Gave Freely To Meeting House Green
By Eloise Lane Smith
124 Union Ave.,
Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
May 1, 1938
Hampton Union & Rockingham Co. Gazette
Thursday, May 5, 1938
The death of Edward Tuck in France last week will be noted in many newspapers in New Hampshire as he was a great benefactor of Dartmouth, Exeter Academy and the Historical Society of the state. His gifts to France were even more generous than to his native state.
The name Tuck is also familiar in Hampton through his interest in the Meeting House Green Association and the Tuck Athletic Field.
Although Edward Tuck was born in Exeter, his immigrant ancestor, Robert Tuck, the first of the family in this country, was one of the original grantees and settlers in Hampton. Robert Tuck's grant was on Rand's Hill (where the Gen. Moulton House is), and there he conducted the first ordinary in the town. An "ordinary" was an inn for the convenience and refreshment of travelers. The country permitted him to sell "wine and strong water" until his death in 1664. Robert Tuck was the third town clerk and served several terms as selectman of Hampton.
Three later Hampton ancestors of Edward Tuck had a grist mill. The first miller of the Tucks, Deacon John, was given the right by the town to build a grist and fulling mill in 1686. He was a large land owner, and lived on the site where the home of Howard G. Lane [Lafayette Road] is today. Deacon John Tuck was a highly respected citizen, and held offices in the town and church for many years.
The father of Edward Tuck, Amos, graduated from Dartmouth in 1835. In the same year, he became principal of Hampton Academy. He was a member of the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln and served three terms in Congress. He helped organize the Anti-Slavery party in New Hampshire. When Lincoln came to Exeter to visit his own son, who was a student at the Academy, he was a guest of Amos Tuck. Edward was at Dartmouth at the time, where he was graduated in 1862. President Lincoln later appointed his friend's son Edward as a Vice Consul in Paris. Edward Tuck and his wife became permanent residents of France in 1890.
It was through these Hampton ancestors that Mr. Tuck retained his interest in some affairs of the town. If he had lived until the autumn of 1938, his life would have completed three hundred years of the influence of the important Tuck family in the town's history. He was among the seventh generation of the descendants of Robert Tuck, one of Hampton's original settlers in 1638. Edward Tuck's part in enabling the Rev. I. S. Jones to develop the Meeting House Green assures the influence of the Tuck line in Hampton for more than three hundred years.
Eloise Lane Smith