The Mystery of the Death of Sarah Ives (Baxter) Tuck
and the Mysterious Birth and Death of William Tuck Field)

When and how did Sarah die? Did she die giving birth? In 1833 a boy named William Tuck was born, whose father's name (according to the entry in the Gresham parish marriage register when he was married in 1855) was also William Tuck. In 1841 this young William is recorded in the census of that year as living with an older couple, Barnabas and Lydia Field, in Gresham. Barnabas and Lydia's daughter, Mary Ann, was married in 1830 to Richard Forrow, whose mother was Ann Thirtle. In the 1851 census young William, now a teenager, and listed as "William Field" (not "Tuck"), is living with Richard and Mary Ann Forrow. His relationship to them is described as that of "nephew". Records of Sarah's death and burial, and of William's baptism, have not been found. But it appears probable that Sarah died in giving birth to young William in 1833, and that he was placed as an infant in the care of the parents of his cousin Richard Forrow's wife, who were now "empty nesters". That he was the son of William Tuck, born in Little Barningham in 1806, is further indicated by the fact that none of William's sons by Hannah Barwick is named William; for, if our theory is correct, he already had a first-born son, by Sarah Baxter, who had been named William. On February 17, 1855, young William married Elizabeth Hall of Aylmerton in All Saints' Church, Gresham. She was the younger of two daughters of shoemaker William Hall and his first wife, Anne Mallett, the daughter of William Mallett and Mary Peart. The older daughter was named Mary Anne, who married Robert Scott and died in childbirth at the age of 20 in 1851. Their son, Robert Hall Scott, lived at Park Wall Farm near Felbrigg Hall. The Halls lived outside the village on the main road west of The Roman Camp public house; Anne died in 1839 and William took a second wife, Sarah, by whom he had three sons. The house in which the Halls lived is still standing (right), used today as a storage shed. Not long afterwards William embarked on a career as a gamekeeper. The census of 1861 records the Tucks as living in the Keeper's Lodge (left) at Pynkney Hall in Tattersett, the next village to East Rudham, where the Scott-Chads were lords of the manor. The census taker records them as having four children: Anne 5, William 3, Richard 1 - all born in Gresham - and Mary, one month old, born in Tattersett. But according to the Tattersett parish register Mary was baptised July 28, 1860, and buried October 20, 1861, aged one year and a half. The census taker also records that a nurse, Maria Massingham, 20, of Aylmerton, was a visitor at the Keeper's Lodge the day the census was taken. Was she there because Mary was sick? (Many years later William's grandson, Layton Tuck, gave her name, Mary, to his daughter born in 1928.) Young William also died, aged 20, in 1877, in Hilborough. But the family was still in Tattersett when Elizabeth was born, in 1863. They had moved to Hanworth, however, by 1868, in which year Edward, the youngest of William and Elizabeth's children, was born. In 1870 William was appointed head gamekeeper to J. Trueman Mills of Hilborough Hall (both Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington had lived at various times at Hilborough Hall earlier in the century).

Parts of the "Keeper's House" at Hilborough (above left) are several centuries old. It was here that William and Elizabeth Tuck raised their family after 1870. The medallion that identified it as the Gamekeeper's house (above centre) was removed some time after 1981. The Tucks are buried in All Saints' churchyard (above right, shown in a photo made in February, 2002, by Margaret and Vin Platt); each stone bears an appropriate inscription: 1. William Tuck, sr. "In the midst of life endeared to all He was summoned and obeyed his master's call A loving husband, dear father and true friend With a constant thought for others till the end." 2. William Tuck, jr. "In youth's gay spring he bade the world farewell Resigned a scene of misery and strife To hail that kingdom where the righteous dwell In endless happiness and endless life." 3. Elizabeth (Hall) Tuck. "Only a step before. In the midst of life we are in death. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 4. Edward Tuck. "A light is from our household gone A voice we love is still A vacant place is in our home Which none can ever filI."

William and Elizabeth had one other daughter, Edith, also born in Cromer, in 1865. In 1889 Edith Tuck married Alfred James Coe, of Madehurst (in Sussex), a native of Halstead in Essex, who was a coachman; in the 1901 census Alfred and Edith Coe are living in Madehurst and have 5 children: William 10, Sidney 9, Edith 7, Gladys 5, and Daisy 3. Also living with them in 1901 is Edith Hall, the 15 year old daughter of Edith (Tuck) Coe's sister Elizabeth, who was married at Hilborough in 1885 to George Hall, a groom whom she had met when both were employed at Holme Hale Hall. But Edith Hall shortly afterwards went to North Elmham to help Louisa, widowed by Edward's death Feb. 11, 1901, look after their 6 children while she was busy running the George & Dragon Inn. There she met and married Bert Marsh. Anne, the eldest, was still living at home unmarried in 1891, looking after her parents. William died on Feb. 14, 1895 by a haystack while "watching the game", i.e. on the look-out for poachers. He was found at 10 p.m. the following evening, standing up, frozen stiff, with a silver watch, and 6 pounds in his pocket in "gold, silver and bronze". At the inquest, held in the Swan Inn, Hilborough, his physician, a Dr. Thomas, suggested that he might have had an "apoplectic stroke", caused by a severe head injury for which he had attended him in the past. According to the newspaper reports of the inquest no inquiry was made into the fact that his body was found standing up. Did some unknown person come upon his frozen corpse and prop it against the haystack? There is no mention of the manner of his death on his gravestone in Hilborough churchyard, but the story of his death was still remembered in Hilborough 100 years later although unknown to his grandchildren in later years.

