This surname is derived from an official title. 'the toller,' a toll-taker by road or in market; v. Toleman.

'Taillours and tynkers And tollers in markettes.': Piers Plowman, Prologue, 438-9.

'Tollers' office it is III, For they take toll oft against skill,' i.e. often contrary to reason (Halliwell).

Ralph le Toller. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Bartholomew le Toller, c. 1300. Writs of Parliament.

John le Toller, 28 Edward I: Freemen of York.

Willelmus Toller, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Robertus Toller, 1379: ibid.

1602. Married — Francis Toler and Bridgitt Rafton: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1761. — Samuel Toller and Elizabeth Haggett: St. George, Hanover Square.

Probably from ME. toller(e, Old English tollere, taxgatherer, publican. Hugh Toller, Ambrose Toller, and Nicholas Toller witnessed sale of land in Glasgow, c. 1280-90 (REG., p. 198). Elene Tollare, wife of Willelmus Dubrelle in Inverkethine, is in record, 1392 (RMS., I, 846), and Forsythe Toller was collector of petty customs of Dumbarton in 1428 (ER., IV, p. 462). Tollar 1431.

= Toller, q.v.

(English) One who collected tolls at a tollgate, a tax collector.

1. Two parishes in Dorsetshire are so named. 2. Anglo-Saxon tollere, a publican, or taker of tolls and taxes. Halliwell quotes an old poem in Harl. MS., 2260, to the effect that the —

This name may sometimes be from toiler, a man that superintends tin-bounds; "so called," says Polwhele, "because bounds are terminated by holes (tol, a hole) cut in the earth, which must be renewed and visited once in a year, or because he receives the tolls or dues of the lord of the soil." Toler may be the same name.

Perhaps sometimes from Toller, name of two parishes co. Dorset.

Or De Toulouse, a princely name. The Counts of Toulouse descended from Fulcoald, Count of Rodez 837, whose son Fridolind became Count of Toulouse 819 (L’Art de Vérif. les Dates), and was ancestor of that Sovereign house, whose services in the Crusades, and whose ruin in the Albigensian wars, occupy so important a place in history. A branch of this illustrious house, bearing the name and arms, settled in England at the Conquest (the arms were a cross fleury voided, commonly called the 'Cross of Toulouse’). Hugh de Toulouse obtained grants from Richard Fitz-Gilbert in Surrey. His grandson Peter de Thalews (Tolouse) held more than two fees there in 1165 from the house of De Clare (Lib. Niger). William de T. paid a fine in Northants 1189, and 1201 in Lancashire. The family becomes widely extended, under the names of Toulouse, Tolus, Tolous, Tollar, Towler, Toler, retaining however the arms of Tolouse. Henry Tolouse was Lord of Brookley, Hants, 1316 (Parliamentary Writs). The name occurs in Norfolk 16th cent. as Tollar and Toler (Blomefield), and from that county a branch migrated to Ireland, from which descended the eminent statesman and jurist John Toler, Lord Chief Justice and first Earl of Norbury.

From Toller; a location name in Dorset.

The Tollers were Tavistock merchants in the 17th and 18th centuries (W. T.). Toller is a Dorset village.