Josiah Tucker was born in South Wales in 1713. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford, and he received his BA in 1736, MA in 1739 and DD in 1775. He was ordained in the Church of England and became a clergyman in Bristol for many years. In 1758 he became Dean of Gloucester Cathedral and divided his time between the two cities for more than thirty years. Tucker held strong and sometimes unpopular views on economics, politics and religion, and wrote several books and pamphlets on the controversial issues of the day. He died in 1799 and is buried in Gloucester Cathedral.