Facts and Events
John Tate first appears in southwest Virginia in November of 1772, when he settled on an 145 acre tract in the Moccasin Creek watershed, about 15 miles southwest of Lebanon, Russell County. (based on his deposition in Russell County court case of George Fugate vs. Nancy Mahon, 1810, fide Burdine, 1978). This tract was surveyed for him in 1774, with the notation that it was first settled in 1772. (See Land records, below. Note: Hamilton, 1968 indicates that Tate's original settlement was for 175 acres. This has not been confirmed. Summers, 1903:813 shows it as 145 acres.).
During the initial period of Indian Hostilities (1773-1775) John Tate and his neighbors on Moccasin Creek "forted up" in the stockaded "Houston's Fort", near modern Snowflake, Virginia. Subsequently, following the restart of hostilities in 1776, the settlers established a second fort, known as Tate's Fort, on John Tate's land. While nearby Houston's Fort is known to have been besieged in 1776, there is no evidence that Tate's Fort was ever attacked. John Tate in his deposition of 1810 for the case of Fugate vs. Mahon, noted that another early settler who lived five miles from him, "did as the rest of us did, defend our land and families, and lived on the land in dispute (1772-1781) except for the time forted."
Over the next 40 years John would serve in a leadership role in Washington County, and after 1786, Russell County. As a Gentleman Justice he showed the best attendance of any of the justices who so served. (See Justices of Russel County 1786-1791
John's wife Mary, died in 1817. John himself died December 15, 1828, at 85 years of age. They were buried in "Tate and Burdine cemetery in the Moccasin Valley, 15 miles southwest of Lebanon" according to a descendant. (Tate, 1976.
The children of John Tate and Mary Bracken are: