The SAR MAGAZINE is the official quarterly publication of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution published quarterly.
Issue link: http://sar.epubxp.com/i/422786
12 SAR MAGAZINE N early 100 people attended a joint SAR-DAR-C.A.R. ceremony honoring Revolutionary War Patriot St. George Tucker on Oct. 18 at the St. George Tucker House in Colonial Williamsburg. The ceremony began with a procession from the green behind the courthouse, led by the Fifes & Drums of Colonial Williamsburg, and featured national officers of all three organizations. President General Lindsey Brock represented the SAR at the ceremony, while the National President and Senior National President of the C.A.R. (Betsy Ehmcke of Iowa and Billie Spence of California, respectively) and the Historian General of the DAR (Bana Weems Caskey of Virginia) presented wreaths honoring Tucker on behalf of their organizations. Cheryl Packwood, the overseas representative of the government of Bermuda, and Edward Chappell, director of Architectural and Archaeological Research at Colonial Williamsburg, both gave remarks during the ceremony. St. George Tucker was born into a prominent family in Bermuda on July 10, 1752, but came to Williamsburg as a young man to pursue a career in the law. As the tensions rose between the Colonies and Great Britain, he and his brother, Dr. Thomas Tudor Tucker of Charleston, S.C., 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 exempting Bermuda from a trade embargo imposed by the Continental Congress. The sloops delivered about 100 barrels of gunpowder. Some of that gunpowder was used in the defense of Sullivan's Island, S.C., in 1776, which prevented the early occupation of Charleston, one of America's most important port cities at that time. During the Revolution, St. George Tucker served in the Virginia Militia from 1779 to 1781. He was wounded at Guilford Courthouse and fought at Yorktown. After the Revolution, Tucker went on to a career as a distinguished lawyer, professor and jurist in Virginia. He served as a judge on Virginia's highest court, taught future lawyers and judges as the professor of law at the College of William and Mary, and was appointed by President James Madison as a judge of the United States District Court. Toward the end of his life, Tucker moved to Warminster in Nelson County, Virginia, with his second wife, whose daughter had married into the Cabell family. He died at the Cabell family's plantation, Edgewood, on Nov. 10, 1827. The St. George Tucker ceremony at Colonial Williamsburg is part of a program of activities designed to bring attention to the role of these Bermuda- born patriots, commemorate their SAR, DAR and C.A.R. Pay Tribute to St. George Tucker Top, guest speakers Cheryl Packwood and Edward Chappell posed with the Bermuda flag; above left, nearly 100 people gathered in the backyard of the St. George Tucker House for the ceremony; left, national officers of all three organizations presented wreaths.