Rives, Moses

Summary

Father: Timothy Rives
Mother: Hester Turner

Birth: c1742, Brunswick Co., Virginia
Birth Source: Reliques of the Rives

Death: After 1779, Brunswick Co., Virginia, or Georgia
Death Source: Brunswick Co., VA, Court Order Book

Spouse1: Unknown

Narrative

Children of Moses Rives:

1. John Rives
2. Joseph Rives
3. Sarah Rives

Brunswick County, Virginia Court orders from a court held on 24 Aug 1778 states the following:

Ordered that the Church Wardens of Mahenin Parish bind out John, Joseph and Sarah Rives poor children of Moses Rives according to Law.

From Reliques of the Rives:
Moses Rives was born about 1742, presumably in Brunswick county, Virginia, and would seem to have removed subsequently to South Carolina with his family, together with his brothers, William, Robert, and Timothy, and the children of his deceased brother, Simon. In 1765 and in 1769 he was in a suit in Brunswick brought against Edward Wyndham. His land is mentioned on January 8, 1767, as adjoining that of William Rives, as well as on May 13, 1771. In 1774 he was the surety in Brunswick for Simon Rives. In the Brunswick Order Book 13, p. 216, there is the following entry: "William Rives produced his account for necessaries furnished the children of Moses Rives, a Continental soldier, amounting to £21 :15:8." This was on August 24, 1778. His wife may have been the Elizabeth Rives who witnessed the will of William Rives in South Carolina in 1783

The only known record of a Moses Rives serving in the Continental line during the Revolution is of an individual who served in the 3rd Georgia Battalion. Although the geographical location seems odd, it often happened that an individual might travel in a military unit to another state and re-enlist in that state at the end of the initial period of service. This seems to have been the case with Moses Rives. On a list headed "Paid Lieut. Thomas Glascock the Within Men's Pay on Acct. of Major Fran. Moore Vizt" appears the name of Moses Reives, apparently a private, with the notation that he was paid $40.00 for 6 months service. This list is dated 21 July 1779 and indicates that the money had been authorized by the Pay Master of the Georgia Brigade. The next document, also dated July 21, 1779, at Silver Bluff, and written by Francis Moore is addressed to Pay Master Hendly and reads: "Pleas to pay to Lieut. Glascock the pay due the under Mentioned Men, as I have given them furloughs to go to Virginia. I promised to get their pay for them. I will be accountable to them and this will idemnify you. N.B. the men's names are....3 Regt Moses Rieves." This does not conclusively prove that the Moses Reeves serving in the Georgia line in 1779 was the Moses Rives of Brunswick County, Virginia, but it strongly supports that possibility. Ostensibly Moses would have been returning to Virginia to visit the children mentioned in the 1778 order.

Reliques speculates that Moses went to South Carolina. It further speculates that he was the father of William Reeves who married Rhoda Duke; however, that William's pension statement in support of his brother Daniel Reeves's pension application makes it clear that he was a son of John Reeves and wife Nancy.

A Moses Reaves is listed as a private in Major John Harrison's Corps, SC Rangers, near Camden SC, 1780-81, a loyalist company. It lists that he died 11 Jan 1781. It appears unlikely that he is the other Moses Reeves in the area as that Moses apparently received a grant in 1790.

Research Notes

Magazine of Virginia Genealogy, Vol. 28, No. 4, p. 262, contains abstract of Virginia land grants, including one dated 20 August 1747 in which Moses Reaves obtained 233 acres on both sides of Fox's Branch in Brunswick County joining Simon Turner. This suggests that either there was an older Moses (born by c. 1726) or that Moses was older than indicated in Reliques of the Rives. Reliques also notes that there is no known proof that Moses and Simon were sons of Timothy and Hester Rives; the placement is based on the fact that Moses owned land adjacent Timothy, that the name Simon was used by the Turner family, and that Simon Rives and Moses Rives seem to have had a close relationship.

Some researchers have suggested that Moses Rives is identical with Moses Reeves of Chester, Lancaster, and Kershaw Counties, SC. This seems unlikely has been proven false by identification of the connection of that family to Revolutionary soldier Daniel Reeves. Additionally DNA matches for members of the Reeves' family of Lancaster and Kershaw counties place them in DNA Group 10 and link them to the Reeve family of Prince William County, Virginia while the DNA results of the Rives family of Brunswick County, Virginia place them in DNA Group 8.

Sources

Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives, p134
U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, Roll 32, Images 99-101 (at ancestry.com).
Loyalists in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War, p. 103
Brunswick County, Virginia - Order Book 9 (1765)
FamilySearch - Brunswick County, Virginia - Order Book 13, p219
FamilySearch - 1747 Patent to Moses Reaves - 233 acres in Brunswick County - Virginia Land Patents Vol. 26, p90