The Reverend Ralph William Lyonel Tollemache-Tollemache MA JP ( /ˈtuːlmeɪk ˈtɒlmæk/ tool-mayk-tol-mak; 19 October 1826 – 5 October 1895) was a British clergyman in the Church of England. He is best known for the unusual and increasingly eccentric names that he chose for his numerous children.
Born Ralph William Lyonel Tollemache, he was the eldest son of the Hon. Reverend Hugh Francis Tollemache (1802–1890) and his wife, Matilda, the daughter of Joseph Hume. His father was the fourth son of William Talmash, Lord Huntingtower, the eldest son and heir of John Manners and Louisa Tollemache, 7th Countess of Dysart. He was a Church of England clergyman, serving as rector of Harrington in Northamptonshire for 58 years.
Tollemache was educated at Uppingham School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, graduating with his BA in 1850.[1] He followed his father's vocation, and was ordained as a deacon in Manchester in 1849 and as a priest in Lincoln in 1850. He became rector of South Wytham in Lincolnshire in 1850, and retained that living until his death. He was also a Justice of the Peace in Lincolnshire.
He married his cousin Caroline Tollemache (7 June 1828–6 June 1867) on 15 February 1853. She was the daughter of the Hon. Felix Thomas Tollemache, the second son of William Talmash, Lord Huntingtower (eldest son and heir of John Manners and Louisa Tollemache, 7th Countess of Dysart) and Catherine Gray.
A dispute arose with his wife's trustees in 1859. He built up debts of approximately £4,000, and was declared bankrupt 1863. He was discharged from the bankruptcy on 26 June 1868, the year after his wife died.
He remarried on 22 February 1869, to Dora Cleopatra Maria Lorenza de Orellana, the daughter of Colonel Ignacio Antonio de Orellana y Revest, an officer in the Spanish army. He doubled his surname in 1876, becoming "Tollemache-Tollemache".
He died in 1895, leaving an estate with a probate value of £1,619 19s. 7d. He was survived by his second wife, who died on 8 August 1929.
Tollemache is best known for the unusual names that he gave to his many children. He had at least five children from his first marriage:
His imagination took flight when he named the many children from his second marriage:
His eldest son, Lyonel Felix Carteret Eugene, inherited the Scottish 1793 baronetcy (Tollemache, of Hanley Hall) from William John Manners Tollemache, 9th Earl of Dysart, 3rd Baronet, on his death in 1935. He also inherited Ham House, which he gave to the National Trust in 1948.
Lyulph emigrated to New Zealand, where he had 17 children. Leo Quintus Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache renamed himself by deed poll in 1908, becoming Leo de Orellana Tollemache-Tollemache. He and his brother both died in the First World War, the former in action in 1914 and the latter of Spanish flu in 1917. It is often said that Leone holds the world record for the most multiply barreled surname, with six, including one repeated four times (Tollemache-Tollemache-de Orellana-Plantagenet-Tollemache-Tollemache), but this overlooks his father's eccentric naming choices.
The Tollemache family's names are parodied in Book 1, Episode 4 of James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake, as Helmingham Erchenwyne Rutter Egbert (HERE) Crumwall Odin Maximus Esme Saxon (COMES) Esa Vercingetorix Ethelwulf Rupprecht Ydwalla Bentley Osmund Dysart Yggdrasselmann (EVERYBODY).