William Foster Rives

William Rives was born presumably in Prince George county, Virginia, about 1712, the son of Col. William and Elizabeth Rives, of the same county. With Benjamin Rives, he patented on January 10, 1735, 500 acres of land n Amelia County which was formed on September 30, 1734, from Prince George and Brunswick counties.In a deed dated November 12, 1746, and recorded in Amelia on March 20, 1746/7, William Rives and Benjamin Rives of the County of Prince George deeded the above-mentioned 500 acres to George Currie.

He evidently resided in that part of Prince George county from which Dinwiddie county was formed in 1752: for, in a survey made in Dinwiddie on March 28, 1771, of 1,312 acres "lying on both sides of and near the heads of Saponey Creek and in the Parish of Bath and County of Dinwiddie," reference is made to "two white oaks near William Reeves's." In 1782 he appears as the owner in Dinwiddie of 466 acres of land, valued at Í?175, and of 11 slaves, 8 horses, and 33 head of cattle.

He died in Bath Parish in 1786 about 25 miles south of Petersburg, and left a will which has perished in the destruction of the Dinwiddie county records.