Thomas Tunbridge

TUNBRIDGE, TOM - A white man who married a captured French woman. Captor of Rev. Joseph Brown. Irishman. Was he part Indian? Married Polly Mallett, a French woman who lived among the Cherokee, as her 2nd husband; they had no children together. Stepfather ? of Kiachatalee “Kittakiska”

http://www.prophecykeepers.com/chickamaugacherokee/heartoftheeagle....

Heart of the Eagle, pg 173;

"Kiachatalee: He was from Nickajack. Name also spelled Kittegiska and Kitegisky, which means "he shot two." A seceding headman in 1777. He was Tom Tunbridge's step son, and of French Cherokee descent. Went to peace talk with Governor William Blount in 1792. Killed at Buchannan's Station on 30 September 1792. Kiachatalee “Kittakiska”

From link to The American Whig Review, Volume 9; Volume 15. “Historical Traditions of Tennessee.” Page 239 link

At the time of this outrage [1788], there was living at or near Nickajack, a French trader named Thomas Tunbridge, who was married to a white woman, who had been taken prisoner near Mobile, when an infant, and raised by the Indians. After she was grown, she was exchanged, but refused to leave the Indians, distrusting her abilities to adapt her habits to civilized life. She had been married to an Indian brave, by whom she had a son, now twenty-two years old, who was one of the boldest warriors of the Cherokee towns. He had already killed six white men in his forays to the Cumberland settlement. Having all the versatility of his mother's race, as well as the ferocity and courage of his father, he was fast rising into distinction as a warrior, and bade fair to reach the first honors of his nation. His praises for daring and chivalry were in the mouths of all. His mother was now growing old, and having no young children, her son desired to present to her some bright-eyed boy as a slave; for, according to the savage code of the times, each captive became a slave to his captor. This woman's son, whose name was Kiachatalee, was one of the leaders of the marauding party who had seized upon Brown's boat, and from the first knew the fate of the party. Before tho boat landed, he tried to induce Joseph, a boy then fifteen years old, but quite small, to get into his canoe, with the intention of withdrawing him from the general massacre that was soon to take place, but the boy would not go with him. ...

Citations

• The Cherokee Struggle to Maintain Identity in the 17th and 18th ...https://books.google.com › William R. Reynolds, Jr. · 2015 · History Page 255 Irish deserter from the British Army.
• Miller, C. (1973). The Joseph Brown Story: Pioneer and Indian in Tennessee History. Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 32(1), 22-41. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42623356