Name |
David Tate |
Born |
1778 |
Wetumpka, Elmore, Alabama [1, 2] |
- Present-day location. Tate was born in the Creek nation at the home of his uncle, Alexander McGillivray, in Little Tallassee.
|
Gender |
Male |
Baptism |
11 Apr 1797 |
All Hallows-by-the-Tower Church, London [3] |
 |
David Tate Baptismal Record
All Hallows-by-the-Tower Church
London |
Residence |
1798 |
Banff, Scotland [4] |
William Panton sent Tate and his cousin, Alexander McGillivray, Jr., to Scotland to attend school. David was an indifferent scholar, and his tenure was cut short due to problems that arose with his schoolmaster. |
Military |
30 Aug 1813 |
Pierce's Mill, Baldwin, Alabama |
Expecting imminent attack from Redstick Creeks, Tate took refuge at the stockade at Pierce's Mill which was located on Pine Log Creek. (His wife and her parents were at Ft. Mims.) Pierce's was garrisoned by a small force of territorial volunteers under the command of Lt. Andrew Montgomery. Stiggins alleges that Weatherford sought Tate out there to explain the attack on Mims. This seems odd, given the circumstances. That evening the stockade was abandoned for Mobile. The party included Tate, Jack Weatherford and James Cornells. |
Occupation |
Planter. David Tate was the nephew of Gen. Alexander McGillivray and the half-brother of "Red Eagle," William Weatherford. Being the recipient of the bulk of his uncle's estate, Tate was one of the wealthiest of the Creek metis in the Tensaw. (The 1815-1817 Mississippi Territory census reports that he owned 64 slaves.) He opposed Tecumseh and the Prophets that troubled the Upper Nation and allied himself with the United States during the ensuing Redstick War of 1813. His first wife was slain during the massacre at Fort Mims. |
Residence |
1814 |
Tate Property, Baldwin, Alabama [4] |
"Under the Creek treaty of 1814, David was given a land reserve from fractions of Sections 17, 18, 19, and 20 at T4 R3E. The claim was certified 12 April 1820. He was also given part of Section 29 which was divided by the Alabama River and just south of Little River in Baldwin and Monroe Counties." |
 |
1814 Tate Property
|
Residence |
1815 - 1817 |
Monroe County, Mississippi Territory [5] |
 |
Mississippi Territory
|
 |
1815-1817 Mississippi Territorial Census
|
 |
Tensaw Country (1818) Philadelphia: John Melish, |
Residence |
1820 |
Baldwin County, Alabama [6] |
Neighbor, Theophilus Toulmin (1796-1866), q.v. Tate owned 80 slaves. |
 |
Baldwin and Monroe Counties, Alabama (1829) Philadelphia: A. Finley 1829 |
 |
Tensaw Country (1822) Baltimore: F. Lucas
Showing Montpelier and Tatesville |
 |
Baldwin County, Alabama (1825) Philadelphia: H.S. Tanner, 1825 |
Died |
ca. Nov 1829 |
Little River, Baldwin, Alabama [2] |
- Tate died at Montpelier, his plantation.
