A Compendium of Irish Biography/Tuckey, James Kingston

by Alfred Webb

Layout 2

Tuckey, James Kingston,^{[ann 1]} Captain, R.N., was born at Greenhill, near Mallow, August 1776. He went to sea at an early age, and in 1793 was received into the navy. From the first he saw a good deal of active service, and he was more than once wounded. He was engaged in expeditions to the Red Sea, and in 1802 went out to Australia as first-lieutenant of the Calcutta. Amongst other services, he made a survey of Port Phillip. On his return to England he published an Account of the Voyage to establish a Colony at Port Phillip. The Calcutta was captured by the French on a voyage from St. Helena in 1805, and Lieutenant Tuckey suffered an imprisonment of nearly nine years in France, during which time he married Miss Margaret Stuart, a fellow prisoner, and prepared a work on Maritime Geography and Statistics, published after his release. In 1814 he was promoted to the rank of commander, and in February 1816 sailed in command of the Congo and the Dorothy, to explore the River Congo. The particulars of the expedition are fully given in his Narrative and Professor Smith's Journal, a quarto volume, with plates and maps, published in London in 1818. On the 12th July they left their vessels and proceeded up the Congo in boats 120 miles, and travelled 150 miles farther inland. Numbers died of the hardships they underwent, and Captain Tuckey himself succumbed after the party regained their vessels, on the 14th October 1816, aged 50. He was tall, and had been handsome, but long and arduous service broke down his constitution, and even at thirty he was grey-haired and nearly bald. His countenance was pleasing and pensive; he was gentle and kind in his manners, cheerful in conversation, and indulgent to those under his command. ^[1]

Authorities

1. Tuckey, Captain J. K.: Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire. London, 1818.

Annotations

1. The published works of Tuckey are published under either J. H. Tuckey or J. Hingston Tuckey. References have been incorrectly propagating Kingston rather than Hingston. The works of the 1810s refer to Hingston, and the changes start to occur in 1820s, and trend to Kingston over time. (Wikisource contributor note)