The following is from American Pomological Society Proceedings, 1899
” Note on the Tolman Sweet Apple. — My attention has been called to the origin of the Tolman or Tolman’s Sweet Apple, and also to the proper orthography of the name. Mr. George Tolman, formerly editor of the New England Farmer, informed that the family tradition is that it originated in Dorchester, where the family settled in 1635, though there are various statements as to the precise spot, as we find to be the case when we come to inquire into the history of other fruits. Mr. Tolman, who has studied the genealogy of the family, says the proper spelling is Tolman and not Talman, as in Downing Fruit Trees and the Catalogue of the American Pomological Society.”
Sources:
American Pomological Society. Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Session, September 22-24, 1891. (1891), 137.
Spencer Ambrose Beach. The Apples of New York. (Albany, 1905), vol. 1, 343-344.