The Tuckers of Bermuda can trace their
first roots on the island to Captain Daniel Tucker, Governor of
Bermuda who came from Virginia. The Tuckers originated from the
West Country, England.
This page includes information about
the ancestors and descendants of Henry Tucker born in 1649 just
34 years after the 1615
charter was granted to 117 British noblemen who founded the
Bermuda Company and took over the administration of the
island. We believe Henry was a descendent of Captain Daniel
Tucker who was appointed Governor. It was said of him that
he was a harsh man who enforced labour and paid with the
"hog pennies", brass coins stamped on one side with the
symbol of the Bermuda hog.
Here are a number of Tuckers who were
connected with Bermuda or who were born, lived part of their
lives, or died in Bermuda. It is still unclear to me whether they
all have a common lineage.
Captain Daniel Tucker
Daniel Tucker born about 1560, died 10
February 1625. A planter in Virginia when called to be
Governor of Bermuda, May 1616. He came to Bermuda aboard the ship George. He succeeded the
first Governor of Bermuda, Richard Moore. He was Governor
until 1619.
Captain William Tucker
In May1623 in
Jamestown Captain William Tucker concluded peace
negotiations with a Powhatan village by proposing a toast
with a drink laced with poison prepared by Dr. John Potts.
200 Powhatan Indians died instantly and another 50 were
slaughtered. [source: [1] Keith Archibald Forbes
- www.bermuda-online.org/history.htm
Captain John Tucker
Born about
1645, died about 1715. Styled as "Captain" in deposition of his
sister Mary, in John Tucker vs Paul Turner.
Known
as
"John
the Elder", succeeded his father as secretary of the Bermuda
Company. 1681 held office till disolution of the company in
1684. Will dated 30 August 1715, proved November 4. Mentions
by name John, known as "John the Younger" & Henry.
Source [2]
Henry Tucker
was born in 1649. Family tradition is that he married
Jehoiddea Seymour, the daughter of the Governor, Florentius
Seymour. Seymour was governor from1663 to 1668, and
1681.
Other sources say that Henry
Tucker
was born 12 March 1658, married about 1681 to Jehrida
Seymour daughter of Florentius Seymore, Governor of the
Bermuda Company.
Henry was brought from England as a child
in 1662. Source [2]
Henry Tucker
born in 1742, died 1800, married Frances Bruere daughter of
Governor Bruere.
There is a tablet to Henry's memory in St. Peter's Church. Source [2]
In the
Bermuda Gazette of 12 November 1796, he called for privateering
against Spain and its allies, and with advertisements for crew for
two privateer vessels.
He acted as governor on four occasions between 1797 and 1806
GeorgeTucker
George Tucker
was born in 1739. Family tradition is that the son of Henry
and Jehoiddea. He married Mary Auchinleck. [Was he the brother of
Henry 1742-1800?]
St.George
Tucker
St. George
Tucker was born near Port Royal, Bermuda, in 1752, the son of
Colonel Henry Tucker, a trader and owner of the Grove plantation.
His christening name, St. George, had been in the family since
about 1600, when Frances St. George married George Tucker of Kent,
England. Linksource [5]
Where did they live?
The Grange
In
1617 Daniel began to build The Grange for himself at public
expence, in Southampton (on a part of what is now the Port Royal
Golf Course). It was built on an especially luscious 200 acres
vale between Southampton and Sandys which Tucker had claimed as
his bonus. Public feelings ran high and the Rev Lewis Hughes
denounced him bitterly as building a ‘flauntinge’ cedar mansion
for himself while leaving ‘Gods house...but a thacht hovell.’ Even
the Somers Island Company in London seemed likely to deprive the
retiring Governor of the overplus and the house built at their
expense. But in his last term of office he managed to send a huge
consignment of tobacco from Bermuda, and appeared himself in
London to state his own case. The result was that he retained the
by then famous house (on the property later designated The Grove)
and a little less than half the overplus property – a large and
beautiful slice of land.
Tucker
House,
located
on
Water
Street
in
the
heart
of
St. George’s, was built in the 1750s and celebrates its most
famous inhabitants, the Tuckers. Henry Tucker, President of
the Governor’s Council, moved into the house in 1775; his family
remained there until 1809. A magnificent collection of Tucker
family silver, china and crystal, antique English mahogany and
Bermuda cedar furniture, portraits by Blackburn, and exquisite
hand-sewn quilts are just some of the treasures on view. The house
is now a museum run by the Bermudian
National Trust.
What did they do?
From the
above it can be seen that the Tuckers were often involved in the
government of the Bahamas in its early days.
What did they look
like?
There are a
number of portraits of the Tuckers on the Bermudian
Genealogy & History website.
Who did they know?
Who did they marry?
Governor George James
Bruere, Lieutenant Colonel in His Majesty's Service, had arrived in Bermuda with his wife and
nine children on the Prince of Wales in August 1764, and remained
in office for the next sixteen years, until his untimely demise,
probably from the scourge of yellow fever. One daughter, Frances,
married into the Tucker family, descendants of the former Governor
Daniel Tucker (1616-19).
[source:
[1] Keith Archibald Forbes]
Where did
they come from?
John Tucker came
to England with the Conqueror in 1066, granted arms by him in
1079; assigned estate of South Tavistock, County Devon, married
the widow of Trecareth who was supposed to have been the
proprietor before the conquest (Domesday).
Stephen Tucker
in 1100 permitted to wear his hat in the presence of Henry I;
received estate of Lamertin, near Tavistock.
Tucker family
historians have traced the family back to William Tucker born
about 1495 in Throwleigh, Dartmoor not far from Oakhampton.There
is a hiatus of several generations, from 1100 to 1492, within
which period no Tucker has been able to trace their exact
ancestry. However, the arms on the memorial of Henry Tucker, in
St. Peter's Church, Bermuda, are the same as those granted John
Tucker, thus confirming a claimed descent.
celebrates its most