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My wife, Mary Jane Tatom Wilson, is your 3rd cousin thrice removed. Except for some details, we have your pedigree back to Abel Tatum. Tatham is an ancient English surname meaning: "Tate-home", a place where the Tates live. Tate is a clan and family name meaning: "One who lives atop a hill or one who has a large or unusual top (head)". It is related to various European words for summit, for example: Scottish "tate" = tuft; English "tuft” and toft" = hillock; French "toupee"; Old English "top", etc. from Germanic "tap". Like their names, the Tate and Tatham families are related, probably as ancient kin as well as ancient neighbors. Over the centuries, both names have had a variety of spellings, for example: Tata, Tate, Tait, etc.
Before the Norman Conquest in 1066, the people of England used only one name to identify a person, e.g. "John". However, to distinguish between two or more Johns, one might be further identified by the place where he lived, i.e. "John of Tatham". When the Norman King William I the Conqueror ruled England he decreed that everyone must take a surname. The surname Tatham was adopted by some families who lived in the same place as the Tates.
The Tate-home town of Tatham in Lancashire, England, is spelled Tathaim in the Domesday Book of landholders and lands surveyed for taxes by order of William the Conqueror in 1085 C.E. In later records, the name of the place and of the family is also spelled Tateham (1202 C.E.), Tatham (1241 C.E.), Tatam, Tathum, Tatum, Tatem, and, of course, Tatom, with various spellings used for the same person and the same family.
The Tate homelands extended across England from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire on the Eastern shore to Lancashire and Cheshire on the West coast. Those in Cheshire had a variety of "Tate-town" names, i.e." Tatton, Tetton, and Tattenhall. The manor of Tateshall (Tate's hall) in Yorkshire included the present town of Pontefract. Some genealogists identify the Tates and Tatoms with the Tattershall family and Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire.
Among the English immigrants who colonized North America were many Tathams, Tatems, Tatums, etc. Based on early English and Virginia Colony records, the most likely founder of our American family is Abel Tatum. All Saints Church records in Leicester, England include baptism records of three generations of Tatums. Abel Tatum, younger son of George and Grace Tatum, was baptized 7 Feb 1642, making him the right age to be the Abel Tatom of New Kent Co., VA in 1667. His older brothers were named John and William. An Abell Tatum is listed as a witness in a defamation suit in York Co., VA on 24 Jan 1667 (Record Book #4 pg 163-4) This Abel Tatum lived in New Kent Co., VA. Most of that county's early records have been destroyed so the only records of him seem to be from nearby counties.
On 4 Aug 1683, in Rappahannock (later Essex) Co., VA, Abell (sic) Tatom, planter of New Kent Co., purchased from Stephen Benbridge 150 ac. on Calf Pasture Branch, adjoining Michall Rougherty and Mr. William Clayborne. (Rappahannock Co. Deed Book 7 pg 120).
On 2 Oct 1691, Daniel Phates of Rappahannock Co., deeded to Samuel Coats 300 ac. adjoining Abell Tathum's land (Rappahannock Co., Deed Book 8 pg 263)
In 1702, King William Co., VA was formed from land originally in New Kent Co. On 17 Sep 1722, John Tatom of St. John Parish, King William Co. deeded to Thomas Coleman for 10 pounds, 160 ac., land of Abel Tatom, father of John. Abel Tatom had bought this land of Stephen Benbridge (Essex Co. Deed Book 1721 #4, pg 102)
Spotsylvania County, Virginia Land Patent Book 12, page 401, records that on 6 June 1726 John Tatham (sic) patented "1000 acres in the fork of the Rappa[hannox] River, Begg[inning] by the riverside thence We by the muddy run side". The land was in that part of Spotsylvania County that was formerly part of King William County, VA. That John Tatham was probably the father of John and Stephen Tatom (sic) of Spotsylvania County. His children would include those named in the will of his daughter Susannah Fullilove.
Stephen is the only one of Susannah’s siblings whose surname is spelled “Tatom” in her will. Almost all of Stephen’s descendants retained the “Tatom” spelling. Susannah’s brother John’s surname is spelled “Tatum” in her will, however, John’s surname is spelled "Tatom" in a 1785 deed and in the Wilkes County, Georgia will he signed in 1793. His descendants in Lincoln County, GA. and elsewhere have retained the "Tatom" spelling to the present time (2006 C.E.).
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