Tucker Family History In Bermuda- Some Photos From My 2018 and 2019 Visits to TUCKER Ancestral Sites

Here are a few photos from my 2018 and 2019 visits to Bermuda by cruise ship, during which I was able to visit a few of the ancestral home sites of my Tucker ancestors of England ,Bermuda, and Virginia.

 My Tucker ancestors were in Bermuda in the 17th and 18th centuries. The original Tucker homesite was known as the Mansion At The Grove, situtated on a vast tract of land overlooking the ocean that is now the Port Royal Golf Course and adjacent resort in Southampton, Bermuda. Members of this Tucker family were involved in running the Government of Bermuda, were estate-holding aristocracy in England, and concurrently operated a shipping import-exports business under the auspices of the Crown of England (pre-American Revolution). The original owner of the land and homesite that became known as the Mansion At The Grove in Port Royal, Southampton, Bermuda was the sea merchant and explorer Captain Daniel Tucker.  During the American Revolution, some members of this shipping family became privateers, sympathizing with and selling munitions and goods to the Patriots. Sons and Daughters of this Tucker family dynasty migrated to Virginia after the American Revolution; the sons seeking their livelihoods as politicians, lawyers, and gentlemen farmers.

 A Tucker House Museum remains today in St. George's, Bermuda in the original home that was occuppied by Henry Tucker, a politician and descendant of the Tucker patriarch Colonel Henry Tucker (and wife Anne Butterfield Tucker)  of the Mansion At The Grove in Southampton,  Bermuda. Today, the Tucker House Museum in St. George's sits on a narrow street parallel to the waterfront, a few yards from  the Town Square in St. George's. This property originally had gardens and a front lawn area with stairs leading down to the waterfront dock.  Today, that waterfront strip of property directly in front of the Tucker House Museum is occuppied by shops and restaurants. I have included a few articles on some of these Tucker ancestors in my Blog, following these photos. 

                                                    Colonel Henry Tucker

George Tucker IV - B-1621 D-1623 of England and Bermuda

The following info is copied from the Find A Grave memorial page that I created for this ancestor in 2013. I am the original author of this article first shared in my Ancestry tree and on the Find A Grave website. I have added it to a series of memorial articles I created on this Tucker clan in my genealogy Blog. 

George Tucker IV was the son of George Tucker III and Elizabeth Sedley. His ancestral roots were in Milton, Kent, England.  This was my 8th-Great-Grandfather. 

He was Husband of Frances St George. He was Born circa 1621 in Milton-Gravesend, Kent, England. They Married 2 Nov 1646 at St Mary's Aldernary Cathedral, London, England. He was Father of Francis Tucker and St. George Tucker. He Died 21 July 1663, St Andrew, Holborn , London, England. Exact burial site unknown.

The children of George Tucker and Frances St. George include Captain St. George Tucker I (1651-1710), Major Henry Tucker (1652-1728), Francis Tucker (1653-1723), and John Tucker (1655-1715).

The Tucker family had business enterprises and estates in England, Bermuda, and colonial Virginia; earning their fortunes as mariners, ship owners, traders and buccaneers and privateers. George Tucker was among the first of the Tucker clan to settle for a time in Bermuda. He was a royalist. Many Tucker descendants later supported the colonial patriots before and during the American Revolution and moved permanently to Virginia as Americans to become planters and practice law and politics. Their descendants eventually sought their fortunes and land in other states including North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri.

George and his brothers went from England to Bermuda as young men circa 1636, where there was another relative of theirs operating shipping businesses, Capt. Daniel Tucker. George Tucker was heir to his father George's estate in Tavistock, Devon, England so returned to England after his father's death circa 1648. He seems to have spent most of his life in England being educated as a gentleman running family estates as an heir.

George's grandson was Colonel Henry Tucker of The Grove Mansion plantation, Port Royal, Southampton, Bermuda. George's  great-grandson was Henry Tucker of St. George, Bermuda. Portraits of this Tucker clan hang at Tucker House Museum in St. George, Bermuda under the care of Bermuda National Trust.  The site of the original Grove Mansion house and acreage of the Tucker clan in Southampton, Bermuda is now the site of the Port Royal Golf Course and an adjacent resort overlooking the ocean.  Artifacts of the historical property were uncovered during excavations for the golf course. 

