Author: Stuckey, John
Biography:
STUCKEY, John (1754-83: Dawes)
The Oxford registers for his admission to Balliol identify him as the son of John Stuckey of Branscombe, Devon, who was born in 1754. A monumental inscription in Clifton Church gives John Stuckey of Weston as his father, and his age at death as 29 (30th year). Since Branscombe is only two miles from Weston, the early and late records of his life largely agree but there is no record of his baptism. The registers and monumental inscription record him at Balliol College, Oxford (matric. 1773, BA 1777) with the inscription further noting that “He was a master of the dead and living languages” and died on 13 Dec. 1783 at Hotwells, Bristol. After Oxford, he was ordained deacon and priest in 1779. After his death, Manasseh Dawes (q.v.) edited, corrected, and enlarged the work listed here and supplied a life which contained few facts but noted that Stuckey’s health had been precarious even at Oxford and that his father had originally planned for him to study law but he had chosen Divinity and became a recluse. Towards the end of his life he gave away his books and kept only his Bible, which he considered contained “all the libraries of the world.” Dawes attended him in his last illness and probably wrote the Clifton Monumental Inscription. (Manasseh Dawes, “The Life and Death of the Rev. John Stuckey,” The Vanity of All Human Knowledge [1784], [i-ix]; ancestry.co.uk 16 Nov. 2022; CCEd 16 Nov. 2022; Bath Chronicle 25 Dec. 1783) AA