Rives, Stephen Turner

Summary

Father: William McGuffey Rives
Mother: Mary Catherine Turner

Birth: 10 Nov 1788, Amherst Co., Virginia
Birth Source: Reliques of the Rives

Death: May-Oct 1835, Montgomery Co., Tennessee
Death Source: Will and Probate

Spouse1: Sophia Meeks Cannon, m. c1815

Narrative

Children of Stephen Turner Rives and Sophia Meeks Cannon:

1. Henry Archer Rives, b. 26 Dec 1816
2. John Williams Rives, b. 3 Dec 1818
3. Robert Rives, b. c1820
4. Richard Bullard Rives, b. c1823
5. Elizabeth Susan Rives, b. 2 May 1825, m. George Turner
6. James Duncan Rives, b. 28 Feb 1827
7. Reuben Ross Rives, b. 25 Dec 1828
8. Rebecca Ann Rives, b. 22 June 1830, m. Capt. Samuel R. White
9. Stephen Turner Rives, b. 17 Oct 1838

From Reliques of the Rives:
Stephen Turner Rives was born in Amherst county, Virginia, November 10, 1788, and was brought up in Warren county, North Carolina. About 1815 he married in Granville county, North Carolina, Sophia Meeks Cannon, daughter of James Cannon, of Dublin, Ireland, and his wife, Mary Duncan Porteus, of England. Sophia Meeks Cannon was about fourteen years old at the time of her marriage. “Her father, Samuel James Cannon, an Irish boy, ran away with Mary Duncan Porteus, of London, a girl of noble birth,” Hallie Erminie Rives (Mrs. Post Wheeler) writes. “They came on a sailing vessel to Quebec and went to Granville county, N. C. Sophy was the fourth of six children. Horace was the youngest. Within a week of each other Samuel and Mary Cannon died, both under thirty-two. Helen, the eldest, twelve years old, found herself very poor and alone with this motherless fatherless brood. Two Quakers asked Helen for the baby (a month old) and Helen gave him to them. That was Horace, the father of Joseph G. Cannon, four times Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States and forty—sixyears Member of Congress. My grandfather Stephen, his brother Thomas, his brother Robert, his brother James, and his sister Sally who married William Moss of Virginia, moved to Kentucky and Tennessee and settled along the state line road, my grandfather on the Tennessee, Montgomery county side, and the others on the Kentucky, Christian county side. I can see that old state line road yet, with its hedges of osage oranges, its deep oak woods, its broad fields, and square eightroom white houses, with their wings and ‘quarters,’ and round post porticoes.”
The date of Stephen Turner Rives’ removal to Montgomery county, Tennessee has been given me as 1825. He died in 1840 of paralysis, and he and his wife are buried on the Tillottson plantation. about fifteen miles from Clarksville, Tennessee, near Old Providence, the property now being known as “Carneal.”

Reliques is incorrect in its statement that Stephen Rives died in 1840. The will of Stephen Rives was written in 1835, and his brother Thomas was made the executor on 20 Oct 1835. Robert Rives and William Davie signed the appointment. (WB G, p246)

Stephen's brother Thomas was made guardian of his children in 1837. A later record also mentions his guardianship of Stephen's minor heir Stephen in February 1852. (WB M, p447)

Sources

Death:      1835 Will - Stephen Rives - Montgomery County, Tennessee, Will Book G, p264, 246
History:    Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives, p160
                   Montgomery County, Tennessee Will Book M, p447
                   1837 Gaurdianship Bond - Montgomery County, Tennessee Will Book H, p1
Census:    1830 Census - Montgomery County, Tennessee
                   1840 Census - Montgomery County, Tennessee (HOH - Sophia)