Secretary of Massachusetts Bay.
The Fluckers were descended from a French Huguenot family who settled in England. Captain James Flucker, mariner, came to America and married Elizabeth Luist at Charlestown, Mass., May 30, 1717. He was taxed there from 1727 to 1756 and died 3 Nov. 1756. She died Sept. 1770. They had eight children.[239]
Thomas Flucker, son of the aforesaid, was born at Charlestown, 9 Oct. 1719. He was a merchant in Boston and owned an estate on Summer street. He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace 14 Sept. 1756, was a member of the Council in 1761-68. A Selectman of Boston in 1766, succeeded Andrew Oliver as Secretary, 12 Nov. 1770, was made a Mandamus Councillor 9 Aug. 1774. He married 1st, 12 June 1744, Judith, daughter of Hon. James Bowdoin, a Boston Huguenot family, and as a testimony to the public spirit of this famous family, Bowdoin College remains. 2nd, 14 Jan. 1751, he married Hannah, daughter of General Samuel Waldo, proprietor of the Waldo Patent Main, to whose heirs the great domain descended. The portion belonging to Mrs. Flucker and her brother, were confiscated.
Thomas Flucker was a staunch Loyalist. He was banished and his estates confiscated. He left Boston at the evacuation, March 17, 1776, for Halifax. He afterwards went to London, where he was a member of the Brompton Row Association of Loyalists, who met weekly for conversation and a dinner. An extract from Hutchinson's Diary, July 13, 1776, says:
"Flucker dined with us; depends on the truth of the report of his family's being arrived in Ireland; has 300£ allowed by treasury; last (?) of the Council 200£." Thomas Flucker died in England suddenly on Feb. 16, 1783. His wife remained in England, but survived him only three years.
Thomas Flucker, of Massachusetts, son of the former, graduated at Harvard University in 1773. During the Revolution he was a Lieutenant in the 60th British regiment at St. Augustine, Fla., in 1777. By the University catalogue, it appears that he and his father died the same year, 1783.
Lucy Flucker, another child, born 2 August 1756, married General Henry Knox of the revolutionary army, and afterwards Secretary at War. The young rebel had at the time a flourishing bookstore opposite Williams Court in Cornhill, a fashionable morning resort at that time for the British officers and their ladies. Harrison Gray Otis says that Miss Lucy "was distinguished as a young lady of high intellectual endowments, very fond of books, especially of the books sold by Knox, at whose premises was kindled as the story went, 'the guiltless flame' which was destined to burn on the hymeneal altar." Henry Knox became Chief of Artillery in the Revolution, and in Washington's Administration, Secretary of War. He acquired on easy terms, a very large share of Mrs. Flucker's property, which had been confiscated, and settled on it at Thomaston, Maine, building a fine mansion in which he himself died in 1806, and his wife in 1824.
Sally Flucker, another daughter of Thomas Flucker, Jr., who performed in Burgoyne's "Maid of the Oaks" in private theatricals given by British officers in Boston, accompanied the family to England and married Mr. Jephson, a member of the Irish Parliament. Copley painted her portrait.
Hannah Flucker, daughter of Thomas, married 2 Nov. 1774, James Urquhart, captain in the 14th regiment, which was engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill.