJ vii. 760a. In January 1660 the council confirmed his appointment as a captain.37CSP Dom. 1659-60, pp. 319, 349.

At the Restoration, Toll took the precaution of seeking a pardon under the great seal.38H.J. Hillen, Hist. of the Borough of King’s Lynn (Norwich, 1907), i. 399. Others may have been less willing to forgive him. On 22 February 1661 he was dismissed as an alderman by his colleagues on the King’s Lynn corporation on the grounds on non-attendance.39King’s Lynn Borough Archives, KL/C7/11, f. 70. One scurrilous rumour was that he and Jermy had fled to New England.40A Display of the Headpiece and Codpiece Valour of the most renowned Col. Robert Jermy [1660]. Toll died in King’s Lynn in 1682. He was buried close to his parents in St Nicholas, King’s Lynn.41Mackerell, Hist. 114.