Source: Searching for Governor Daniel Tucker's Mansion, first season of excavation https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=arch_faculty

Francis Tucker, Sr

BIRTH	17 Sep 1653 Southampton Parish, Bermuda
DEATH	11 Dec 1723 (aged 70) Prince George County, Virginia, USA
BURIAL	Unknown Add to Map
MEMORIAL ID	103400965

                                                        1676 Map Of Bermuda

The following information is a copy of the Find A Grave memorial page that I created for this ancestor in 2013.  The information is my own compiled research summary writing, which includes a transcript of this ancestor's original Will and excerpt quotations from the  book SOURCE: "The Making and Unmaking of a Revolutionary Family"- the Tuckers of Virginia 1752- 1830; author- Phillip Hamilton. University of Virginia Press, copyright 2003.. Since the Find A Grave memorial page info that I created has been copied many times over into public trees on Ancestry's website, I decided it is time to add it to my own Blog since I am the original compiler of this article summarizing some research findings and published sources regarding this ancestor.. Francis Tucker Sr. was my 7th-Great-Grandfather.


Francis Tucker Sr. was the Son of George Tucker IV and wife Frances St George (Tucker); his father was the British patriarch of "The Grove" Tucker family clan of Port Royal, Southampton Parish, Bermuda. Francis Tucker Sr. was the Father of John Tucker and Colonel Henry Tucker, as well as other heirs confirmed by his Will. His Wife's name is unknown, possibly Mary. He left the comforts of his early island privileged roots in Bermuda to pursue his educartion in England and to help run the fanily shipping businesses and estates there. Later in adulthood he resided in Prince George County, Virginia.

CHILDREN CONFIRMED BY WILL INCLUDE: Francis Jr., John, Abram. Matthew, & Henry Tucker.

on 21 May 1712 he surveyed 289 acres on both sides of Mowhipponock Creek and 100 acres on west side of same creek, Prince George County. 1711-1784 Platt Book: p. 78, 1712 – Francis Tucker, 289 A. "on both sides of Mowhipponock Creek on great branch of same to a corner on West side of Creek, to Herbert's line, then to Great Branch ". Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol 9, #1. in 1718, Francis Tucker, the elder of Bristol Parish, Prince George, sells to David Crawley of same, 100 A. bounded by land of sd. Crawley and Edmond Browder on south, west on unpatented lands, north on land late in possession of Bartholomew.

1723 11 Dec — Age: 70
Bristol, Prince George, Virginia,
– Will of Francis Tucker of Bristol Parish, Prince George, dated 12 December 1722 and proved 10 December 1723. Left land on Mowhipponock Creek (several tracts) to sons Francis, John, Henry, Abram, and Mathew. Wife Mary, Executrix. Wit.: Mathew May

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF FRANCIS TUCKER

In the Name of God, Amen. I Francis Tucker of the Parrish of Bristoll in the County of Prince george, do make and declare this my Last Will and Testament in manner and form following that is to say, first I bequeath my Soul into the hands of Almighty God, beleiving remission of Sins and everlasting Life, by the merrits, death and passion of Jesus Christ my Lord and only Saviour. 2ly Item. I give and Devise unto my son Francis Tucker and his hers for ever, that part of my Land Lying on the East side of Mawhipponack Creek at the Lower end thereof, as I have marked the same out to him. 3ly Item. I give and devise unto my Son John Tucker and his heirs for ever, that part of my Land Lying on the North side of Mawhipponack Creek Joining upon Henry Mayes, as it is already Surveyed for him. 4ly Item. I give and Devise unto my Son Henry Tucker and his heirs for ever, that part of my Land Lying between my Son Francis Tucker and my Son John Tucker, on both sides Mawhipponack Creek, the plantation whereon I now live being part of the said Land. 5ly Item. I give and Devise unto my son Abram Tucker and his heirs for ever, that part of my Land Lying on the Northside of Mawhipponack Creek, Joining upon my son Henry Tucker and Thomas Mitchell as I have marked the same out to him. 6ly Item. I give and Devise to my Son Mathew Tucker and his heirs for ever, that part of my Land Joining upon Thomas Mitchell as it is already Surveyed for him. 7ly Item I give and Devise all my Goods and Chattels to be equally divided among all my Children, and unto Mary my Loveing Wife one Childs part, whom I do also make whole and Sole Executrix of this my Will. In Wittness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seal this 12th day of December 1722. Signed by Francis Tucker (by his mark) and Seald wth red wax, and witnessed by Mathew Mayes, Henry Mayes, and John Powell.

