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A granite obelisk, reported in 1914 as 46 feet 6 inches tall, stands over the grave of Rev. John Tucke (1702 to 171773), minister of the Isles of Shoals, in the cemetery on Star Island, New Hampshire. His kinsman Edward Tuck paid for it, and the New Hampshire Historical Society dedicated it on 29 July 1914.
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Tucke Monument
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Approximate location · 42.976° N, 70.613° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
A granite obelisk, reported in 1914 as 46 feet 6 inches tall, stands in the small cemetery on Star Island, in the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast, and the report of its 1914 dedication says it can be seen from ten miles out at sea.
It marks the grave of Rev. John Tucke, who graduated from Harvard in 1723, was ordained on the island on 26 July 1732 and died in August 1773, aged 71. The sandstone slab placed over his grave in 1800 by Dudley A. Tyng of Newburyport had weathered until its inscription was almost illegible. A kinsman, Edward Tuck, paid for a permanent memorial. His agent Benjamin A. Kimball engaged Timothy P. Sullivan of Concord to investigate, and a shaft in the proportions of an Egyptian obelisk was recommended.
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Day visitors can walk to the obelisk through a turnstile and along a hedge-lined path, as described in 2022. Star Island's website gives its open season as mid-June to mid-September, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and advises wearing shoes and staying on the paths because of poison ivy.
ACCESS
On Star Island, reached by boat; day trips are offered by the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company and Island Cruises, according to Star Island’s website. The island is owned and run by the nonprofit Star Island Corporation, which sets the visiting season. Dogs are not permitted on the island.
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