Josiah Tucker

Josiah Tucker (also Josias) (December 1713 – 4 November 1799), also known as Dean Tucker, was a Welsh churchman, known as an economist and political writer. He was concerned in his works with free trade, Jewish emancipation and American independence. He became Dean of Gloucester.

He was born at Laugharne, Carmarthenshire; his father inherited a small estate near Aberystwyth, and sent his son to Ruthin School, Denbighshire. Tucker obtained an exhibition at St John's College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1736, M.A. in 1739, and DD in 1755.

In 1737 he became curate of St. Stephen's Church in Bristol, and two years later rector of All Saints' Church in the same city. He was appointed to a minor canonry in the cathedral, and was noticed by Bishop Joseph Butler, to whom he was for a time domestic chaplain. On the death of Alexander Stopford Catcott in 1749 Tucker was appointed by the chancellor to the rectory of St. Stephen's.

In 1754 Robert Nugent was elected for Bristol, supported by Tucker; Nugent's influence probably contributed to his preferment. He was appointed to the third prebendal stall at Bristol on 28 October 1756, and on 13 July 1758 as Dean of Gloucester. Tucker, as Dean of Gloucester, saw something of William Warburton, who became bishop in 1759, having previously been Dean of Bristol. They did not like each other, and, according to Tucker, the bishop said that the dean made a religion of his trade and a trade of his religion. (According to another version, the person said to make a trade of his religion was Samuel Squire, who succeeded Warburton as Dean of Bristol.)

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