John Tatham

John Tatham (born – died ) was an English colonial administrator and merchant who was nominated to serve as the Governor of East Jersey. While Tatham was ultimately rejected for the office, he did serve as de facto deputy governor, acting governor, and as a member of the Governor's Council. Later in life, he served as one of the founders of Burlington Township in present-day New Jersey.

Tatham was one of the earliest known Catholics to hold high political office in colonial America and maintained close ties with Catholic missionary activity in the Middle Colonies.

Early life Tatham was born in England around 1642. As a young man, he was sent to Douai University in France to study for the priesthood, and became a Benedictine monk. He later left his order in 1678, after a supposed plot to kill Charles II inflamed hysteria against Catholics. Tatham arrived in North America by the early 1680s.

By 1681 he had acquired extensive landholdings in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, near Neshaminy Falls, including a 5,000-acre purchase from William Penn. His name appears among the earliest purchasers of land in the province.

Tatham was a Roman Catholic at a time when Catholics faced legal and political disabilities throughout much of the English colonial world. Contemporary observers described him as a "Jacobite," reflecting his support for King James II and his Catholic faith. Tatham was married to Elizabeth Tatham, and they had at least three children.

Public life Tatham first emerged prominently in public affairs as the principal American agent of Daniel Coxe. Coxe never visited America and relied upon Tatham to oversee his extensive landholdings, business interests, and governmental concerns in the colonies. Acting on Coxe's behalf, he helped administer and secure title to more than 62,000 acres of proprietary land in the colony. Tatham was associated with the establishment of an early pottery enterprise near the Assunpink Creek in present-day Trenton. Contemporary accounts attributed the project to his recommendation and knowledge of ceramic materials. Later historians described the operation as one of the first pottery established in English North America.

In 1687, after Coxe became Governor of West Jersey, he appointed Tatham as his deputy governor. By that time he was already a member of the Council of Proprietors. Despite this rejection, Tatham continued to act as Coxe's representative and remained deeply involved in public affairs throughout the province as his de facto deputy. Some nineteenth-century historians subsequently described him as New Jersey's "missing governor."

His residence in Burlington served as a center of Catholic life in the colony. Jesuit missionaries traveling between New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland frequently stopped at his home, and contemporary evidence suggests that Mass was celebrated there as well. Historians have described the property as an important Catholic refuge and missionary station during a period when Catholic worship was often restricted elsewhere in English America.

Death Tatham died in July 1700. An inventory completed that year valued his estate at more than £3,765, making him one of the wealthiest men in colonial New Jersey at the time.