St. George Tucker House Collection(19th century)
- MS 1994.7
- 4 items
A collection of miscellaneous artifacts found in the St. George Tucker House prior to its renovation and opening for use as a donor hospitality center for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. These include a wedding portrait of Elizabeth Gilmer and St. George Tucker; a pine board from Warminster, the burial place of St. George Tucker; an envelope addressed to Nathaniel Beverley Tucker; and a recipe for sugar-cured ham.
Members of the Tucker and Coleman families occupied the St. George Tucker House from 1788 until 1993. St. George Tucker moved to Williamsburg in 1771 and studied law under George Wythe at the College of William and Mary. In 1788, he purchased the Levingston House on Spotswood Street and had it moved to the south side of the same block facing Market Square. It was subsequently enlarged to form the building we know today. His descendant, St. George Tucker (1828–1863), is featured in the wedding portrait in this collection. Born to Henry St. George Tucker and Anne Evelina Hunter, St. George Tucker studied law at the College of William and Mary and served as clerk of the Senate of Virginia from 1851–1852 and as a clerk for the House of Delegates beginning in 1853. Through this involvement in the state legislature, he met and married Elizabeth Gilmer, who was the daughter of Governor Thomas Walker Gilmer.
Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (1784–1851) was the son of the original St. George Tucker and Frances Randolph Tucker and the uncle of the second St. George Tucker. After graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1801, he worked as a lawyer in Charlotte County, VA and later served as a circuit judge in Missouri from 1815–1830. In 1834, he accepted a post as professor of law at the College of William and Mary, where he remained until his death. The envelope addressed to Nathaniel Beverley Tucker in this collection dates from October, 1834—the year of his arrival in Williamsburg.
This collection was donated to the Foundation by Cynthia K. Barlowe and Raymond D. Kimbrough in 1994.
Inventory
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| n.d. | Pine board from Warminster, the burial place of St. George Tucker. An attached note, thought to be in Cynthia Beverley Tucker Coleman’s hand, explains how to calculate the age of trees from annual growth rings. |
| n.d. | Wedding portrait of Elizabeth Gilmer and St. George Tucker with friends Cynthia Tucker and Armistead Gordon taken by Taylor & Brown of Philadelphia. |
| 1834 October | Envelope. Addressed to Nathaniel Beverley Tucker from Dr. T.B. Dudley of Alexandria. Retains red wax seal marked: “E.L.” |
| n.d. | Recipe for sugar-curing ham. |
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