Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet

Sir Samuel Tuke, 1st Baronet (c.1615, Essex – 26 January 1674, Somerset House, London) was an English officer in the Royalist army during the English Civil War and a notable playwright. He is best known for his 1663 play The Adventure of Five Hours, possibly co-authored by George Digby - the play (an adaptation of a Spanish work by Antonio Coello) was produced by the Duke's Company and later proved an influence on Richard Brinsley Sheridan's opera The Duenna.

The third son of George Tuke, Samuel was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1635 and had fought in Europe before the Civil War broke out in 1640. By late 1642 he was a major in the Duke of York's Regiment, serving with William Cavendish's northern army and fighting at the battle of Marston Moor. He then served in western England in 1645 under the command of George Goring before resigning his commission after he was passed over for promotion to major-general of horse in favour of Goring's brother-in-law George Porter. He tried to force Porter into a duel but the council of war instead forced him into an apology. He then defended Colchester in 1648, acting as one of its occupants' commissioners on the surrender and then going into exile with Prince Charles (later Charles II) in France throughout the Protectorate. There he met John Evelyn, attended on Charles's younger brother Henry Stuart and became known as a duellist and a wit. He tried to become Henry's governor but instead was recommended to Charles as James, Duke of York's secretary by their mother Queen Henrietta Maria, though Charles and Edward Hyde vetoed such an appointment. By 1659 at the latest Tuke had also converted to Roman Catholicism.

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