Rives, Robert

Summary

Father: William Rives
Mother: Mary Pegram

Birth: c1750
Birth Source: Reliques of the Rives

Death: 1807-1809, Dinwiddie County, Virginia
Death Source: Reliques of the Rives

Spouse1: Martha Peterson (Hardaway)

Narrative

Children of Robert Rives and Martha Peterson (Hardaway):

1. Robert Rives, b. c1778, m. Mary Rogers
2. Richard Augustus Rives, b. c1780
3. Thomas Rives, b. 3 Nov 1782
4. Benjamin Rives, b c1785
5. T. Hardaway Rives, b. c1788, d. bef 1817
6. Mary Rives, b. c1791, m. Robert Rogers
7. Clara Rives, b. c1793, m. Mr. Gill
8. Martha Peterson Rives, b. 2 Apr 1795, m. Thomas Jones Vaughan

From Reliques of the Rives:
Robert Rives, the owner of extensive estates in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, was born about 1750, and died in Dinwiddie 1807-09, where he resided through out his life. The destruction of almost all the early Dinwiddie county records makes it impossible to recite much concerning him.
With Thomas Henry Rives, his brother, he was co-executor of the estate of his father, William Rives, and was co-plaintiff with his brother in numerous suits in Dinwiddie in 1789 and subsequently which arose out of the settlement of the various claims which his father left.
The gradual growth of his land and slave holdings is not without interest. In 1782, the first year for which there are extant Dinwiddie county tax lists, Robert Rives appears as the owner of 440 acres of land, a holding which was increased to 1,000 acres in 1787 (with the distribution, no doubt, of the landed estate of his father), to 1,331 acres in the years 1794-98, to 1,434 acres in 1799, to 1,731 acres in 1801, and to 1,959 acres in 1807. In 1809 taxes were assessed against his landed holdings in the name of "Robert Rives' Estate." During this same period of time he was credited with 5 slaves in 1783, 7 in 1784, 9 in 1788, 10 in 1802, 11 in 1805, 12 in 1806, and 13 in 1807.
The home of Robert Rives was in Bath Parish, and comprised an estate now known as "Cedar Green," where five—and perhaps six—generations of the family have uninterruptedly resided.
Robert Rives married about 1777, Martha Peterson Hardaway, of Hardaway Mills on the Nottoway river, a member of one of the old and leading families of Eastern Virginia in Colonial times. Mrs. Martha Rives was descended from Thomas Hardaway who married Jane Drewry, of Drury's Bluff, and settled early in the 18th century at Osbornis in what is now Chesterfield—but which was then Prince George—county. "In 1733 the vestry of Bristol Parish, May 4th, met at the house of Mr. Thomas Hardaway, near the Chapel at the Ferry, and agreed to build a brick Church at Well's Hill." Thus was born Old Blandford Church, now an historic landmark of Petersburg, Virginia. Mr. Thomas Hardaway died in 1745. Of his sons, Thomas, born in 1715, married Agnes Peterson, of whom Martha Peterson Hardaway was the off-spring. Agnes Peterson was no doubt descended from John Peterson, a landowner in Prince George county, Virginia, in 1704.¹

Research Note

Reliques states that the eldest son, Robert, moved to Tennessee early in life and probably had a family. This needs further research.

Sources

Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives, p255
1782 Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1787A Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1787B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1788B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1789B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1790B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1791B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1792B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1793B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1794B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1795B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1796B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1797B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1798B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1799B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1800B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1801B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1802B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1803B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1804B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1805A Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1806A Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1807A Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia
1809B Land Tax List - Dinwiddie County, Virginia (Estate)
¹'For the Hardaway family, cf. Hubert, Thomas Hardaway and His Descendants.