Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (journalist)

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Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (June 8, 1820 - July 4, 1890), was an American journalist and diplomat.

[edit] Biography

Tucker was born in Winchester, Virginia, the son of Congressman Henry St. George Tucker (1780-1848) and Ann Evelina Hunter, brother of John Randolph Tucker (1823-1897), Congressman, and uncle of Henry St. George Tucker (1853-1932), Congressman, and was educated at the University of Virginia. He was founder and editor of the Washington Sentinel from 1853 to 1856. In December 1853 he was elected printer to the United States Senate, and in 1857 was appointed Consul to Liverpool, remaining there until 1861. He joined the Confederate Army, and was sent by the Confederate government in 1862 as an economic agent to England and France, and in 1863-1864 to Canada, to arrange for the exchange of cotton for bacon. He also made some secret diplomatic representations to Northern men of influence. He was included on the Union “Wanted List” during the War, and was accused of complicity in the plot to murder Abraham Lincoln, the charges of which were later dropped. He went to Mexico after the Civil War ended, was there until the reign of Maximilian I of Mexico came to an end. Upon returning to the United States, he resided in Washington, D.C., and Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

On January 21, 1841, he married Jane Shelton Ellis (born about 1820 in Richmond, Virginia), the daughter of Charles Ellis and Jane Shelton. Among his eight children was Beverley Dandridge Tucker (1846-1930), Episcopal Bishop of Southern Virginia (who in turn by Anna Maria Washington was the father of Henry St. George Tucker]] (1874-1959) Episcopal Bishop of Kyoto, Japan, and later Virginia and, even later, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA). He died in Richmond, Virginia.