Meet the Ancestors: Judge William Hallam Tuck (1808-1884)

Judge William Hallam Tuck (1808-1884)

 His tombstone lists him as the Speaker of the House of Delegates, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, judge of the Circuit Court and of the Court of Appeals of Maryland. “He gave bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty. His doors were open to the stranger and he was father to the fatherless. Underneath are the everlasting arms.” 

William Hallam Tuck was born in Annapolis on November 20, 1808. He was the son of William Archable Tuck and Cave Williams Tuck and his grandfather was William Tuck (c.1741-1797), who was a private in Captain Middleton’s Independent Company of militia. William Archable Tuck was a member of the Council of Safety (a shadow government during the Revolutionary War), which was the executive body elected by the Maryland Convention. It functioned until a new constitution was written. 

William attended St. John’s College and was admitted to the Maryland bar before marrying Margaret Sprigg Bowie Chew with whom he had five children, including Somerville Pinkney Tuck, who became aide-de-camp to General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. He held many elected posts in Prince George’s and Anne Arundel Counties and was a member of Maryland’s Constitutional Convention. He was appointed as a Judge of the Circuity Courts of both Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties before becoming a Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals. As a prominent businessman, he was a director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and president of the First National Bank of Annapolis, the Citizens’ Bank of Annapolis, and the Traders’ National Bank of Baltimore. At the time of his death in 1884, he was president of the Board of County Commissioners. 

Photo credit: By unknown author - https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000368/html/am368p--3.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153043190