[Tooker Tidbits]


[Genealogical Files]


[Resources on the Net]

 
[Click on the Crest]   Tooker
  by Warren Tooker

Existing genealogy records in America for both Tooker and Tucker often go back to John Tucker who emigrated from England to the American Colonies to escape religious persecution—he was a Puritan. It is not definitely know why the Tookers used the Tucker form of the name for a time, but perhaps it was to escape religious or political persecution. It appears they began to use the Tooker spelling again at about the time of the restoration of King Charles II (1660). John’s son, known as Captain John Tooker (1692), became a prominent citizen of Long Island, NY, and his brother, Charles, was one of the original founders of Elizabeth Towne, NJ.

Most American Tookers are likely related through Captain John or his brother, Charles. The names Tucker and Tooker existed in England prior to the founding of the American Colonies. The Tooker form of the name was found mainly around Bideford in Devon in the south of England. The exhaustive Dictionary of Surnames (Hanks & Hodges, Oxford University Press) does not list Tooker either separately, or with the surname Tucker, so the name is not generally recognized in Britain, and only a few Tookers are found in present day telephone books there. Regarding Tucker, the Dictionary of Surnames says:

Tucker - English . . . occupational name for a fuller, from an agent derivative of Middle English tuck(en) to full cloth (Old English tucian to torment). This was the term used for the process in the Middle Ages in southwest England. . . (Fuller and Walker are other surnames for the same occupation.) During the Industrial Revolution the cloth industry became established in southwest England. The woolen cloth was brought from the looms and the tuckers treated, soaped and put them in the fulling mills to work them until they were thick. Then they would draw water into them and scour them. The resulting serge was exported throughout Europe. In later years some of the Tookers became prominent as mariners.

The DAR documents eight Tookers as American Patriots of the Revolutionary War. Look for them under Tidbits.

In the accompanying databases you will find both Tookers and Tuckers tracing their ancestries back to the same persons. Why some descendants of John Tucker/Tooker adopted one form of the name while others adopted the other spelling is not known. Whichever name you use, we hope that this site will help you find your ancestral origins.


Questions, comments, problems with this page? Mail Icon] mtooker@owls.com
© Copyright 1999 by and for All Tookers Everywhere All Rights Reserved.
Last update: Sunday, 18-Nov-2001 19:50:11 CST     [an error occurred while processing this directive] hits