At a Court held at Merchants hope for Prince George County, on the Second Tuesday in December, being the Fourth day of the said month, Anno Dom: 1723. The above written Last Will and Testament of Francis Tucker Deced: was presented into court by Francis Tucker Junr. and the Executrix named in the said Will being since dead, the said Francis Tucker made Oath thereto, and it being proved by the Oaths of Mathew Mayes, Henry Mayes, & John Powell, the Severall Wittnesses thereto, by Order of the Court is truly recorded and on the motion of the said Francis Tucker and his giving Security according to Law, Certificate is granted him for Obtaining a Commission of Administration with the sd Will annext in due form.

Wills & Deeds 1713-1728, page 663, Prince George County, Virginia

New Kent, Charles City, and Prince George Counties
Francis Tucker Records of Prince George County, VA.

Francis Tucker Records of Prince George County, Virginia

Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume 9, Number 1, pages 12 – 15 andNumber 2, pages 50-55

1704 Tax or Quit Rent List:

Major Henry Tooker for the Merchants in London, 4600 Acres

Major Tooker 181 Acres

Robert Tooker 400 Acres

H[J]oseph Tooker 200 Acres

Francis Tucker 100 Acres

Elizabeth Tucker 212 Acres

1711-1724 Plat Book:

p. 20, 1712 [balance of date torn off] – For Francis Tucker, 100 A. on West side of Mowhipponock Creek at Henry Mayes’ line … ordered to his son John [i.e.,Tucker] and patent in his name.

p. 78, 1712 – Francis Tucker, 289 A. on both sides of Mowhipponock Creek on great branch of same to a corner on West side of Creek, to Herbert’s line, then to Great Branch …

[Mowhipponock Creek flows northward through present day Dinwiddie County into the Appomattox River a few miles east of Namozine Creek which divides Dinwiddie and Amelia Counties.]

1713-1728 Record Book

p. 231, 1718, 10 June – Francis Tucker, the elder of Bristol Parish, Prince George, sells to David Crawley of same, 100 A. bounded by land of sd. Crawley and Edmond Browder on south, west on unpatented lands, north on land late in possession of Bartholomew Crowder and John Butler. Henry Randolph, Jr., E. Goodrich, and John Patteson. Acknowledged in Court by sd. Tucker at Merchants Hope 10 June 1718, and Mary, his wife appeared and relinquished right of dower.

p. 663 – Will of Francis Tucker of Bristol Parish, Prince George, dated 12 December 1722 and proved 10 December 1723. Left land on Mowhipponock Creek (several tracts) to sons Francis, John, Henry, Abram, and Mathew. Wife Mary, Executrix. Wit.: Mathew Mayes, Henry Mayes, John Powell.

p. 751 – Survey of Robert Bolling for Francis Tucker, 21 May 1712, 289 A. on both sides Mowhipponock Creek; and 22 May 1712, 100 A. on west side same Creek.

[Robert Bolling also surveyed land for:

John Tucker 8 May 1712 – 200 A. on the Great Branch of Nummisseen Creek

Robert Tucker 8 May 1712 – 141 A. on west side of Nummisseen Creek and both sides of the River Path

Joseph Tucker 20 October 1715 – 403 A. on both sides of Stoney Creek

William Tucker 20 October 1715 – 143 A. on north side of Stony Creek

James Tucker 20 November 1719 – 450 A. on lower side of Nummisseen Creek]

p. 1022, 11 July 1727 – Land adjoining Francis Tucker's [Francis Jr.?] line on west side Mowhipponock Creek, sold to Wm. Chambers of Henrico, Patrick Dorman.

p. 1026, Survey by Robert Bolling for Francis Tucker [Francis Jr.?], 392 A. on both sides Winicomake Creek. 21 March 1726/7.

Colonel Henry Tucker: Tucker Family of England, Bermuda, and Virginia (the St. George Tucker line in Virginia)
Posted 30 Oct 2011 by HopelesslyHookedGeneaInAZ
SOURCE: "The Making and Unmaking of a Revolutionary Family"- the Tuckers of Virginia 1752- 1830; author- Phillip Hamilton. University of Virginia Press, copyright 2003.



