Notes Born in London to Phillip (a second generation hat-maker) and Ann Tucker, his parents moved to Bristol, England, when he was a few months old. His father was an alcoholic. William said in his later autobiography, "It was the drink that made me fatherless." William also remembered that his father was a violent man, "I had been sleeping in my bed, but was suddenly awakened by the scream of mother (believed to be Phillip Tucker's second wife), who stood in the middle of the floor, surrounded by neighbours, and with blood streaming down her face, while father sat over by the fireplace with a terrible blaze leaping up the chimney, and which he constantly fed with the furniture which he broke across his knee. Apparently no one dared try to restrain him."
His mother died when he was about 1 year of age and his father died 5 years later. He was in the care of a woman he called his "stepmother". At the age of seven, he became a messenger boy. "Mine was a long walk and the parcel sometimes heavy, and I received a penny for that trip also, but then I saw a good deal of life, and my pleasure compensated my pay."
At the age of 9, he was taken to St. Peter's Hospital in Bristol as a pauper student. He became close to his schoolmaster, Master Hughes, who seemed to be at the head of all regulative arrangements. A few years later, Master Hughes took him aside and said, ""There is an opportunity for you to go to Canada. Your passage will be paid. You will go in company of good guides. You will be given two suits of clothes, and a good outfit generally, and you will be found a place with a farmer, with the chance someday of owning a farm yourself."
He went to Hampton Home in London, a MacPherson agency, where he had some training and education for 3 weeks. Then he was then sent to Liverpool and embarked for Canada. Landing at Quebec, they took a train to Marchmont Home in Belleville, Ontario. After three days, he was taken to a village and chosen by a farmers wife as a laborer. He was happy and fulfilled in his placement, paid well, and given good training with this family for 5-1/2 years. This was the time he chose to complete school and obtain his teaching certificate and moving into the ministry five years later.
Rev. Tucker married Sarah Emily Miller, on September 14, 1886 in Napanee Mills, Addington County, Ontario.
Moving to Montreal, Quebec, he founded the Montreal City Mission, which survives to this day.
Rev. Tucker died in 1934 in Maisonneuve, Quebec.
Rev. William Tucker was a writer, artist and devoted minister. His full autobiography can be found here: {website}epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/300/glenn_nelson_adams/gold_quartz/wbtcover.htm
Contributors Created : 2007-11-11 12:47:29 / From original database Last Updated : 2009-02-01 15:42:42 /
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