Background
William Tuckey was born in Somersetshire, England in 1708.
The date of his birth is established only through the statement on his tombstone that he died in his seventy-third year.
William Tuckey was born in Somersetshire, England in 1708.
The date of his birth is established only through the statement on his tombstone that he died in his seventy-third year.
From an advertisement in the New-York Mercury it is known that he was for a time vicar choral and parish clerk of the Bristol Cathedral.
On January 31, 1753, he was appointed parish clerk of Trinity Church, New York, at a salary of twenty-five pounds per annum.
He was also given charge of the music at the church, and he soon convinced the vestry of the necessity of teaching vocal music to the pupils of the Charity School. Through such teaching he developed the Trinity Church choir, which became noted both in and outside the city.
In 1756 he was summarily dismissed from the office of parish clerk because of his "refusal to officiate in time of Divine Service", but he evidently continued to act as musical director of the church. It is certain that he continued his career as chorus master, for in 1762 he advertised for volunteers for a chorus to sing the Te Deum, and four years later he announced a "Rehearsal of Church-Musick, " and a forthcoming concert.
On October 30, 1766, he was paid fifteen pounds for playing the organ at the dedication of the "new Episcopal chapel called St. Paul's, " assisted by a "suitable Band of Music, vocal and instrumental".
On January 16, 1770, he conducted a performance of the overture and sixteen numbers from Handel's Messiah, the first American rendering from this oratorio. The performance was held in "Mr. Burns's Room, " New York. During these years Tuckey had also been offering concerts of secular music. The earliest of these was announced in the Post Boy as a "Concert of Vocal and Instrumental musick, " "for the benefit of Messrs. Cobham and Tuckey. "
At a benefit concert, "followed by a ball", Tuckey announced that "by particular desire" the concert would end with "God Save the King. " It is possible that this was the first appearance of the British national hymn on an American concert program.
After the Messiah performance in 1770 Tuckey's name does not appear in connection with concerts in New York. In 1771 he advertised for subscriptions to the publication of a number of his compositions--"an Hymn together with a Psalm Tune; a performance adapted for a funeral, consisting of three Dirges together with an anthem. . ", and he was probably the anonymous author of a collection of church music proposed in an advertisement in the New-York Journal, July 1, 1773.
He died in Philadelphia, and was buried in the burial grounds of Christ Church.
That he had a wife and several children is disclosed by the fact that the vestry made provision for their transportation to America .