Rives, Thomas Henry

Summary

Father: William Rives
Mother: ? Mary Pegram

Birth: c 1740, Prince George County, Virginia
Birth Source: Various records of Prince George & Dinwiddie Counties

Death: 1809, Chatham County, North Carolina
Death Source: WB A, Pg 138, Chatham County Probate Records

Spouse1: Eleanor Neal, m. 24 Nov 1764, Amelia County, Virginia
Spouse2: Mary Edwards, m. c1769

Narrative

Children of Thomas Rives and Eleanor Neal:

1. Johanna Rives, c1765, m. Terisha Turner
2. William McGuffey Rives, 24 Dec 1767

Children of Thomas Rives and Mary Edwards:

1. Thomas Rives, c1770
2. Martha Rives, c1772, m. James McMath
3. Mary Rives, c1774, m. Robert Wilkinson
4. Edwards Rives, 19 Mar 1775
5. Rebecca Rives, c1778, m. Abraham Gerred
6. John Rives, c1780
7. Reuben Rives, c1781

From Reliques of the Rives:
Thomas Henry was born presumably in Prince George county, Virginia. Until the death of his first wife he evidently made his home with his father in Bath Parish in Dinwiddie county. removing‘ between 1770 and 1780 to Mecklenburg county, Virginia, where in 1782 he was the head of a family of nine whites and the owner of thirteen slaves. In that year there were 1,054 families in Mecklenburg, of whom not quite two-thirds, or 626 to be exact, were slaveholders. Of these, 105 families possessed more than thirteen slaves; the largest slaveowners in the county being Francis Ruffin with 92, Robert Munford with 91, Mary Burwell with 88, Sir Peyton Skipwith with 82, and Thomas Feild with 50. Thomas Rives removed from Mecklenburg after 1790 to Warren county, N. C., and thence to Chatham county, N. C., where he was residing in 1800, the owner of 20 slaves.
Thomas Henry Rives married in Amelia county, Virginia, November 24, 1764, Eleanor Neal, daughter of David Neal of that county who, on May 23, 1768, deeded to his “two grandchildren William Rives and Joannah Rives, son and daughter to Thomas Rives, four negroes and their increase, named Phillis, Dusillah, Doll and Marriah after me and my wife’s decease, to be equally divided between them.” Mrs. Eleanor (Neal) Rives evidently died upon, or shortly after, the birth of her second child for her husband married, about 1769, Mary Edwards. The will of Thomas Henry Rives, in which he disposed of some 33 slaves and other property, was dated June 10, 1807, and proved February 1809, in Chatham county, N. C., as follows: (extracted)

From the Court Minutes of Chatham County, North Carolina, February Sessions of 1805, Thomas Rives was a Justice of the Peace in that county:
"Ordered that Thomas Rives as a Justice of the Peace and the following three Freeholders Jacob McDaniel, Samuel McDaniel and Jacob Teague lay off and appropriate to Peggy Teague widow and Relict of Edward Teague decd one years provisions and report to next Court."

Sources

Marriage1:  FamilySearch - Virginia, Vital Records, 1715-1901

1800 Census:  Hillsborough, Chatham County, North Carolina

Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives, p154
Chatham Co., NC Court Minutes, Feb 1805
1768 Deed - David Neal to William & Joannah Reeves - Amelia County, Virginia Deed Book 9, p351
1807 Will - Thomas Rives - Chatham County, North Carolina Will Book A, p138