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This copiously documented volume sheds new light on one of the earliest families to settle in Virginia, that of Captain William Tucker of London, and on a number of allied families whose progenitors figured in the early history of the Virginia and Maryland colonies.

William Tucker arrived at Jamestown in 1610 on the Mary and James. He was an original stockholder in the Virginia Company of London. Captain Tucker, who resided in Elizabeth City, Virginia in 1624, is remembered as a colonial merchant and as a member of the House of Burgesses and the Privy Council. He also gained notoriety for leading reprisals against the Warrasqueake and Nansemond Indians in 1622 and 1623.

In this lively account, Dr. Norma Tucker, a direct descendant of Captain William, puts flesh on the bare bones of the ancestry of her famous ancestor, as well as on the allied families of Allen, Blackistone, Chandler, Ford, Gerard, Harmor, Hume, Monroe, Skaggs, Smith, Stevesson, Stone, Sturman, Thompson, Ward, and Yowell--families that figured prominently in the history of Warwick, Westmoreland, and Culpeper counties, Virginia, as well as colonial Maryland. The social history is made all the more compelling because of the massive array of genealogical evidence-wills, deeds, vital records, and published sources-marshaled by the author in support of the genealogies themselves. With a lengthy bibliography and a name index in excess of 7,500 entries, this is a book truly worthy of its title.