(Page 8-10- Tucker clan in England and Bermuda)

" In the mid-eighteenth century, the Tucker brothers belonged to a confident, ambitious, and prominent clan whose members lived at the very center of Great Britain's Atlantic empire. Led by their father, Henry Tucker Sr., a merchant-shipper politician, the family had firmly established itself on the island (Bermuda). The Tucker's position had been gained over the decades, not because of the efforts of any one individual but rather out of a collective determination to advance the entire family's fortunes. Like many elites in Britain's the pre-Revolutionary empire, the Tuckers defined family in the broadest sense possible, beleiving that all kin members together formed a large coprporate entity. In their minds family included not just members of their conjugal unit- parents and children- but extended and affinal relations as well, including uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, and so on. Before the Revolution, the Tuckers greatly depended on these extensive kin networks. Drawing few distinctions between their public and private lives, they derived love and affection as well as vital economic and political connections from a broadly conceived kin universe". ....."In the opening years of the Revolutionary crises, the Tuckers repeatedly worked and cooperated together as a unit to maintain their economic position and social reputation. They emotionally supported one another, moreover, in efforts to cope with and adjust to their perplexing times."....."The Tucker's prescence in Bermuda stretched back almost to the beginning of ENglish colonization when a distant ancestor, Captain Daniel Tucker, served as the colony's second governor from 1616 to 1619. Following Daniel's tenure, two brothers George and Daniel Tucker of Milton in Kent COunty purchased twenty shres of the Somers Island Company, the joint-stock corporation that organized settlement efforts in Bermuda during the first half of the seventeenth century. The first Tucker to settle permanently on Bermuda was a royalist named George Tucker, who arrived on the island in the late 1640's. Heir to the Somers Island shares, George .....was joined by a relative named Henry Tucker, and both men quickly won positions in the island's goivernment. Troughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the family proliferated on the island and its' wealth, power, and infuence grew apace. Not only did Tuckers occupy key poitions in the colonial government, but they also participated in the maritime commerce spawned by global wars and commercial development. By the mid-1700's this Bermuda clan was large, affluent, and politically powerful".



(page 10-16: the Bermuda Tucker clan)

"Colonel Henry Tucker Sr, great-grandson of George Tucker, was born in 1713. ...Above the beaches (of Bermuda) where smugglers off-loaded goods, stood an elegant and imposing mansion., Colonel Tucker's seat in Sothampton Parish that he named The Grove. IN 1738 Henry Tucker won the hand of Anne Butterfield, daughter of General Nathaniel Butterfield, Bermuda's chief justice and head of another powerful island clan. His marriage to Anne proved not only socially and politically advantageous but also prolific. ....Although the Tuckers accepted patriarchalism within their houshold as perfectly natural, emotional relations among members of The Grove were warm, close, and affectionate. ...Ane Butterfield Tucker created a loving domestic environment at The Grove in which her children's well-being came first. Her sons and daughters reciprocated this love, often expressing their gratitude for having 'experienced the inexpressible tenderness of her affection'. ...Colonel Tucker, in turn, attempted to exercise his power with compassion, restraint, and moderation. Only on rare occasions, when he felt unjustly slighted, did he demand outright deference as household head.". ...."The Tuckers were aware, though, that their family extended well beyond The Grove. Never seeing the nuclear unit as a refuge from the surrounding world, they embraced a broadly defined family unit with love, obligations, and duties expected of all kinsmen. Thus, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, and affinal kin gave and received affection as well as provided economic and political assistance. The Tuckers' attitudes refelct general trends within colonial society, for broadly defined families were present in the New World from the beginning of colonization. "



(page 18-20)

"In the early 1770's......As Col. Henry Tucker Sr. looked for prospects throughout the Atlantic, he realized that this family's Bermudian roots would be serious liabilities in the eyes of Britain's ruling elite. Having lived in London for several years as the island's colonial agent, Tucker realized......the great men and families at the center saw provincial elites as Britain;s nouveau riches who lived in crude, rustic conditions while owning and exploiting African slaves. The fact that these colonials now aspired to genteel status was particularly galling to Britain's aristocracy." ...."In the decades following 1688,....men who made fortunes in trans-Atlantic commerce grew in number, and importance. In response, a deportmental rather than a hereditary definition of gentility gained currency: one was a gentleman if one looked and acted the part. Status increasingly sprang fron cultivated behavior one had learned rather than from birth alone." .....



