Joseph Tucker (c. 1760 – 1838) was joint

Surveyor of the Navy The Surveyor of the Navy also known as Department of the Surveyor of the Navy and originally known as Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy was a former principal commissioner and member of both the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 15 ...

alongside

Robert Seppings Sir Robert Seppings, FRS (11 December 176725 April 1840) was an English naval architect. His experiments with diagonal trusses in the construction of ships led to his appointment as Surveyor of the Navy in 1813, a position he held until 1835. Bi ...

from 1813 until his retirement in 1831.

Biography

Tucker was the son of Benjamin Tucker, of

Crediton Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motorway ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

by his wife Rachel (née Lyne, of that family of

Liskeard Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...

, and a cousin of Stephens Lyne-Stephens, considered at one time to be England's richest commoner) and brother of another Benjamin Tucker (1762-1829), of

Trematon Castle Trematon Castle ( kw, Kastel Tremen) is situated near Saltash in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was the ''caput'' of the feudal barony of Trematon. It is similar in style to the later Restormel Castle, with a 12th-century keep. Trematon C ...

, who served as Surveyor General for Cornwall and Second Secretary to the Admiralty, having previously served as secretary to the

Earl St Vincent Viscount St Vincent, of Meaford in the County of Stafford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 27 April 1801 for the noted naval commander John Jervis, Earl of St Vincent, with remainder to his nephews William H ...

throughout his service in the Mediterranean. The Tucker family can be traced back to John Tucker, of

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028 ...

, Devon, who was living in the reign of Edward IV; his son and heir, Stephen, was subject to physical infirmities, and was accordingly granted by Henry VII, in a formal declaration, the right to wear his hat in the King's presence. Tucker was appointed master shipwright of the

Plymouth Dockyard His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Ro ...

in 1802. Having been appointed a Commissioner, in 1814, alongside Sir George Wood of the Royal Engineers and Admiral T. B. Martin, Tucker went to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

to superintend the partition of the fleet and naval stores of the arsenal established there. In 1809, Tucker designed a 170-gun ship with five tiers of guns, to be called the ''

Duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of peerage of Great Britain, Great Britain and the peerage of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, most recently as a Royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom, royal dukedom ...

''; it was however never constructed. The

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

states this was how he was best known. Tucker married Jane A'Court; their third son, John Scott Tucker, married Unity Isabella, daughter of Lt Henry Hire, R.N., who served in the Mediterranean and commanded the convict ship at Bermuda, and one of their five daughters, Jane A'Court Tucker, married Robert Willis, of Mecklenburgh Square, London. One of their sons was

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

William Willis, Accountant-General of the Navy; William's second son, John Willis, was

Bishop of Uganda The Anglican dioceses of Buganda are the Anglican presence in the Central Region, Uganda (equivalent to the old Buganda kingdom); they are part of the Church of Uganda. The remaining dioceses of the Church are in the areas of Eastern Uganda, of ...

from 1912 to 1934. Tucker died in Mecklenburgh Square, London, on 23 November 1838.''London Courier and Evening Gazette'' (Monday, 26 November 1838), p. 4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Joseph 1760s births 1838 deaths Surveyors of the Navy 19th-century Royal Navy personnel People from Crediton