WILLIAM TUCKEY

William Tuckey (b. Somersetshire, England, 1708; d. Philadelphia, Pa. 14 Sept. 1781) was a composer, conductor, and singing master. Claiming to have left earlier posts as 'Clerk of the Parish of St. Mary Port in Bristol' and 'Vicar-Choral of Bristol Cathedral,' he sailed to New York City and was active there from 1753 to 1773. Tuckey served as clerk of Trinity (Anglican) Church (1753-56) and he also taught charity pupils there, his singing schools and public performances extending into the 1770s. He participated in New York's concert life as well. On 16 January 1770, he put on for his own benefit a concert whose second half was 'the Overture and sixteen other Pieces' from Handel's Messiah, the work's earliest known American performance. Some time after 1773 he left New York, moving to Philadelphia, where in 1778, at the age of seventy, he was hired as clerk of St. Peter's Church. The popular PSALM 33 was often attributed to Tuckey.

          Amerigrove, Baker's, Bio-bib, Grove, Sonneck-Upton. Also Aaron 1978; Lyon 1974, p. xx, n. 32; Messiter 1906, p. 19-31; Sonneck 1907, p. 160-62, 176-81.

The Philadelphia Pennsylvania Gazette, 6 June 1771, carries a proposal 'for printing (by subscription) Two select pieces of Church Music' by William Tuckey of Trinity Church, New York. The New-York Mercury, 28 June 1773, advertised as 'to be published by subscription . . . a compleat set of Church service' for the Anglican church, to contain 'according to the best calculation sixty folio pages. There is no evidence that either item was ever published

ASMI pp. 582-583.