Author: Tucker, William John
Biography:
TUCKER, William John (1742-1830: findmypast.co.uk)
He was baptised on 23 Oct. 1742 at Kilmington, Devon, the youngest of perhaps as many as ten children of William Tucker and his wife Mary Marwood, who had married in 1717. Both families were large landowners in Devon. He was educated at Queen’s College Oxford (matric. 1761, BA 1764, MA 1770) and then entered the church, taking up the Rectorship of Widworthy in 1769 soon after leaving college and remaining there until his death. In the 1779 Visitation enquiry, he replied, “I reside for the most Part at my House near Honiton, where I have always resided since I left the University, about three Miles distant from Widworthy. The Distance is so small, and I am so frequently at my Parsonage House at Widworthy, where I keep apartments furnished, with a Parson to live in it, that I trust there is no Neglect of Duty . . . .” Besides his topographical poem Honiton-Hill (1811), he also wrote "A Concise Account of the Parish of Widworthy" (GM July 1791, 608-10) and seems to have shared the antiquarian and historical concerns of a number of Devon men at the time, most notably those of the circle of Richard Polwhele (q.v.). He died at his house in Honiton on 26 Dec. 1830 and was buried on 5 Jan. 1831. He never married, and having outlived his older siblings, left his extensive wealth (probably well in excess of £10,000) to an array of nephews and nieces. (findmypast.co.uk 15 Oct. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 15 Oct. 2021; OUCH 8 Jan. 1831; GM April 1831, 378; Devon Archives, Visitation Questionnaire 1779, Chanter 232a, 208) AA