The Tatum family was closely associated with the families of Epps or Eppes and Rives, Rieves, Reaves, Reeves, etc. in colonial southeast Virginia, with the Reaves family eventually tying directly into the Phips or Phipps family. Jesse Tatum and his wife Elizabeth sold land in Brunswick County, Virginia to Joseph Phipps or Phips on 16 September 1779. This is land which had been patented earlier, on 5 July 1774. The deed is recorded in Deed Book 14, p. 26, according to an online abstract.
Another web page contains what it calls abstracts but, instead, they seem to be transcriptions of the public records, with some text omissions. There, the same deed is referred to as involving 76 acres on the “North side of cold water.” Reference is made to the old line of Joseph “Phippes” and to the old corner of “Phips.”
“Cold water” is later referred to as “the said run.” This would apparently refer to what is today known as Coldwater Creek, which is in Brunswick County, Virginia. There is also a Little Coldwater Creek in the same county.
The deed was witnessed by James “Fips.” The deed was also later proved by the oath of this same James Fips on 26 June 1780. The two other witnesses, Robert Davis and George Morris, proved it a bit earlier, on 28 February 1780.
Yet another web page refers to this Jesse Tatum as patenting 76 acres in Brunswick County in 1774. This was on the north side of Coldwater Run. That page says that Tatum when sold this land in 1779 to Joseph “Phips.”
Years later, in 1815, an 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners was published. That source lists John and Benjamin Phipps. John was living on Coldwater Creek 7 miles southeast of the courthouse. Benjamin was living on Great Coldwater a bit further in the same direction. Lawrenceville has been the county seat since 1784.
Earlier records, prior to the Revolution when the Church of England parish system disappeared, refer to Jesse Tatum and his wife Elizabeth of St. Andrew Parish in Brunswick County. He is said to have later moved to Henry County. This may be the same Jesse Tatum whose Revolutionary War pension application says he moved to Patrick County (same area as Henry), but that record refers to a widow named Mary rather than Elizabeth.
Phipps Genealogy 