Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/277

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY


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from 1884 until his death, which occurred in 1911, he was engaged in farming. He raised a family of eight children, three of whom were girls, and five were boys, Roder- ick being the oldest. At the beginning of the civil war, he enlisted under the command of Captain Pelham, was with him when the latter was killed, and was himself severely wounded, causing the loss of his right leg, in an engagement at Blackburn's Ford, Prince William, county, in July, 1863.

Roderick Triplett, in 1904, married Lelia Estelle Jackson, daughter of J. Tyler Jack- son, of Charlottesville, Virginia. They have four children, all boys.

Henry Adams Tabb. The Tabb family is one of the oldest in Virginia, and is now represented in many sections of the United States. It was active during the revolution, was prominent in the Episcopal church, and the name is found associated with all the best movements in the history of the Old Dominion.

Humphrey Tabb was in Virginia as early as 1637, and patented land on Harris creek, in Elizabeth City county, in that year. In the following year he patented additional land, and in 1656 nine hundred acres more. In 165 1 he had a grant of one thousand acres in Northumberland county, but probablv never lived upon it. He was burgess for Elizabeth City in 1652, and died before 1662. In that year the nine hundred acres on Harris creek were re-entered in the name of his son and heir, Thomas Tabb. His wife's name was Joanna, and only one child is known. The son, Thomas Tabb, died be- fore February 17, 1696, as shown by a re- ceipt from his son. His w^idow Martha be- came the second wife of Edmund Sweney, who turned over to the son, Thomas Tabb, his father's estate and cattle received from the son's grandmother, Joanna Tabb, as shown by the receipt above named, Thomas Tabb had children : Humphrey, Thomas, John, A\'illiam. Edward and Elizabeth.

The third son, John Tabb, married Alartha, daughter of Richard and Frances (Purefy) Hand, the latter being a daughter of Thomas Purefy, whose father. Captain Thomas Purefy, was justice of Elizabeth City in 1628-29, burgess, 1629-30, councillor, 1631-32. Through his marriage John Tabb received property from the estate of Rich- ard Hand. He is known to have had two

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sons : Thomas, of Amelia county, and Ed- ward.

Edward Tabb settled in Gloucester county, on his farm Toddsbury. By his wife Lucy he had a son Philip, who married Alary Alason Booth, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Wythe. They had four sons: Thomas Tabb. of Toddsbury ; John, of White Marsh; Philip Edward, of \\'averly, and Henry Wythe.

Henry Wythe Tabb, of Auburn, the youngest son of Philip and Mary (Booth) Tabb, was born July 3, 1791, at Toddsbury, in Gloucester county. He prepared for col- lege under the tutorship of Jeremiah Evarts (Yale, 1808), at New Haven, Connecticut, and, entering Yale, was graduated in Sep- tember. 1813. Following this, he pursued the study of medicine during two winters at Philadelphia, and in the spring of 1815, after visiting England and the continent of Europe, returned to Eiigland. He left Nor- folk for England on the ship "Philip Tabb," owned and commanded by his brother, Philip E. Tabb. being the first passenger from the United States to England after the Treaty of Peace between the two countries. He studied six months at a London hospital. For the succeeding six months he was as- sistant to Henry Cline Jr., surgeon at St. Thomas Hospital. London, then graduated at the Royal College of Surgeons under Sir Astley Cooper, the most celebrated English surgeon. He visited the medical schools of Edinburg, Dublin, and Paris, and in 1818, settled at Richmond. Virginia, and enr-,aged in practice of surgery and medicine. Ii: 1821 he removed to Auburn, Matthews county, Virginia, where he practiced many years, and also managed his plantations, dying September, 1863, in his seventy-third year. He married (first) in 1821, Hester Van- Bibber, of Matthews county, which was the cause of his settling at Auburn, near her birthplace. She died February, 1823, with- out issue, and he married (second) in Jtily, 1828. Martha Tompkins, who died Septem- ber 17, 1842. He married (third) ia Brook- lyn, New York, October 6. 1846, Ellen A. Foster, born 1829, in Massachusetts, died in 1858. One son and four daughters were born of the second marriage. The son and third daughter died in infancy. The issue of the third marriage was two sons and three daughters ; the second son and second daughter died in early youth.