(page 32-39- the Revlutionary War years, Smugglers, Loyalists and Patriots within the Tucker clan)

"After Lexington and Concord, rumours flew throughout the Atlantic about privateer owners amassing easy fortunes through smuggling. As rumours of eady riches multiplied, the Colonel and other Tuckers decided not to let such opportunities pass. In the first half of 1776, family sloops and brigs began to smuggle commodities out of the rebelling colonies and corss the Atlantic. ....From the beginning, the Tucker clan expected its vessles to operate off Virginia and South Carolina, in the West Indies, and in friendly ports on the European continent. Smuggling salt, sugar, guns, munitions, and cloth into North America, the vessels attempted to bring out food commodities, tobacco, and indigo. As before the war, the Tuckers stitched their trading (and now smuggling) enterprises together via family ties. Only reliable kinsmen coul dbe entirely trusted to manage complex (and illegal) mercantile operations as well as handle large sums of money and goods. Once their ventures began, The Grove Tuckers teamed up with their Bridge relations, especially Henry of Somerset, who belonged to the firm Jennings, Tucker & Company. ....During the Revolution the Tuckers sought to take advantage of all of these benefits, with family bonds serving as the glue that held the whole enterprise together. Skippers with the surname Tucker often commanded vessels for both firms. 'Old Captain Thomas Tucker' and 'young Thos. Tucker' regularly plied the Atlantic in family ships. The COlonel send a kinsman named John Tucker to Barbados just before the war. Henry of Somerset dispatched hus brother Daniel Tucker to the same island to help negotiate ourchase of sugar from planters. .....As the wartime enterprise began, the Colonel, Henry of SOmerset, and the Jennings brothers also brought the rising generation into the operation. Both Thomas and St. George Tucker took part in smuggling efforts from the start. With contacts in South Carolina and Virginia, both men could arrange for the sale of trafficked goods as well as secure provision for ecport to France and the West Indies. ...In addition to selling goods to the Americans , the Bermuda Tuckers wished to bring Virginia's 'great men' into the enterprise. A partnership with state leaders not only would bolster the family's ability to profit from the war, but also would strengthen its commerical ties to the Chesapeake region once peace returned. ....The Americans would put up some capital while Tucker and Bermuda-owned vessels would smuggle tobacco, wheat, indigo, and rice out of America for sale in Europe and the West Indies. Ships would return to the United States loaded with run, sugar, salt, and war munitions....The Bermuda-Virginia partnership benefited the Tuckers family at once. ....The family syndicate purchased additional ships and hired privateers whenever it could in order to satisfy the extraordinary demands caused by the rebellion. The goods Tucker vessels smuggled into the United States sold quickly and at a substantial profit.......The Colonel pursuaded a Bermudian cousin named St George Tucker Jr. to go to Virginia....to assist his knsmen with the wagons of goods that regularly trekked between Virginia and Charleston. ....Despite their smuggling activities, the Tuckers were apparently not afraid that their money deposited in London would be seized by the royal government. "

"Although 1777 had been a year of financial successs, the family operation started to unravel in 1778. Some members' lack o fmercantile experience proved costly. Thomas' assistance in South Carolina hurt as much as it helped the syndicate. He found himself incapable of dealing with rapidly fluctuating commodity prices in wartime Charleston. ..... Rather than ending, the Revolutionary War intensified in 1778, particularly on the High Seas. Smuggling operations became significantly more dangerous and costly. ...Obtaining new ships to replace those lost was extremely difficult. ...The extraordinary amount of capital lost in the Tucker's captured ships in 1778-79 probably ate deeply into the profits they won during the war's early years. .....As a result of numerous problems, the Tuckers wound down their operation and decided to wait out the war. "

"With the Tuckers little better off at the end of the Revolution that before, the Colonel's children recognized that they would have to adopt new strategies in order to survive the future. They also understood that family members needed to look well beyond Bemuda in order to make their mark in the world."

( Page 40- 65 : Tucker Patriots, a Tucker- Randolph marriage)