|
Probate |
17 Nov 1829 |
Blakeley, Baldwin, Alabama |
Nuncupative will filed with the Orphan's Court for probate. File includes, inter alia: will; inventory of estate; Administrator's Bond for Margaret Tate and David Moniac with sureties Jack Weatherford, Elisha Tarvin and William C. Vaughn; 1855 Notice of Final Settlement by Administrator de bonis non J. D. Driesbach (Moniac was killed in fighting Seminoles in 1836); Summary of testimony of Shomo, Dr. Maiben, Vaughn and others on competency of Tate and other circumstances surrounding the dictation of the will; citation to George Tunstall; Receipt for $600 from Eloisa Tate (daughter) as payment for Creek War depredation claim; Receipt for payment of depredation claim to John and Elizabeth (daughter) Patrick by Eloisa Tate; Legatees (Eloisa Tunstall, Elizabeth Patrick and Elisha Tarvin and Josephine Driesbach; 1836 citation to David Moniac (after his death in Florida); 1829 citation to Elijah Tarvin, Elisha Tarvin and Margaret Tate; a list of slaves owned by Theophilus [Powell].; Guardian Bond for Josephine Tate by guardian Margaret Tate secured by William Sizemore and David Moniac. |
 |
Tate, David Wll |
 |
Tate, David Will |
 |
Tate, David Will |
 |
David Tate Estate File "Alabama, Estate Files, 1830-1976," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-23279-79441-28?cc=1978117&wc=MX5Y-338:314239301,315523501 : accessed 22 December 2014), Baldwin > Tate, David (1824) > image 1 of 106; county courthouses, Alabama. |
Buried |
Tate-Tunstall Family Cemetery, Blacksher, Baldwin, Alabama |
 |
Tate, David
|
 |
Tate, David
|
Notes |
- WILL
Monroe County, Alabama
Hired Browns negroes to Frasie for 8 mo. paid to me minuted on 'Book' hire of my own boys unsettled bring Littell to settlement Capt Austin present 4 years no settlement books will show all my groceries? lately from him. If he does anything fair he will leave me but very little as to Browns children let every cent be obtained Gen. Parsons will do the best he can for my estate. I wish it divided as soon as possible before next crop except stock do the best it is possible for my daughter Louisa You know how I wish my property arranged: do it if you can four or five for Elizabeth in the will David & Mr. Vaughn can settle by my book's notes held by Mr. Booth against Mr. Vaughn are to be taken up by Mr Tate to take up the first note to John Weatherford my Brother. I will a negro boy and my gun I wish the provision made yesterday for my wife and youngest daughter to remain so and the properly brought to me by my wife to be given to her own children wherein I do think proper old auntie and a little boy Wallace and Tod and Mary who is with Capt Shomo & Jack Seal and Handy at Mr Tate death those under age to receive their freedom at 21 years Wallace Tod & Mary and Auntie to be free as soon as possible Take Flora home Mrs Tate when all is over Mrs. Shomo to keep Mary as long as she wants to David Moniac one of my Executors I wish him to be mighty cautious always to go Mr. McLoskey I want my debts paid go with the crop to Mobile and receive the money be wide awake for every body my wife knows I have talked enough with her I wish the bill of sales which I hold to certain negroes belonging to my Brother John Weatherford to be destroyed I want to do nothing dishonest. I wish my patent gold watch to hang up in the house as a time piece for my wife always maybe Tarvin may contend it is not a fair division of my property I contend that it is I want the rest to be equally divided. The Dyer claim goes to Mrs. Tate and her children now cultivated by Capt Shomo. Mrs. Tate will keep sufficent horses and mules to hunt the stock and tend her plantation it is not my wish that any of them should be advertised for sale. Mr Hollinger is to sign a bond on demand for the land on the other side of the river thirty five Hundred dollars to be paid for it 2000 dollars already paid Mr Hollinger to wait for the balc. the land on the other side to be left to Mrs Tate and her youngest daughter To Lynn McGee I wish to will him 400 head of cattle, if he gets off to himself but I hope he will always live with Mrs. Tate and she will not let him suffer a moment To David Moniac I give three or four negroes and fifty cows and calves & 25 steers. I wish him always to be with his aunt and she will give him something again old Will and Rose I wish to be free at the same time with Handy the land on this side the river to be disposed of to the best advantage among them Elisha Tarvin to retain the family of negroes now in his possession Mr. Tarvin & my wife to run the mill until sold I was to give William Mills 350 Dolls. to build the mill I told him as he was unfortunate I would allow something more. I want my Executor Gen. Parsons to pay what Mechanics my say. I think 100 dolls. enough. Above all things my Executor Gen Parsons to get rid of Innerearity suit as soon as possible. Borrowed of Davy Lucas 95 dollars gave an order to Mills for 30 dolls on Davy. Indian John always has a home he has some Heifers I gave him he will keep with the cattle till the stock is sold two fillies for my daughter Josephine
17th day of Nov. 1829
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|
Person ID |
I5033 |
Dickinson |
Last Modified |
31 Dec 2014 |
Father |
David Taitt, b. ca. 1740, Scotland , d. 4 Aug 1834, Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age ~ 94 years) |
Relationship |
Birth |
Mother |
Sehoy III McPherson |
Relationship |
Birth |
Notes |
- Who is Col. John Tate?
