Tench’s Ride
by Gary D. Crawford Most everyone has heard of Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman, right? He was the aide-de-camp to General George Washington during the Revolutionary War. (If you haven’t, well, now you have.) But who among us can answer these five questions about him? 1. What the heck kind of name is “Tench,” anyway? 2. Where was Tench born, and where is he buried? 3. Besides being Washington’s personal assistant, what else did Lt. Col. Tench do? 4. There also was a General Tench Tilghman. If these are different guys, how are they related? 5. Who was Tilghman’s Island named for, Lt. Col. Tench or Gen. Tench? Enquiring minds want to know such things, so I looked into it. Here’s what I have gleaned from the records. You sure don’t hear the name “Tench” much anymore, do you? In fact, according to one website about baby-naming, only five kids (all boys) in the U.S. have been named Tench since 1914! But back in the day, in the mid-1700s…oh, my, there were rafts of them. Several families, not just the Tilghmans,
seemed to have a Tench or two in every generation. To avoid dragging you into that genealogical quagmire ~ where I’ve wandered for far too many hours ~ let’s cut to the chase. (Ready?)
Tench is a fish. Yep. And its Latin name, believe it or not, is Tinca tinca, though some early books name it Tinca vulgaris. A carp-like fish, the tench grows to around 33 inches in length. Its native habitat covers most of Europe, including the British Isles, and parts of western Asia. For ne a rly 150 ye a r s t he y ’ve been in the States, too. The U.S. Fish Commission brought some in from Germany in 1877, apparently for use as a food and sport fish, and spent several years learning to culture tench. Once they knew the tricks, they ramped up; during the
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