Eleanor's Family Tree:Information about William Rives
William Rives (b. 1712, d. 1786)
Notes for William Rives:
Willaim Rives, son of Col William and Elizabeth Rives, was presumably born in Prince George County, Virginia.His name is mentioned in deeds for land on the lower side of the Lazaretta Fork of the Little Nottaway River.He evidently resided in that part of Prince George County from which Dinwiddie County was formed in 1752.In 1782 he appears as the owner in Dinwiddie of 466 acres of land, valued at 175 pounds and of 11 slaves, 8 horses and 33 head of cattle.In that year andin 1783 he was one of 633 slave owners in his county of whom 95 had one slave only, 66 had two, 71 had three, 45 four, and 50 five slaves. No less than 60 had 21 or more negroes; so that, while William Rives possessed considerably more than the average number of slaves, he was not one of the large slaveholders of the county.It must be remembered, however, that in 1782 he was already within his alloted three score years and ten, and that after the custom of the time he had no doubt reduced his salveholdings by gifts to his children as they successively established their own homes or removed, as his son Thomas had done, to another county.He died in Bath Parish in 1786 "about 25 miles south of Petersburg," and left a Will which has perished in the destruction of the Dinwiddie County records.
Children of William Rives and Miss Pegram are:
- Thomas Henry Rives, b. 1740, d. date unknown.
- +Robert Rives, b. 1750, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, d. 1807.
- ? Rives, b. 1752, d. date unknown.