Born at Farnham in Surrey, Toplady took an M.A. at Trinity College, Dublin, and proceeded to holy orders in the Anglican church in 1762. He became vicar of Broad Hembury six years later. George Lawton wrote the biography in Within the Rock of Ages: The Life and Work of Augustus Montague Toplady (Cambridge: James Clarke, 1983; BV 330 T6 L3 Emmanuel College Library). The parson's dairy survives and was published in 1987 (BX 5199 T6A35 1987 Robarts Library).

• Pollard, Arthur. "Toplady, Augustus Montague (1740–1778)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oct. 2005.