• Name: Topham, Edward
• Gender: Male
• Birth Date: June  1751
• Death Date: 26  April  1820
• Occupation: journalist
• Occupation: playwright

The attribution is uncertain. It is possible that this is Edward Topham or that it is John Topham (1746–1803), antiquary, who was Treasurer to the antiquary society at the end of the 1780s and who was also involved in a good deal of philanthropic work. The contacts are all associated with dissent and there is nothing to suggest that either John or Edward Topham had dissenting links; indeed, the former becomes Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1790.

There is evidence that Edward Topham may have moved in Godwin's circles. Holcroft refers to Topham in his memoirs, and he seems part of their broad circle. However, the three entries in Godwin's Diary are linkes to Kippis and Hollis, which is not Topham's usual more flamboyant world. On the other hand, Topham had recently started a newspaper, The World, and Godwin seems to be connected to others involved in that enterprise, such as Este.

Since we know that Godwin's closest associate was linked to Edward Topham we have settled on this identification, but it is very tentative.

• DNB.
• Thomas Holcroft, The life of Thomas Holcroft, continued by William Hazlitt, ed. by Elbridge Colby, 2 vols (London: Constable & Co., 1925), vol 2, p. 247.

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.