Bermuda Native Honoured In Washington DC

The Sons of the American Revolution [S.A.R.], the Daughters of the American Revolution [D.A.R.], and the Children of the American Revolution [C.A.R.] dedicated a grave marker honouring Thomas Tudor Tucker on Saturday [May 31] in a ceremony at the Historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

The ceremony included a Revolutionary War color guard, remarks by representatives of the sponsoring organizations, an historical interpreter portraying Thomas Tudor Tucker, and a presentation of wreaths at the gravesite by state and local representatives of patriotic organizations.

Cheryl Packwood, Overseas Representative of the Government of Bermuda, and Joseph W. Dooley, National President of the Sons of the American Revolution, weere the featured guest speakers during the event. Col. Robert D. Pollock, USAF (Ret.), President of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, served as master of ceremonies.

Thomas Tudor Tucker was born into a prominent family on Bermuda on June 25, 1745. As a young man, he studied medicine in Scotland but settled in Charleston, South Carolina, to practice medicine. As the tensions between the colonies and Great Britain rose, he and his brother, St. George Tucker of Williamsburg, separately informed patriot leaders that the unguarded magazine on Bermuda contained a significant store of gunpowder [which was in short supply in the colonies]. With that intelligence, Benjamin Franklin and the Philadelphia committee of safety were able to convince the

Tuckers’ father, Col. Henry Tucker, to steal the gunpowder and have it loaded onto American sloops waiting offshore in exchange for an exemption for Bermuda from a trade embargo imposed by the Continental Congress. The sloops delivered about 100 barrels of scare gunpowder to rebel forces in America. Some of that gunpowder was used in the defense of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, in 1776, which prevented the early occupation of Charleston, one of America’s most important port cities at that time.

During the Revolution, Thomas Tudor Tucker served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1776) and as a surgeon in the Continental Army (1781-83). Following the war, he was a South Carolina delegate to the Congress of the Confederation (1787-88) and a Member of the 1st and 2nd Congresses from South Carolina (1789-93).

In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Tucker as Treasurer of the United States. Tucker continued in that position in the administrations of Presidents James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. He died on May 2, 1828, while still in office, and he remains the longest-serving Treasurer of the United States. Tucker was buried in Washington’s Historic Congressional Cemetery, which had been founded in 1808.

The organisers said, “The Thomas Tudor Tucker grave marking is part of a program of activities designed to bring attention to the role of these Bermuda-born patriots, commemorate their birthplace in Bermuda, honor their final resting places in the United States, and educate Americans and Bermudians on the long-standing ties between Bermuda and the United States.

“The program includes the sale of a limited-edition commemorative pin. Proceeds will be used to “pay Bermuda back” for the stolen gunpowder (by donating a portion of proceeds to Bermuda charities) and to establish a fund for the C.A.R. to use in planning its commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Revolution, which will only be a decade away at the end of the program.”

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