"St. George Tucker's life took an unexpected turn in the autumn of 1777.....when in church met...and within a year married the widow named Frances Bland Randolph, and entered the inner ranks of two great Virginia families. ..... Tucker now became through marriage a respected and formidable member of the state's landed gentry. And even before the Revolutiuon ended, he determined that he would establish a new family dynasty in America based upon the customs, values, and practices of Virginia's ruling elite. St. George Tucker made a successful entry into this world of tidewater plantations. After they took their vows, he and Frances, along weith her three children from her first marriage, settled at Matoax, a 1300 acre Chesterfield County estate nestled along the Appomattox River's northern bank. With the war still raging, Tucker soon joined the Virginia militia to defend hi snew home from British invaders and to advance a Revolutionary cause that he sincerely beleived would bring a more enlightened way of life to American society. ...The couple saw their interess as tightly fused with those of their extended kin, and familial assistance was essential to the smooth operation of their plantations. ...The use of marriage to gain social position was not unusual in British-American society. Virginians had long understood that winning the hand of an elite woman often led to 'the top of the provence'. ....During their courtship, not only did St. George Tucker discover Frances Bland Randolph's charming, dynamic personality....but also the extent and reach of her family connections. Her father, Theodorick Bland Sr. of Prince George County, possessed a distinguished genealogy and abundant wealth. Her mother was Frances Bolling Bland, herself a member of a prominent gentry clan of Prince George County. Their magnificent and imposing seat, Cawsons, sat on a promonotory where the Appomattox River turns northward to join the James. .....When St. George began his pursuit, Frances had ruled her estates alone for nearly three years, directing the plantations slaves and white employees. Regardless of her sentiments for the young Bermudian, the possibility of surrendering this control likely made her hesitate. But, Tucker had much to recommend him. A dashing and well-known smuggler for the patriot cause, he possessed impeccable mannersm which demonstrated a refined and genteel family background. He also ha dpowerful connections to the state's leading men. .....Following their wedding, the couple settled at Matoax.......War, however, still raged beoynd the estate, and in the spring of 1779 Tucker decided to enlist. Although he volunteered as a Private in the Virginia Line, his ties to the gentry again came to his aid....with a major's commission. "

(page 66-67: Virginia Tucker clan and demise of the Bermuda clan)

"Close ties of affection ran between Bermuda and Virginia as well. Soon after their marriage, Frances found herself warmly embaced by all of The Grove Tuckers. ....As soon as he took his vows, St. George made sure that his Virginia family would come to know and love his kin in his homeland. He constantly urged Frances as well as his stepchildren to write letters to their Bermuda relations. In 1785...the Matoax household traveled to the island for a five month visit. ...The family visit was a rousing success, culminating in The Colonel's (Henry Tucker Sr's) 72nd birthday. ....The Colonel never saw the Virginia clan again. After a brief illness he died in April 1787. Col. Henry Tucker Sr.'s death, however, was only the first of to blows to srike the family following their return (to Virginia). Nine months after the Colonel's demise, Frances Bland Tucker did following the birth of a second daughter. ...After the Colonel and Frances died, the family's emotional state entered a period of change and flux. ... An inconsolable St. George took to hi sbed, not emerging for weeks. ...The deaths of the Colonel and Frances Tucker in quick succession unleashed a torrent of passion and agistation within the clan. The response of family members, so out of character when compared to earlier times, points to the centrality of these two figures to the family's collective life. But the survivors' efforts to cope also hint at broader strains and pressures afflicting their lives that were only now beginning to emerge. ... Virginia and the United States were changing at a rate. Many of these transformations were deeply ominous ones for the family of the Old Dominion planter class in general. ...The Tuckers at this point started to become very different people living in world whse axis was rapidly turning".



(page 71-79 : Surviving the post-Revolution years in Virginia- New Strategies for the Tucker clan)

