Henry St. George Tucker
Henry St. George Tucker was a prominent legal scholar and politician from Virginia, born at Matoax Plantation in Chesterfield County. He pursued his education at the College of William and Mary, where he graduated in 1798 and studied law under his father, St. George Tucker. After establishing a law practice in Winchester, Virginia, he served as a law faculty member at William and Mary and held roles in state and national government, including a term in the Virginia House of Delegates and two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following his congressional service, he joined the Virginia Senate before becoming a chancellor in the fourth judicial district. Tucker also founded the Winchester Law School and later taught law at the University of Virginia, where he contributed significantly to legal education. He authored notable legal commentaries and a book of poetry, with his law works, particularly "Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia," being regarded as influential. Additionally, he played a key role in drafting the University of Virginia's honor code, which has influenced other institutions. Tucker passed away in 1848, leaving behind a legacy in both law and education.
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Henry St. George Tucker
Representative
- Born: December 29, 1780
- Birthplace: Matoax Plantation, Chesterfield County, Virginia
- Died: August 28, 1848
- Place of death: Winchester, Virginia
Biography
Henry St. George Tucker was born at Matoax Plantation in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and followed in the footsteps of his father, St. George Tucker, a judge and law teacher. He pursued classical studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, graduated in 1798, and subsequently studied law there under his father, receiving a law degree in 1801. He married Ann Evelina Hunter in 1806, and they had at least eleven children.
Tucker opened a law practice in Winchester, Virginia, and was appointed to the law faculty at William and Mary, where he taught until 1804. He served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1806 to 1807 and was a captain of the cavalry in the War of 1812. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving two terms from 1815 to 1819. In 1819, Tucker left Congress to become a member of the Virginia Senate, where he served until 1824, when he was appointed chancellor (judge) of the fourth judicial district of Virginia. At that time, he established the Winchester Law School, which he operated and where he taught from 1825 to 1831.
Tucker became president of the Virginia court of appeals in 1831, a position he held for the next decade. In 1841, he became a professor of law at the University of Virginia, a position he had rejected when Thomas Jefferson had invited him to become the first professor of law in 1825; he remained at the university until ill health forced him to resign in 1845. He retired to Winchester, where he died in 1848.
Tucker published a book of poetry, Apostrophe of the Aeolian Harp to the Wind, in 1835, but he is best known for the law commentaries he wrote over several decades. These works include Commentaries on the Laws of Virginia, Comprising the Substance of a Course of Lectures Delivered to the Winchester Law School, first published in 1831 and updated in 1836-1837 and 1846; Introductory Lecture (1841); and Lectures on Constitutional Law: For the Use of the Law Class at the University of Virginia (1843). In 1842, he wrote the University of Virginia honor code, a pledge which was later adopted for students at other American institutions of higher learning.