The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

of the will of George Tucker, Esq., of Milton, Kent, England,. ancestor of the Bermudian line, with a note showing, briefly, how his descendants have played their parts in Bermuda, Barbadoes, Virginia, South Carolina, England, India, Japan and elsewhere, was printed in this Magazine, XVII, 394-397St. George Tucker came to Virginia in 1771 to complete his education at William and Mary and graduated in 1772. He commenced the practice of law ; but during the Revolution, though not in the regular army, was frequently in service. He was an officer in Lawson's militia brigade in the South, aide to Layfayette at Yorktown, and at the end of the war and for some years afterwards was County Lieutenant of Chesterfield. He was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court in 1787 and in 1789 Professor of Law at William and Mary, succeeding George Wythe. In 1804 he became President of the Virginia Court of Appeals and in 1813, U. S. District Judge for Virginia. He was a member of the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and in 1790 was made LL. D. by William and Mary. He was the author of various poems, including the well-known "Resignation", beginning "Days of My Youth", and of a political satire "The Probationary Odes of Jonathan Pinder, Esq." (1796), of a number of work on political and legal subjects: "A Dissertation on Slavery, with a Proposition for its Gradual Abolition in Virginia" (1799), an essay on "How far the Common Law of England is the Common Law of the United States", an annotated edition of "Blackstone" (1803), and a "Commentary on the Constitution", appended to the last named work. Judge Tucker married, first, on Sept. 3, 1778, Frances, daughter of Theoderick Bland of "Cawsons", Prince George County, and widow of John Randolph, of "Mattoax", Chesterfield County (she was the mother of John Randolph of Roanoke), and secondly, on Oct. 8, 1791, Lelia, daughter of Sir Peyton Skipwith. No issue of the second marriage survived childhood. St. George and Frances Tucker had issue: (1) Anne Frances Bland, born Sept. 26, 1779, married Judge John Coalter, of the Virginia Court of Appeals, and died Sept. 12, 1813 ; (2) Henry St. George—see note in regard to him; (3) Nathaniel Beverley, born Sept. 6, 1784, Professor of Law at William and Mary; U. S. District Judge in Missouri; author of "Tucker's Pleading", and "Lectures on the Science of Government". His novel, "The Partisan Leader; A Tale of the Future" (1836), is an almost prophetic account of later events. He married 1st., Mary Coalter, 2d. , 3d. Lucy Ann, daughter of General Thomas Smith,. U. S. A. There were two or three other children of Judge St. George Tucker who died young.