The Tate family tradition (as reported by David Tate's son-in-laws, J. D. Dreisbach and Elisha Tarvin) claims that a British officer, Col. John Tate (hereafter, Tate), was the husband of Sehoy III and father of Eloise and David. This account is adopted by the early historians of the period, Meek, Owen, Woodward, and Halbart. (Woodward claims that Indians showed him Tate's grave. Indeed, it is probably the unreliable Woodward that originally reported the claim.) Griffith, in McIntosh and Weatherford, repeats the tale. Pickett, somewhat ambiguously, mentions him only as Col. Tait. [Pickett, 531, with additional background on Tait's mission at 342, 345-346]
Amos Wright makes the case that John Tate did not exist.
First, Wright could not find any extant military records for a John Tate serving as a commissioned officer in North America. And he found no reference to John Tate in the "thousands" of letters, journals and other documents that he reviewed, an unlikely void in the record.
Second, there was another Tait in the Creek nation during this period, one whose story parallels that of Tate and whose activities are documented by primary source materials.
David Taitt (hereafter, Taitt), the deputy to the British Indian superintendent, John Stuart, began a tour of the nation in 1772. He frequented Ft. Toulouse and Little Tallasee from that time to 1781. Most significantly, in 1779 Tait led a force of Creeks across the Chattahoochee to aid in the relief of Savannah, then under siege by the French admiral, D'Estaing. (John Tate coincidentally led an Indian force for the same reason in 1779 but died at Cussetta or Coweta town, near present-day Columbus, Georgia.) Vickery and Travis claim this Taitt as David's father, as well as Dr. Gregory Waselkov of the University of South Alabama and Dr. Kathyrn Braund of Auburn University. Waselkov assigns paternity on the circumstance of Tait's residence at Little Tallassee at the time of the conception and birth of Sehoy's children. [Waselkov, 283, n. 19]
Wright, however, argues that Taitt would not have been a credible consort for Sehoy. Taitt fled the nation on more than one occasion for fear of assassination. This certainly would not have been a concern for a brother-in-law of Alexander McGillivray, as proved by Sehoy's other mate, the duplicitous, yet unmolested, Charles Weatherford. (This, of course, ignores Taitt's standing as a British agent.)
Nevertheless, John Tate seems more apocryphal than real. It could be that the story of his demise is romantic invention, similar to that of the French Captain Marchand, Sehoy III's maternal grandfather. As Wright pens of the latter, "[i]t makes better reading if the brave father is killed instead of deserting his family when his tour of duty is over." [Wright, 187]
In a 1922 article, C. H. Driesbach alleged that David's father was Adam Tate. Wright argues that this Tate was probably a white trader who operated out of West Florida before 1773 and again between 1775 and 1779. (Sehoy III married Charles Weatherford in 1780 after Adam left the region.) Wright claims that Adam's will, leaving his Alabama estate to David, was deposited with Alexander McGillivray. This included the brickyard plantation, the property on which William Weatherford and Sehoy III are buried, which was deeded by the Driesbach family to Baldwin County in 1972.
In 2014, Tate researcher Michelle Woodham produced the 1796 baptismal record for David Tate at All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London, where his father is identified as "David Tate". Tate was baptized at the same time as Alexander McGillivray, son of Gen. Alexander McGillivray. Both were in Britain at the time under the auspices of William Panton, the Pensacola merchant and confidant of Gen. McGillivray. The younger McGillivray died in London. Tate, proving an indifferent scholar, returned to Alabama. [7, 8, 9]
|
Family ID |
F1351 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
Family 1 |
Mary Louisa Randon, b. Abt. 1784, Alabama , d. 30 Aug 1813, Fort Mims, Baldwin, Alabama (Age ~ 29 years) |
Married |
1800 |
Baldwin County, Alabama [4, 10] |
Children |
+ | 1. Eloisa Matilda Tate, b. 28 Nov 1802, Blacksher, Baldwin, Alabama , d. 09 May 1875, Mobile, Mobile, Alabama (Age 72 years) [Birth] |
+ | 2. Elizabeth Tate, b. Abt. 1804, Little River, Baldwin, Alabama [Birth] |
+ | 3. Theresa Tate, b. 1807, Little River, Baldwin, Alabama , d. Bef 1848, Alabama (Age 41 years) [Birth] |
|
Last Modified |
1 Sep 2011 |
Family ID |
F1350 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |