Samuel Drew wasn’t the only great-grandfather to cause me some grief. The death certificate of John Henry Tucker (Esquire) states that his father was James Tucker (Gentleman) and that his mother was Hester Jacques Hermand. All very grand, and this myth has been perpetuated throughout the family over the years. The reality was quite different.

The 1841 UK Census has James Tucker a Shoemaker residing in Bishopstrow, Wiltshire, and his death certificate supports this by giving his occupation as Cordwainer. In 1851, John Tucker (no Henry) is 12 years old and an Errand Boy in Bishopstrow, living with his mother Hester, widow, a Seamstress.

Much searching eventually revealed a marriage between James Tucker and Hester Harman in October 1822 in St Denys, Warminster, Wiltshire. Using this, I was able to track down a baptism for Esther Harman in Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire, in December 1798, mother’s name Elizabeth. From that, it was easy to work out that Esther was the youngest child of William Harman and Elizabeth Grant and born soon after the death of her father. Nothing grand and “Hermand-ish” about them - just poor agricultural labourers.

John Tucker went on to be a porter at Clifton Union Workhouse, Gloucestershire (1861), to marry (1863), and emigrate in 1871 with wife and two young children on the Star Queen. The wife died soon after arriving in Brisbane, he remarried, and here I am.

However, John appears to have carried the secret of his origins to the grave and happily left his descendants with the legacy of his re-invention of self. The photo above is of the man in question, taken before he and his family left Gloucestershire (1871).