"In the summer of 1788, the events of the Revolution intruded once more into St. George Tucker's household: Tucker wrote in a letter to his Randolph stepsons, (regarding debts left behind by their father before the war)- 'The recovery of British debts can no longer be postponed, and there now seems a moral certainty that your patrimony will all go to satisfy the unjust dent from your Papa to Hanbury's.'. Much of the land and property with which the Randolph boys had expected to make their way in the world soon would be seized to retire their father;s long-standing liabilities. Tucker concluded with blunt advice: 'The consequence, my dear boys, must be obvious to you- your sole dependence must be on your own personal Abilities and Exertions'. ... in 1788, St. George Tucker was a shaken man. .... The Revolutiuon's aftermath brought so many unexpected social, political, and economic changes to the Old DOminion that Tucker became convinced the great planters' authority and place had been fatally compromised. ... He told his stepchildren that they would have to adopt new values and principles. He predicted that individual reliance and self-sufficiency would be the keys to success in the future. ...Tucker explained to his sons that the ways of the past no longer ensured success or affluence. Not would memberhsip to a great family automatically bring prestige and fortune. Instead, in the years ahead only 'personal abilities and exertions' could deliver happiness, position, and property. ......At the time of the Revolution, a number of great planters, particularly thise living south of the James River, stood heavily in debt. Most had spent exorbitant amounts of money on mansions, carriages, clothes, slaves, china, and furniture. ....Thus, when demand for tobacco fell off and prices collapsed in 1785, many planters found themselves more deeply in debt than ever. As Virginia's economy deteriorated, Tucker witnessed the great planters endure frightful losses. ...In this uncertain environment, St George Tucker confronted his own family's possible ruin. Although Frances Bland Randolph had brought land and slaves to her marriage, she also conveyed the great debts incurred by her first husband, John Randolph of Matoax. Such liabilities were ignored during the wa. but St. George had to deal with them now. ....Tucker realized he needed additional income, and reluctantly turned to the bar as a county lawyer." He detested his new situation and wrote to a friend 'It is true the fall from a gentleman of ease and pleasure to one Laborious occupation is disagreeable'. .... Tucker's heavy caseload throughout the 1780's ironically reflected Virginia;s growing instablility. Like many county lawyers, he handled mainly debt cases, and as a result witnessed scenes of repeated harsdship. ...Tucker handled an avalanche of cases for both creditors who demanded quick action and debtors who pleaded for relief. ....Although he had much business, Tucker's financial worries multiplied as the years passed. ...The Depression also undercut nearly everyone';s confidence in the federal government. .....Thus, as the first decade of independence drew to a close....Tucker became convinced that land- the bulwark of the old gentry's status and power- had become a dismal, dead-end investment. .... He estimated that barely one tidewater planter in twenty now made enough 'for the support od himself and his family'. As a result, Tucker decided to sell off the plantations he had acquired during his marriage to Frances. ...He never again considered a major land purchase. ...At the same time he abandoned land ownership, Tucker purchased three lots and a house facing the Palce Green and Market Square in Williamsburg. St. George moved there with his children and house slaves in the autumn of 1788. ...He also moved because his stepsons were approaching maturity and would soon take control of their own lands. But Tucker left Matoax, above all, because he perceived the economic folly of remaining on decaying estates. ......By the early 1790's he saw many tidewater planters and other Virgnians migrating westward into the piedmont and even regions beyond, seeking new lands and opportunities. "



(Page 108-131: the Shenandoah)

"The opening of western Virginia to commercial trade also provided St. George Tucker with ogoing investment opportunites in state banks. ....Henry St. George Tucker was the judge's first son to come of age as these new attitudes and developments emerged in post-Revolutionry War Virginia. Like his half-brothers and other kin, Henry had repeatedly heard his father explain that eastern Virginia was no place for a young lawyer starting out. The growing presence of 'new men' - ambitious, untutored, and lowly born attorneys- practicing in the tidewaters county courts, meant few opportunities to prosper. Henry had to go west, the elder Tucker said. He thought his son should settle in Winchester, a growing city west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northern Shenandoah county of Frederick. ... In spite of his connections to some of Virginia's oldest and most prominent families, only individual self-reliance and hard work now could save him from financial harship. ...The elder Tucker took all possible steps to ebsure Henry's success. The northern valley contrasted greatly with the tidewater. The northern Shenandoah possessed smaller, more diversified farmsteads. ...Large numbers of German and Scotch-Irish immigrants had arrived in the valley (by 1800.) from Europe and the mid-Atlantic states. The character and lack of gentility of these people sgocked young Tucker. Henry's refined upbringing made it difficult to adjust to this situation. An older cousin named George Tucker, who had come to Virginia from Bermuda and stayed in Williamsburg during the previous decade, likewise found life in western Virginia a cuure shock, who wrote that his clients were 'extremely plain and unpolished, and quite untutored in the ways of the world".

"Amid these broad changes, emotional ties within nuclear families shifted as well. Virginia spouses found their home and workplace separating in the Old Dominion. Learning to survive in this new environment proved both difficult and stressful. St. George Tucker had promised his children that the legal profession would provide them with security from uncertain times. Yet the law proved competitive, time-consuming, and ultimately devisive. As husbands and wives coped with long separations, strains within their marriags emerged. The Tuckers increasingly turned to their children for comfort and solace in a difficult world. The home was becoming an island of refuge from their turbulent times. As the rising generation entered publid life, politics, and elective office, they came to doubt the caoacity of their countrymen toi manage liberty and to govern themselves. "

(Page 196- 198: Declining Family Ties and Westward Movement )

"As these traditional clan ties declined during the 1820's, St. George Tucker confronted the full emergence of the isolated, emotionally centered nuclear family. Throughout the decade he and (2nd wife) Lelia lived alone in Williamsburg while his sons largely ignored their extended realtions abroad and one another closer to home. (His sons) Henry and Beverley made few efforts to keep in touch with each other. As the years passed, Henry's family grew increasingly self-sufficient and exclusive. He composed respectful letters to his father, but never required his children to write to their grandfather and seemed particularly uninterested in his kinsmen outside of Virginia....The aged St. George Tucker failed to pursuade his sons to move back to Williamsburg to be with him during his twilight years. (son Beverley Tucker had moved to Missouri). Thus Tucker spent his final years largely removed from those family members whom he had loved and cherished as a younger man. He retired from the federal bench in 1824. In the fall of 1827, ...he died a few weeks after a massive stroke left him paralyzed and unable to communicate."

