Historicaleigh - Tucker’s Luck (Or Not)

July 24, 2016 by Carole Mulroney

TUCKER’S LUCK (OR NOT)

Living to the ripe old age of 96 is an achievement, even in this day and age, but in 1804 it was even more of an amazing event.

On 20 October 1804 St Clement’s saw the burial of John Tucker aged 96.

According to the Ipswich Journal of 27th of October, John was born in 1710 in Uplyme in Devon. How he ended up in Leigh is probably due to a maritime connection, Uplyme being near Lyme Regis.

John first appears in the Leigh records in April 1757 when his illegitimate son, John Miller Tucker, by Hannah Miller, was baptised. It is possible that Hannah was already married because she and John did not marry, (in Leigh at any rate), but a Mrs Miller was buried in 1760, by which time John had already married Martha Timson or Stimson at St Clement’s.

It appears John may have ‘done a bunk’ after the birth of his child, as in 1757 (when he was already 47) he entered on board a privateer called 'The Terrible' under Captain Death. This ship took part in a memorable engagement at the end of that year with a French ship of war called the Vengeance. Although outgunned and also fighting  the French ship 'The Grand Alexander', 'The Terrible' with the utmost obstinate and perhaps unexampled bravery, maintained the unequal contest till all her officers were killed. Only 10 of her crew remained effective, the rest being either killed or desperately wounded.

John was one of the crew who came out of the battle unscathed and returned to Leigh where he married Martha, had 2 children. He sadly buried Martha and went onto marry Elizabeth Abdy in South Benfleet. He hired a cottage with a garden in Leigh and thereafter maintained a comfortable livelihood as a jobbing gardener.

But the idyll was not to last. In 1804 at the age of 96, a widower, John gained a new landlord and was compelled to quit his beloved cottage on 7 October of that year. Just 5 days later John took to his bed and died, as he emphatically said ‘of a broken heart’.

The battle that John had taken part in was in the first year of the Seven Years War. Other reports say that John was not the only man from Leigh who left to join 'The Terrible'.

This article is by Carole Mulroney of Leigh Lives http://www.leighlives.co.uk/#!my-leigh-lives/cylw
To read Carole's previous HistoricaLeigh blogs on the leigh-on-sea.com website please click the link https://www.leigh-on-sea.com/tag/listing/blog/historicaleigh