Regarding Friar Tuck
Contributed by Anonymous

http://www.benturner.com/robinhood/


Did you know, for instance, that the good friar's
name has not only been traced back to 11th (some
say 13th) century England, but even further back?

The name originally came from the German Tuch
(notice the spelling), which in that era meant
"malicious practical joker."  (I kid you not.
In modern German, it refers to a face cloth or
towel.  If you put two dots over the "u" (sorry, my
e-mail is not set for the German umlauts) it means
"thief" and is the basis of the English word "take,"
or "took.") In England the name Tuck was traced back
to the court of King Henry II (William the Conqueror's
grandson).  Even further back, as I have said, in
Germany.  And, in the original Italian spelling of
Tucca (which meant "a bowman," ironically enough) even
further.  Perhaps to the days of the Roman Empire! I
bet you didn't know that!

The Tuck family came over to the North American
continent in 1624 (to Virginia), and 1625 (to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, a mere five years after the
Pilgrims!).  To this day there is a northern branch of 
the family, and a southern branch.  The communication
between the two branches has been strained since the
American Civil War.  I am from the southern branch.
During the Second World War the lieutenant governor
of Virginia was a William Tuck (also the name of one
of my brothers).  There is a room in the Virginia state 
museum dedicated to the Tucks (very prominant in
Virginia in terms of importance and number of the family),
who have contributed to Virginia society (as I have said)
since 1624.  There are also Canadian and Australian
branches of the family.  Several members of the Canadian
and British branches have been knighted.  That particular
honor goes back to the court of King Henry II (as I
referred in my previous e-mail), where there was a Sir
Reginald or a Sir Ronald (I don't remember which one it was)
Tuck.

To give you a perspective, this was about the time of
Thomas a Becket.  Much more recently, there was a Tuck with
Admiral Peary or Byrd (again, I always got those two admirals
mixed-up) during the exploration of the South Pole.  There
is even a mountain in Antarctica named after that John Tuck.
Finally, one of the physicists on the Manhattan Project that
helped develop the atomic bomb was named James Tuck (also the
name of another of my brothers), who was later knighted for his
accomplishments in atomic physics (since he was British, and not 
American).  I read that he was something of the stereotypical
"nerdish" "absent-minded professor."  Brilliant, but not too suave
socially.  I have an aunt that collected much of this information
(she's a freak for the Tuck family history, while not actually
being a Tuck herself (an aunt by marriage).  The rest of the
research I've done myself."