265,639 Global Tucker Family Members

Tucker Family History

INTRODUCTION

Recorded as Tucker and Tooker (England), and as Tucker, Tooker and Togher in (Ireland), this is a surname of three possible origins. If English it is an occupational surname for a "fuller", a cloth-softener, also known as a "walker". Tucker was the usual term in the south-west of England, Walker in the west and north y and "Fuller" in the south-east and east Anglia. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century verb "tucian", meaning "to torment", referring to the softening of the cloth by beating and tramping on it in water. A second possible origin is from a French nickname "tout-coeur" meaning all heart, and given to a brave or generous person or pehaps given the sardonic humour of the period, - the reverse...

Tucker (Variants: Tocker, Toker, Tooker, Togher)

An English occupational name from Middle English tuker(e) , toker(e) ‘tucker, fuller’ or a derivative of tuken ‘to torment, beat’. A fuller’s job was to scour and thicken raw cloth by beating it and trampling it in water having derived from the Old English word tucian, which originally meant to torment and later gained the meaning to tuck or to full. This name for the occupation was characteristic of the West Country.

In Irish, adopted Anglicised form of Gaelic Ó Tuachair meaning ‘descendant of Tuachar’, a personal name composed of the elements tuath ‘people’ + car ‘dear’, ‘beloved’.

Americanised form of Jewish To(c)ker (Tokarz), from Polish tokarz ‘Turner’. Also, possibly an Americanised form of German Tucher, from an occupational name for a cloth maker or merchant, from an agent derivative of Middle High German tuoch ‘cloth’.

Early bearers of the surname include: Baldwin Tuckere, 1236 in Battle Abbey Custumals (Sussex); Wolward le Tukare, 1243 in Assize Rolls (Somerset); Hugo le Tukker’, 1297 in Earldom of Cornwall Accounts (Cornwall); John le Tuckere, 1317 in Patent Rolls (Northants); Richard le Touker, 1327 in Subsidy Rolls (Somerset); William le Tokere, 1338 in Patent Rolls (Dorset); Willelmus Toker, 1377 in Poll Tax (Flete, Devon); John Tooker, 1538 in IGI (Braunton, Devon); William Tucker, 1540 in IGI (Hemington, Somerset);

In 1891, the population was mainly widespread across South West England, particularly Devon. In 1881, there were 3,578 occurrences in Devon with 120 accounted for in Plymouth St Andrews district. Widespread, the frequency across England and Wales was 14,797 with only 30 occurrences in Scotland.

In 1881, the most common Tucker occupation in the UK was Farmer. Farmer, Agricultural Labourer and Labourer were the top 3 reported jobs worked by Tucker. A less common occupation was Carpenter.

Thomas Tucker, an English convict from Lancaster, was transported aboard the "Agamemnon" 22 April 1820, settling in New South Wales, Australia.

1881, 1891 Census

1881 Census in Devon / Plymouth St Andrews

Dictionary of American Family Homes, P Hanks OUP 2003

Homes of Family Names in Great Britain, H.B. Guppy, London 1890

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, P.Hanks, Coats, McClure OUP 2016

1860 Lower, Mark A Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, London: J.R Smith. Public Domain

1857 Arthur, William An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain

https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/agamemnon/1820

J.M.P