Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pamphlets and broadsheets that purport to detail last words from the gallows, deathbed confessions etc.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict. 361: Would you lend me the price of 2 Gross of Tops, Dies or Croaks, which is 7 shillings.
1887		A. Barrère Argot and Sl. 272: The criminal... would perhaps utter for the edification of the crowd his ‘tops, or croaks,’ that is, his last dying speech.
1894		Burnley Exp. 8 Aug. 4/8: The last dying speeches hawked about the streets were ‘tops’ or ‘croaks’.