TheToll family was aBaltic German noble family of possibleHollandish origin. According to legend, the family's name originated from a castle nearLeiden. The family heldSwedish andRussian baronial and comital titles,Austrian baronial titles,Prussian,Oldenburgish,Finnish untitled noble status and also possibly belonged toDutch nobility.
The origin of the Toll family was debated among genealogists and historians. According to theGenealogical Handbook of the Baltic Knighthoods, Part Estonia by BaronOtto Magnus von Stackelberg[2] andGenealogical Handbook of the Oesel Knighthoods byNicolai von Essen, the family was ofSaxon origin and was originated inWittenberg. But others including the family members themselves insisted that the family was ofHollandish origin. In theBaltic Coat of Arms Book byCarl Arvid Klingspor[3] andThe introduction to the Swedish nobility's tables byGustaf Elgenatierna, the family could trace their origins back to themedievalCounty of Holland, from which they were descended from a branch of theTeylingen family [nl], a noble family which played a significant role in theCounty of Holland during theMiddle Ages. The Tolls claimed to have descended from Willem van Teylingen, the brother ofDirk I van Brederode, whose son Floris was granted a castle from his merit which he namedTol, and according to the family, that castle was what the family was named after.
Floris' descendants gradually moved east, and in the 16th century, Oswald Toll moved toWittenberg. His son Lucas was the main ancestor of the Toll family, he was a student at theUniversity of Wittenberg, which later he became a writer and went toDenmark, he also became an officer underDuke Magnus of Holstein. After theBishoprics of Ösel–Wiek andCourland was sold toFrederick II of Denmark and Duke Magnus became the king of the newly establishedKingdom of Livonia, Toll followed him and received a number of land there. Lucas Toll then settled in one of his estates and continued his writing.
Lucas Toll's descendants divided into many branches,[2] his family was originally based inÖsel (modern-day Saaremaa), many family members moved inland, settling in places such asEstonia andSweden, and further dividing the family into more branches. His descendants were mainly descended from four of his grandsons, Christian (1607-1675) of theHouse ofMedel-Arromois-Piddul,[4] Caspar (died 1651) of theHouse ofKuusnõmme,[5] Christoffer (1616-1686) of theHouse ofKarky-Wesseldorf[6] and Friedrich of theHouse ofArromois,[7] which their descendants further divided into house which were named after their manor houses.[2] The Swedish line was mainly descended from Caspar and Friedrich. One of Caspar's son Ebbe Christoph von Toll moved inland and entered Swedish service. Ebbe Christoph's grandson was theSwedish field marshalJohan Christopher Toll. The Swedish line was introduced intoSwedish nobility in 1722, thanks to his merit, Johan Christopher Toll received respectively baronial (1799) and comital titles (1814) during his military career. As he was unmarried, the comital branch was extinct by the time of his death in 1817.[8] Other Swedish branches continued, but also went extinct in 1880 with the death of Nikolai Alexander von Toll as his only son Alexander Nikolai died during childhood.[9]
The Baltic lines was mainly descended from Christian, Christoffer and Friedrich. The subdivided houses which were most prominent were theHouse ofKuckers and theHouse ofArroküll. The Kuckers branch was descended from the Medel-Arromois-Piddul branch and was founded[10] by Christian Wilhelm von Toll (1720-1802). His grandson Adolf Friedrich von Toll (1773-1803) was the father of Arndt Wilhelm Gustav (1800-1863) andRobert von Toll (1802-1876), older brother Arndt Wilhelm Gustav was a supervisor in a supply fortress inPskov. While younger brother Robert was a military officer in theImperial Russian Army, a landlord and historian inBaltic German history. Together withFriedrich Georg von Bunge and a number of Baltic German historians, he was best remembered as one of the authors of theEst- und livländische Brieflade [et], a four-part historical source about the timeline and history ofEstonia andLivonia.[11] Robert's sonHarald Alexander Christian von Toll (1848-1909) was a city councilor and secretary to the head of the nobility. The most famous member of this line was the explorer and geologistEduard Gustav von Toll (1858-1902), he gained fame for exploring theNorthern Atlantic,Arctic Ocean,Siberia and the most famousRussian polar expedition of 1900–1902 of the legendarySannikov Land, he was lost during that expedition and was never heard from since.
The other branch theHouse of Arroküll was descended from the Karky-Wesseldorf branch and was found[12] by theNapoleonic-Era generalKarl Wilhelm von Toll,[13] notable for his role during theWar of the Sixth Coalition. He found and named this branch after the Arroküll Manor he brought in 1820. Karl Wilhelm was grantedAustrian baronial title in 1814 andRussian comital title in 1829.[14][15] His son, alsoKarl Wilhelm, was a diplomat, chamberlain andprivy councillor, he was theRussian ambassador to Denmark from 1882 to 1893. He was also the ancestor of several minor Russian branches, even though he, his wife and his children were all baptised inLutheran churches, many of them had their own children baptised inOrthodox churches because of their marriages with Russian Orthodox woman. One such descendant was his grandsonSergei Alexandrovich Tol (1848-1923), the civil governor ofSt. Petersburg for 14 years from 1889 to 1903 and premier master of the hunt. Other lines included theHouse of Kuckers-Etz and theHouse ofUndel-Thula.
The Baltic family was matriculated into theBaltic knighthoods during the course of the 18th-Century. In 1741, Ebbe Ludwig von Toll (1722-1810), landowner and heir to theArromois andPaunküll Manors was matriculated into theOeselian Knighthood. Christoffer Friedrich von Toll (1698-1767), landowner, heir to theAlt-Harm Manor and father of the founder of the Kuckers-Etz branch Karl Gustav von Toll (1751-1820), was matriculated into theEstonian andLivonian Knighthoods in 1746 and 1747 respectively.[16][17]
Some of the family members also returned to Germany for services. This line was mainly descended from Friedrich Toll.