His son Edward married Louisa Armes, daughter of William Armes (1833 - 1903) and Alice Wanford - or Wangford - (1838 - 1926) who kept a pub, The Olde White Horse, in East Rudham. Louisa bore him six children: in the top row, William (1888 - Nov. 7, 1965), the last of the first-born male William Tucks, who operated a butcher shop in Croydon, shown with his dog (left, above); Edward Layton (April 16, 1890 - Oct. 7, 1976) - named after his father and Layton Mills, the son of J. T. Mills, the Hilborough lord of the manor - who left school at 14 to work in the village of Brisley and emigrated to Canada in 1913 (shown above second from left in his First World War uniform, that of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles) and who later took Holy Orders in Canada; Mabel Louise ("Biddy"), 1892-1951, shown above (third from left) with her husband Norman Hurst and her niece, Angela Boston; Margery Ada, 1895-1974, later Mrs. Shelley Platts (shown above right), who lived many years in Kenya and later retired to live in the Channel Islands;

bottom row, first picture: Daisy Kathleen, 1900 - 1965, was the youngest of the six Tuck children, the wife of Donald Boston of Norwich and mother of Angela, shown here (above) on the right, with her mother, Louisa, who is on the left, with two of William Tuck's three boys, Peter and John, between them; and in the second picture, Louisa's youngest son, Eric, 1897- 1978 (shown with his wife, Ellen) served the railway across Norfolk, ending as station master in Norwich c.1950; he was also a champion lawn bowler.

Edward and Louisa are listed in the 1891 census as living in the keeper's cottage at Cranwich, a hamlet on the far side of the nearby village of Mundford. That cottage is now no longer standing; but they seem to have moved from Cranwich several years later to Little Cressingham, probably to the keeper's cottage (left) on the Clermont Hall property, which J.Trueman Mills used as a shooting lodge, and where Edward was employed as the estate manager/keeper. But Edward died suddenly of diphtheria in 1901. He had taken his daughter Biddy up to London to see a specialist about some problem with her foot, and they had both caught diphtheria. Biddy recovered but Edward died. His death was reported in The Gamekeeper magazine for March, 1901, page 119, which described him as "a clever gamekeeper, a popular fellow, and a splendid specimen of manhood. Indeed, his physique was such that he might have been expected to withstand any disease. Mr. Tuck was highly respected in his own neighbourhood and there was a large attendance at his funeral, which took place at Hilborough where his father and other relations lie buried. We regard Mr. Tuck's death as a personal loss, for he had been known to us for a good many years, notwithstanding his early death at the age of 33. He leaves a young widow and six little ones and by these his loss will be keenly felt." It was keenly felt indeed, and the impact Edward's death had on his family is reflected in the 1901 British census, which was taken shortly afterwards. The family had vacated the keeper's cottage at Clermont to make way for Edward's replacement. Louisa took four of the children - Layton, Mabel (Biddy), Eric and Daisy - with her to her parents' place, which was now no longer East Rudham's The Old White Horse but Saham Toney's The Plough Boy public house (left). The eldest, 13 year old Billy, was left behind in Little Cressingham, with Louisa's 29 year old brother, William Armes. Five year old Margery was in Suffolk, at Bramford, with another uncle, gamekeeper Leonard Armes, and his wife Rosina. Eventually Louisa took her brood to North Elmham, where the police (who looked after social welfare cases) found her a job as landlady of The George and Dragon Hotel (above right) until shortly before the First World War. Louisa is probably the taller of the two women standing in the doorway of the Hotel. Margery may have remained with Leonard and Rosina because her name is not listed with the other children in the North Elmham School register.

(Thanks to Ann Dea Hogan of Tennessee for this account of the Tuck History, which is undergoing ongoing development as time passes; also thanks to cousins Doug Hines, Timothy Tuck Smith, Bruce Atkins, Ann Denton and Dr. Nancy Vivian for their input, and to Karen Alton, for the Charles Tuck story. Much of the genealogical material was collected originally by Ruth Vivian of Burlington. See also Burlington: Memories of Pioneer Days by Dorothy Turcotte, and published The Boston Mills Press. Any corrections and additions may be communicated to Bob Tuck rctuck@maplewoodmall.ca)