Howell Tatum (died 1822) was a justice of the

Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of Tennessee. The Supreme Court's three buildings are seated in Nashville, Knoxville, and Jackson, Tennessee. The Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, and four justice ...

from 1797 to 1798. Born in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

,C.A. Snodgrass, ''The History of Freemasonry in Tennessee 1789-1943'' (1944), p. 438. Tatum was a soldier in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, serving as an ensign in the First North Carolina Regiment, Continental Line, in 1775. He moved to Tennessee in the late 1780s or early 1790s, settling in the Mero District, which comprised Davidson,

Sumner Sumner may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Sumner, a mountain in the Rare Range, Antarctica * Sumner Glacier, southern Graham Land, Antarctica Australia * Sumner, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane New Zealand * Sumner, New Zealand, a seasi ...

and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

Counties. He served as treasurer of the district from 1794 to 1796, and was then Attorney General for the district from 1796 to 1797. He was appointed to the state supreme court in 1797, resigning the following year. He was a topographical engineer in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. Tatum was interred with full military honors on September 9, 1822."Died", ''Knoxville Intelligencer'' (September 17, 1822), p. 3.

References

Justices of the Tennessee Supreme Court Date of birth unknown 1822 deaths People from North Carolina People of the Creek War {{Tennessee-state-judge-stub