Abraham Tucker

Abraham Tucker (September 2, 1705 – November 20, 1774) was an English country gentleman, who devoted himself to the study of philosophy. He wrote The Light of Nature Pursued (7 vols., 1768–78) under the name of Edward Search.

Tucker was born in London of a Somerset family, the son of a wealthy city merchant. His parents died during his infancy, and he was brought up by his uncle, Sir Isaac Tillard. In 1721, he entered Merton College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, and studied philosophy, mathematics, French, Italian and music. He afterwards studied laws at the Inner Temple, but was never called to the bar.

In 1727 he bought Betchworth Castle, near Dorking, where he passed the remainder of his life. In 1736 Tucker married Dorothy, the daughter of Edward Barker of East Betchworth, cursitor baron of the exchequer. On her death in 1754, he occupied himself in collecting together all the letters that had passed between them, which, we are told, he transcribed twice over under the title of "The Picture of Artless Love."

From this time onward, he occupied himself with the composition of his chief work, The Light of Nature Pursued, of which in 1763 he published a specimen under the title of "Free Will." The strictures of a critic in the Monthly Review of July 1763 drew from him a pamphlet called Man in Quest of Himself, by "Cuthbert Comment" (reprinted in Parr's Metaphysical Tracts, 1837), "a defence of the individuality of the human mind or self." In 1765 the first four volumes of his work were published. The remaining three volumes appeared posthumously. His eyesight failed him completely in 1771, but he contrived an ingenious apparatus which enabled him to write so legibly that the result could easily be transcribed by his daughter. In this way he completed the later volumes, which were ready for publication when he died.

He took no part in politics, and wrote a pamphlet, "The Country Gentleman's Advice to his Son on the Subject of Party Clubs" (1755), cautioning young men against its snares.

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