[1] He had no formal training in law, but he was one of the first men appointed to serve as a judge on the Cherokee Tribal Court, which was established in 1822.
In 1837, he removed from Georgia to Indian Territory, where he was elected as the first Chief Justice of the newly created Cherokee Supreme Court in 1839.
Her first husband was Captain John Stuart, an officer in the colonial army during the French-Indian War and an Indian agent during the American Revolution.
He was appointed as a member of the Cherokee delegation to Washington, D. C. in that year, and was a signer of the Calhoun Treaty on February 27, 1819, which ceded the land where his Sautee plantation was located to the United States.
[3] The Georgia Guard, the state militia, entered the former Cherokee territory early in 1831, ostensibly to keep intruders out of the area.
"[3] The first Cherokee Land Lottery was held October 22, 1832, and included Martin's plantations (Coosawatie and one on Salequoyah (Salacoa) Creek.
[d] Coosawattee, where Martin lived with wife Nellie McDaniel, was the larger plantation, with 28 buildings and 300 acres (120 ha) under cultivation, plus apple and peach orchards.
Salequoyah, where he lived with his other wife, Nellie's sister Lucy McDaniel, had 11 buildings and 110 acres (45 ha) under cultivation.
"[5] However, the Martins vacated the plantation in February 1835, and moved to a house in present-day Bradley County, Tennessee, a few miles above the Georgia state line.
Martin had tried to remain neutral and continue his work as a tribal leader, but he came to believe that Ross' efforts were doomed to failure.
The last straw of harassment came when U. S. soldiers under General John E. Wool surrounded his house one night while he was meeting with several other members of the Cherokee Grand Council, arrested them and confiscated all the account books and other official documents in their possession In March 1837, Judge Martin and one of his sons-in-law led a group of three hundred Cherokee families on an overland trek to the West.
Initially, he had believed that his white skin, blond hair, blue eyes and fluency in English would save his family from the abuses directed at his people.
A few months later in the same year, the U.S. government sold the Tennessee property, plus the 689 acres (279 ha) of land to settler George Hambright and his wife for $12,500.
[4][g] The Martins established a new home on the Saline River in Indian Territory, near the present town of Locust Grove, Oklahoma.
Judge Martin was elected as the first Chief Justice of the reconstituted Cherokee Supreme Court in Indian Territory.
He was responsible for receiving and disbursing funds paid to the tribe by the U.S. Government, collecting debts owed to the nation by individuals, leasing turnpikes and ferries within the Cherokee Nation's boundaries, He continued to serve as Treasurer until he and his family emigrated to Indian Territory in 1837.
[3] His obituary in the Arkansas Gazette said that Judge Martin died of "brain fever" on October 17, 1840, near Fort Gibson in Indian Territory.