Person:George Rives (2)

Born in 1660, a fact obtained from his deposition made in 1719. He was a seaman, a captain. He gave his age as 59 years. He was a trader who braved not only the perils of the sea, but the pirates who infested the coast of America in the latter half of the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries. There were 2,000 or more pirates between Maine and Florida. In addition there were as many more who used the Bahamas as their base of operations. George Rives' deposition was given on 8 Sept. 1719 in the County of Prince George, as follows: George Rives, age 59 years or thereabouts deposeth that in the month of April last while he was trading in the Province of South Carolina, he did both see and oftentimes did converse with a runaway malatta (sic) man slave named Jack, belonging to Samuel Harwood, the younger, of Charles City County, VA. The said slave came into that Province in the company of Mr. Robert Hix, and other traders, as the traders informed this deponant that the said malatta slave man there goes by the name of John Bunch, and would have returned home to his master, but was forcibly detained in the Province by one, Capt. How, and other traders there. This deponent further saith that he very well knows that said runaway slave to belong to the said Harwood and for some years past did live upon the plantation on the poplar swamp under him, and further saith not. This 8th day of Sept. 1719. Signed with his mark X. Mr Robert Hix was a well known Indian Interpreter and trader in Virginia at this time. He married a daughter of William Rives who died in Granville County, NC in 1751. Neither George nor his brothers left county records to prove land ownership, but most of the Prince George records were destroyed. George must have been a man of considerable means. He established the family in Prince George and Isle of Wight.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Compiler: Various Reeves researchers. Compiled Reeves Research, Url: http:/www.reevesregistry.com. (16 Dec. 2002).
2. ↑ Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives (Ryves): being historical and genealogical notes of the ancient family of Ryves of County Dorset and of the Rives of Virginia, an essay: sociological and historical, of a family's contribution to making of a nation. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1986)
   pp. 77-79.