Tatum to Tathum

Here is some information on the "Tathum" family name that I copy and pasted from 4crests.com:

"This surname of TATHAM is an English habitation name from a place in North Lancashire, so called from the Old English personal name 'TETA' + 'HAM' (homestead), 'one who came from Tatham'(Tate's homestead) in Lancashire. There are several variations on this name, amongst which are TATHUM, TATAM, TATTAM, TATUM, and TATEM. Early instances of the name are numerous.'King John, when Earl of Moreton, gave the services of William of Tatham in Tatham....to Robert de Monte Begon'. Thomas de Tatham was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax in the year l379 and also Johannes de Tatam. John TATAM was registered at the University of Oxford in the year l564. It was not until the 10th century that modern hereditary surnames first developed and the use of fixed names spread, first to France and then England, then to Germany and all of Europe. In these parts of Europe, the individual man was becoming more important, commerce was increasing and the exact identification of each man was becoming a necessity. Even to-day however, the Church does not recognise surnames. Baptisms and marriages are performed through use of the Christian name alone. Thus hereditary names as we know them to-day developed gradually during the llth to the l5th century in the various European countries."

The Tatum to Tathum line is below, still much work to be done on the parallel lines!

Here is the story of Nathaniel Tatum, the immigrant in our line to come to America:

Nathaniel was christened on 18 Nov 1599 at Holy Trinity the Less Church,  the son of William Tatum and Ellen Kirk who married on 3 Aug 1587 at St. Benet Grace Church in London. [Holy Trinity the Less Church was an Anglican Church in the center of London, near St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was started in 1540 and destroyed by fire in 1666 in the Great Fire of London and was not rebuilt.  St. Benet Grace Church on Gracechurch St. was also destroyed by the 1666 fire.]

His parents must have died when he was young because he was on a list at Bridewell Royal Hospital records, 27 Feb. 1618/19 of 75 boys and 25 girls who were to go to Virginia. These children were 8-16 years old and had been found  "running wild in the streets" of London, "sleeping under stalls", and begging and had been committed to Bridewell, which served as a house of correction. They were mainly homeless waifs though some were probably petty pilferers.

One of the ships that brought these children to Virginia was the "George" which left London March 1619 and arrived in Virginia in May.  [In March 1617/18, Pocahontas and her husband and family were scheduled to sail on the "George" back to Virginia, but she became ill from tuberculosis, was taken off the ship at Gravesend and died there.  In May her father, Powhatan died--perhaps when he heard the news of his daughter's death--leaving his cruel brother in charge of the tribe.]

One account says that 3 brothers, Augustine, Lawrence, and Nathaneill Tatham sailed from Southhampton, England, on the Good Ship George in 1619 for America via Bermuda. In 1620 this ship landed in New Jersey where Augustine remained and Nathaniel traveled on to Virginia.  Nothing is known of Lawrence except that descendants of Nathaniel sometimes gave their children the name Lawrence. [from Meadia Research]

From the Virginia Colonial Record: "So far as can be definitely ascertained, the first in America, Nathaniell Tatham, who immigrated to Virginia and settled in Charles City County." Nathaniel left England in March 1619 and after a 2-month voyage arrived in Jamestown, Va. in May.

He arrived in time to hear about the first representative assembly in the New World which was convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619.

In Feb 1623/24 Nathaniel was living in the West and Shirley Hundred and at Shirley Hundred, Charles City (on the north side of the James River), and was in the muster, 22 Jan 1624/5. He was listed as 20 years old and having come to Virginia in 1619 on the "George."

In 1624 when he was 25 years old, Nathaniel moved from the north side of the James River to the south side. 

Charles City was one of the four great corporations set up by the Virginia Company of London in 1618.

In 1634 Virginia was divided into 8 counties with Charles City County being one with its original area intact.  Charles City County lay on both sides of the James River.

When he was 39 years old, Nathaniel patented 100 acres of land in Charles City County on Appomattox River, 25 July 1638, for transporting his wife Ann and his daughter Mary Tatum. This would lead us to believe that he went back to England, married, had a child, and brought them to Virginia, giving him claim to a 100-acre tract of land. This land adjoined a 500-acre patent to him which he re-patented 4 Dec. 1641.

An Act of Assembly of 6 Jan. 1639/40 named Nathaniel Tatum, Cheney Boyce, and Anthony Wyatt as a "Viewers of Tobacco" for Charles City for the north side of Appomattox River.

Here is a small timeline of events that were occurring during his lifetime:

1644, April 18: Chief Opechancanough leads Indians in an attack, killing nearly 500 colonists.

1644, October: A resident in Jamestown shoots Chief Opechancanough, a prisoner, in the back.

1651: First Indian Reservation is created near Richmond, Virginia.

1660, March 3: The Virginia Assembly elects Berkeley to Governorship.

1661: Virginia institutionalizes slavery with a law that makes the status of the mother determine slave or free status of the child.

1669: South Carolina founded.

Considering the hardships and dangers of the times, Nathaniel lived to be an old man of about 76 years old.  Nathaniel was living as late as 27 Jan. 1675/6 when a deed of gift from Nathaniel Tatum the Elder to his grandson Nathaniel Tatum was recorded in Bristol Parish court.

Long blog post, but I hope you enjoyed!

Carissa

"It is a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors." ~ Plutarch