Daniel Tucker (Governor)
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Captain Daniel Tucker (baptized 10 April 1575, died 10 February 1625) was an English colonial sea captain, member of the
Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Mai ...
, member of the
Somers Isles Company The Somers Isles Company (fully, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles or the Company of The Somers Isles) was formed in 1615 to operate the English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as Bermuda, as a commerc ...
, treasurer of the Jamestown Colony and the notorious second Governor of Bermuda. Tucker was cape merchant (treasurer) in Jamestown during the
Starving Time The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter. However, there were only 61 people still alive when the ...
, and developed habits of extreme discipline.
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...
was settled in 1609 by the Virginia Company through the chance wrecking there of its flagship, the
Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...
. The Virginia company's mandate was made official by the 1612 extension of its Royal Charter to include Bermuda, officially named ''Virgineola'', but quickly renamed ''The Somers Isles''. Later that same year, Bermuda's first Governor, Richard Moore, arrived with a shipload of new settlers to join the three men left behind by the Sea Venture. Bermuda quickly became self-sufficient and its requirements were quite different from the still-struggling Jamestown. The shareholders consequently spun-off a second company to manage Bermuda separately. Called the
Somers Isles Company The Somers Isles Company (fully, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles or the Company of The Somers Isles) was formed in 1615 to operate the English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as Bermuda, as a commerc ...
, King
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
granted it a Royal Charter in 1615, and Tucker was appointed to replace Moore as Governor. Tucker arrived there in 1616. According to Tucker family papers, he found the people lazy and uninspired, and imposed a stern discipline on the colony that was generally resented. Within days of his arrival he had a man hanged for speaking derisively of the new governor and his methods. Governor Moore's immediate concern had been building a ring of fortifications to protect the new settlement from attack by the Spanish. Planting of crops had been neglected, with settlers relying largely on fishing, hunting and foraging. Tucker's Virginia experience had taught him that food was essential to a successful colony. Under his rule, crops were planted, rats (accidentally introduced by a visiting
privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
) reduced, fishing routines established, and living accommodations were built. Tucker's insistence on the development of a reliable food and water supply before pearl diving and whaling for ambergris irritated the company shareholders, and caused his critics to proclaim that he was "fitter to be a gardener than a governor." The Company sent
Richard Norwood Richard Norwood (1590? – 1675) was an English mathematician, Underwater diving, diver, and surveying, surveyor. He has been called "Bermuda’s outstanding genius of the seventeenth century". Life Born about 1590, he was in 1616 sent out by the ...
to survey the island in 1616, which led to a scandal when Tucker appropriated the 200 acres of ''overplus'' (surplus) shares of land left unclaimed by the survey. All shares of land were originally assigned based on Norwood's preliminary estimate of the total land area. Norwood had deliberately underestimated in order to leave a sufficient margin-of-error. Tucker was accused of first interfering with Norwood's survey to ensure that the land ultimately determined to be overplus would be a valuable tract on the boundary of
Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
and Sandys' Parishes, rather than the small, rocky islands that would otherwise have been the last surveyed, and then further accused of improperly claiming that overplus land for himself, where he built himself a mansion in 1618 with public funds. In a preface to his third survey of 1672-1673, Richard Norwood asserted that Moore had interfered with his East-to-West survey only to ensure that the small western islands, which were free of the rats that destroyed the mainland's crops, were quickly planted.''God's Country'', by Elizabeth Jones. The Bermudian Magazine. Summer, 2014
/ref> Tucker was not reappointed governor, but was replaced by Nathaniel Butler, a privateer. Although Tucker left the colony, the overplus land remained in the possession of his family for generations. This was the estate known as ''The Grove'' where Colonel Henry Tucker still lived during the American War of Independence.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Daniel Governors of Bermuda 1575 births 1625 deaths People from Jamestown, Virginia Daniel Tucker English emigrants