Anthony Tuckney 1599-1670

Anthony TUCKNEY 1599-1670

Biographical Note

Born at Kirton, Lincolnshire, son of William Tuckney, vicar there. BA Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1617, fellow 1619, MA 1620, BD 1627, DD 1649. His early Calvinist leanings were fostered by close association with like-minded Emmanuel men, some of whom subsequently moved to America. He became vicar of Boston, Lincolnshire in 1633 and rose to prominence in the 1640s as a member of the lower house of convocation and of the Westminster Assembly. He was made Master of Emmanuel in 1645, to replace the ejected Richard Holdsworth, and was subsequently Master of St John’s, Cambridge (1653) and regius professor of divinity (1656). His theology was out of tune not only with post-Restoration Anglicanism but also with much mid-century nonconformity. He resigned the Boston vicarage in 1660 and the mastership of St John’s in 1661, retiring to London where he undertook occasional preaching; the opening words of his will describe him only as “an unworthy minister of the gospel of Christ”. A number of sermons were published during his lifetime, with larger collections published posthumously.

Books

Tuckney bequeathed all his household goods and books to his son Jonathan (fellow of St John’s, ejected 1662, d.1693), but the bulk of his library as it stood in the 1660s was destroyed in the fire of London in 1666, when it was deposited at Scriveners’ Hall. As vicar of Boston he took a leading role in the repair and expansion of Boston parish library (originally founded 1610), and gave many books. He also gave books to Emmanuel Examples: Cambridge University Library Aa*.6.11(F); Emmanuel 303.4.61.

Sources

• Bendall, S. et al (eds), History of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1999.
• Collinson, Patrick. "Tuckney, Anthony (1599–1670), Church of England clergyman and college head." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Perkin, M. A directory of the parochial libraries of the Church of England London, 2004.