" (St George's son Nathaniel) Beverley Tucker returned to the Old Dominion in early 1828 to help his brother and John Coalter (a brother-in-law) settle their father's estate. He also came home to overcome the loss...of Polly, his sife of 18 years.....who died due to complications of an unexpected and difficult pregnancy. Family members urged him to remain in Virginia, but he refused, arguing that although he was a Virginian at heart, his life was now centered in the West. The night before his brother's departure for Missouri, Henry lamented ' What his plans are I know not, but I sometimes fear he will not return to Virginia as a resident'. As (Beverley Tucker) traveled westward away from Virginiam he wrote a poem:"

"Farewell to the home of my Heart"

"Farewell to the home of my Youth!"

"From the friends of my childhood I part"

"The Disciples of Honor and Truth"

Farewell to the gentle and kind"

"The cheerful the gracious the fair"

"Whose smile chased the cloud from my mind"

Whose Song wiled my Heart of it's care"



(Page 199- Afterwards)

"Three years before St. George Tucker's death, his Bermudian cousin George Tucker published 'The Valley of Shenandoah'. The first of the so-called Virginia novels, the book reveals the Tucker family's views of their world at the dawn of the antebellum era. Set it 1796, it depicts the Old Dominion in the throes of a profound and irreversible social revolution. Tracing the collapse of the (fictional) Grayson clan, and old an donce-wealthy family of food English stock, Tucker's novel is an exploration of the breakdown of the tidewater gentry and the painful transformation that followed. Like so many within the planter class, the fictional Graysons succumbed to overwhelming debt. The family's patriarch the elegant Colonel Grayson, generously but unwisely had signed the promisory notes of a friend who could not pay. Just as the novel opens, Grayson dies, and his widow and two children are forced to deal with a host of grasping creditors. Compelled to move to a small cottage in the Shenandoah Valley when their properties in eastern Virginia are seized, family members find themselves thrust into a world of mean, uncouth, and disrespectful German and Scotch-Irish settlers. These low-birth commoners, including one of their former overseers, ...were determined to buy up the exhausted gentry's lands, slaves, and other properties. Mimicking the survival strategy of the Tuckers thenselves, young Edward Grayson pursued a legal career as an alternative path to 'fortune and fame'. But there too only disappointments awaited. Tucker's novel particularly longs for Virginia's noble genteel past. Williamsburg, for instance, is remembered by the Graysons in wisftul idyllic terms as a place once dominated by a handful of wise and benevolent familes. ".....

"In the years after 1827, St. George Tucker's own children met with various successes and failures. Hard work and individual effort brought Henry Tucke rboth financial rewards and prestige. His law school in Winchester grew quite prosperous. ....after beverley returned to Missouri, he struggled more often than not. ....Henry and Beverley wrote few letters to one another during these years. Bonds to other Virginia kin withered as well. ....John Randolph's death proved particularly painful. Randolph died in 1833 after a long illness. The year before, he had briefly reconciled with Beverley, who returned to Roanoke to help nurse his sick half brother. The two men apparently put past bitterness behind them. After Randolph died, however, the Tuckers were shocked by their half-brother's will. They learned that they were entirely cut out od Randolph's legacy, and even worse, John repeated in one will drwan up in 1821 his charge tgat St. George Tucker had embezzled his patrimony. What had been a closely guarded family dispute was now exposed for all in the state to see. ...In the litigation that followed, the brothers decided to assert to the court that Randolph had been insane when he drafted the will. The legal challenges took years to resolve, and the the Tucker brothers, proved fruitless. Although few Virginians took Randolphs charges against St. George seriously, Henry and Beverely never received any of Randolph's extensive properties. "

Nathaniel Beverley Tucker eventually did return to Virginia, and "in 1848, was able to witness his brother's (Henry's) last breath. His first novel appeared in 1836, entitled 'George Balcombe. Like his cousin Gerge's novel, the work examines the fate of the sons of the old elite.....He lived the rest of his life steaped in dreamy tradtions...regaled guests guests with tales of old Virginia's glorious past. in 1851, an ill Beverley Tucker died at the home of one of his nephews, surrounded by loving family members".