Francis Tucker

Francis Tucker was set apart at Stepney as a BMS missionary to Calcutta in 1839. He ministered for a time at the Circular Road Chapel in Calcutta, where he was warmly received. His health declined, however, forcing his return to England in December 1840. He settled in Manchester and was instrumental in the formation of the Union Chapel, Oxford Street, Manchester, serving as the church’s first pastor. By February 1842 he was no longer receiving pecuniary support from the BMS. He attended a Jubilee meeting of the BMS in Manchester on 7 June 1842, and brought forth many of the resolutions at the Annual Public Meeting of the BMS in London on 1 May 1845. He would later serve as pastor of the Camden Road Baptist Chapel, Camden Town, London. Union Chapel in Manchester would continue to prosper, however, largely due to the popular ministry of Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910). Tucker was in close fellowship in London with the Congregationalists, attending and even speaking during the annual meeting of the London Missionary Society in May 1860. He was the father of Leonard Tucker, BMS missionary to India and Jamaica. See F. A. Cox, History of the Baptist Missionary Society, from 1792 to 1842, 2 vols. (London: T. Ward, and G. and J. Dyer, 1842), 2:307, 400; Benjamin Nightingale, Lancashire Nonconformity; Or, Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of the Congregational and Old Presbyterian Churches in the County. Churches of Manchester, Oldham, Ashton, etc. 6 vols. (Manchester: John Heywood, [1890–1893]), 250; Ernest A. Payne, “The Journal of Jane Parsons,” Baptist Quarterly 23 (1969-1970), 267, 322; Ian Sellers, “Other Times, Other Ministries: John Fawcett and Alexander McLaren,” Baptist Quarterly 32 (1987-1988), 187; Baptist Magazine 33 (1841), 35; 34, 138, 140; (1842): 400; Missionary Herald (1845), 83ff; Missionary Magazine and Chronicle (June 1860), 473-477; BMS Committee Minutes, Vol. H (Oct. 1841-Dec. 1842), f. 83, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford.