The Mystery of Jane Reaves

A deed from page 185 of Deed Book 6 (April 1758 to April 1765) is recorded in the index of that book from Dobbs County, North Carolina. The index lists the grantor as Jane Reaves and grantee Charles Miller. The female name Jane has been questioned in transcriptions of this index and it has been theorized that the name may have actually been James.

In 1779 Wayne County was formed from the western portion of Dobbs and in 1791, most of the remainder of Dobbs was divided into Glasgow which is now Greene, and Lenoir Counties. Dobbs County then ceased to exist and its records along with those of early Johnston and other counties formed from Johnston - Wayne, Greene and Lenoir were placed at the Courthouse in Lenoir County. In 1878, a Courthouse fire in Kinston destroyed the Lenoir County Courthouse and almost all of these records. The only record that survived for Dobbs County was the original deed Grantee Index. Due to the loss of the deeds themselves, there has been no way to study the original deed to determine whether the name of the grantor was Jane, James or some other variation.

However, a recently discovered deed dated the 8th of November 1763 which is excerpted above, was found in the early unindexed deed books of Duplin County in Deed Book 1 at pages 359 and 360. This deed is from William Richeson to Jane Reaves for a tract of 200 acres. Sadly, no watercourses are named and the only landmark listed is by "John Young's path". The deed does mention that the property was originally granted to Patrick Stewart by patton (sic patent) dated the 29th of September, 1750.

A published history discovered for the Stewart family who came to North Carolina from Perthshire in Scotland better describes the location of the tract Jane Reaves bought from later owner William Richeson. This history states "On Sep. 29, 1750, Patrick (Stewart) was granted 200 acres on John Young's path between Six Runs and Goshen swamp in Sampson [then in Duplin] County." This information places the property between the Black River and the Northeast Cape Fear River. It also decreases the possibility that Jane was part of the family of William Reaves who was initially recorded in Dobbs County but in the part that became Wayne County and his tracts of land were just to the south of Seven Springs.

We still can't positively identify Jane Reaves, but this deed has certainly added much more information than just the brief mention in the Old Dobbs County deed index. Jane may have been a spinster or she could have been the widowed mother of Hardy Reaves who was a resident of Duplin County by 1770. Descendants of Hardy Reaves are still found in the Mt. Olive area close to the location of Jane's 200 acres. If Jane had a family connection to the Richeson family it is also of interest that a Hardy Richeson was found in a deed in this same area of Duplin County. We can only hope that sometime soon more extant records come to light in Duplin County that will resolve the mystery of Jane Reaves.

What became of William Reeves, Jr. of Granville?

For many years it was believed that William, son of William Reeves who died in Granville County in 1751 and patriarch of the Reeves of DNA Group 3, was the same individual who migrated to York, South Carolina around 1790 dying there in 1821. The idea that he lived to 1821 in itself is questionable since Bertie County NC records establish that he would have been born before about 1714 since he witnessed a deed in 1728/29. A 1728/29 deed from Ralph Mason to his father William Reeves was witnessed by William Jr. and since the age requirement to witness a deed was age 14 for a male (12 for a female) he must have been born before 1714/15. Additionally, he disappeared from the records of Granville County after, as William Reeves of Edgecombe, conveying 522 acres in Granville County to his brother Malachi on 29 May 1753.

The William Reeves who appears in subsequent records of Granville County would have been his nephew William, son of Malachi. Malachi's son William appears as his tithe on the 1755 tax lists of Granville County and again in 1762. In subsequent years William is listed in his own right as an adult in Granville records. Y-DNA of numerous descendants of this William Reeves and wife Elizabeth who later migrated to York, SC establish that he was from the Reeves lineage found in DNA Group 3.

Over the last few years several descendants of William Reaves of Wayne County, North Carolina have also proven to be descended from the Granville Reeves family based upon their Y-DNA results. Accordingly it can be assumed that they descend from William Reeves, Jr. The only other sons of William Reeves of Granville whose descendants, if any, are unaccounted for are sons Benjamin and Isaac. Benjamin may be the Benjamin Reeves who settled in Rowan County at about the same time his brother James Reeves and sons are listed on the tax lists of Rowan County. James' family was in a part of Rowan County that became Guilford where they are found subsequent to the 1770s and Benjamin continued to live in Rowan in the area that became Montgomery County. Isaac, once believed to be the Isaac Reeves who settled in Wilkes County, North Carolina in the 1770s, has proven to be from a completely different Reeves' lineage thanks to the Y-DNA of some of his descendants who are found in DNA Group 6C. Isaac, son of William Reeves of Granville, lived in a portion of Orange County adjoining Granville which was separated from Orange and became Caswell County. He appears to have left that area settling in Randolph County based upon a 1781 deed filed in Caswell County. This leaves William Reeves, Jr. as the most likely individual to be the patriarch of the Reaves family of Wayne County.

The loss of the records of extinct Dobbs County, North Carolina has been a great impediment to North Carolina genealogy. After Dobbs County ceased to exist in 1791, its records along with the early records of Johnston, Wayne, Greene, and Lenoir Counties were lost in a courthouse fire. In 1878, a Courthouse fire in Kinston destroyed almost all these records except the original Dobbs County grantee index. For some time it has been believed that William Reeves, Jr. is the individual of that name listed in the index of Deed Book 5 at page 638 in a deed from Andrew Bass to William Reeves dated between April 1757 and April 1758. The Andrew Bass family continued to be involved with William Reeves in area deeds as evidenced by a deed listed in the Dobbs deed index for Book 8, April 1769 to April 1771, where on page 241 William Reaves conveyed property to Andrew Bass, Jr and on page 247 Andrew Bass, Jr in turn conveyed land to William Reaves. The location of the property involved in these transactions is unknown since the only record is the index. Again on 2 Mar 1771 William Reeves witnessed an Andrew Bass "of Dobbs County" deed recorded in Duplin County Deed Book 3 at page 382-383.

Based on the loss of those Dobbs County records, it is beneficial that the earliest records of Duplin County are extant and contain many deeds by these same individuals recorded in Dobbs County. In many cases they are even identified as "of Dobbs County" in the deeds. These earliest deed books Volumes 1 through 4 are unindexed and require some extra effort to search but can be worth the time spent perusing them page by page on a rainy day.

On the 28th of February 1757 in Duplin County, a William Reaves who is possibly this individual witnessed a deed from Richard Odom to Nicholas Major [DB 2 p398-399]. He is also most likely the William "Reives" to whom Matthew Pridgen conveyed 100 acres on Jumping Run Creek in Duplin County on the 18th of August 1760 [DB 3 p80-81]. On 27 Jan 1764 a William Reeves signed as the seller on an ambiguous deed that is written as Thomas Carrell to Jesse Carrell with the notation "signer William Reeves". The deed conveys 100 acres on Jumping Run in Duplin County and is probably the tract purchased from Matthew Pridgen in 1760 [DB 1 p391-382]. Note: according to North Carolina records, Jumping Run Creek is located due south of Seven Springs on the north side of the NE Cape Fear River.

This is possibly the William Reeves recorded in the 1790 census of Dobbs County. The household only included one male and one female appearing to be an older couple although they could have been a young couple, newly married; however, there is no one in the area who fits that description based upon age. In 1791 the county was divided to make Glasgow (later named Greene) and Lenoir counties and Dobbs County ceased to exist.

Previous research has produced a reasonable belief that Hardy, the wife of William Reeves, Jr., was the daughter "Hardy" named in Charles Merritt's 1718 Chowan County will. Charles Merritt was a neighbor and associate of the William Reeves' family in Chowan County. Hardy is listed as the wife of William Reeves, Jr. in numerous deeds of Bertie and Edgecombe counties where they were residents until the 1740's when they were found in Granville County. It is noteworthy that members of this Merritt family also moved into Dublin County in the 1750s and 60s.

No records have yet been located that give the names of the children of William Reeves, Jr. William and Hardy surely had children after their marriage which took place around 1730 based on deed records that name Hardy as his wife. The William Reaves who appeared in Dobbs County in the 1760s and died in Wayne County in 1793 is probably their son. It seems unlikely that this younger William Reaves who died in 1793 is William Jr. Most of the children named in his 1790 will were born in the 1770s and would have been far too young for children born to Hardy although it does not definitely rule out a second wife.

There are still numerous questions to be answered regarding this family but little by little we learn more about William Reeves, Jr.

Surprises thru DNA

Recently several descendants of Hardy Reaves of Duplin County, North Carolina have completed Y-DNA tests. It had always been supposed that Hardy was in some way related to the family of William Reaves who died in Wayne County in 1793 since they were in close proximity and both lineages used the spelling "Reaves". Although William named no son Hardy in his 1790 will, there was always the chance that Hardy could have been a brother or nephew.

When the results of the first descendant to test were posted at Family Tree DNA, they came as a complete shock. Rather than matching DNA Group 3 members where the descendants of William Reaves of Wayne County are found, they matched DNA Group 8. Group 8 is comprised of descendants of Timothy Rives an early resident of Virginia. That family is covered in the book ''Reliques of the Rives'' by James Rives Childs in which the author traces Timothy's lineage back to Robert Ryves of Randleston and Damory Court in Blandford Forum, England.

The earliest residents of this area of North Carolina appear to have been recorded in Dobbs County which was formed in 1758 from Johnston County. In 1779 the western part of Dobbs County became Wayne County. In 1791 Dobbs County was divided by the North Carolina legislature into Glasgow County which was later renamed Greene County and Lenoir County, after which Dobbs County ceased to exist. Sadly, the records of these counties were destroyed by fire on 15 October 1873 after having been moved to the Lenoir County Courthouse. This loss of records has adversely impacted research of the Reaves families of both Wayne and Duplin Counties. The only Dobbs County records that survived the fire were an original grantee deed index and some early tax records.

Thanks to those extant records we do know that there were several Reeves/Reaves living in Dobbs County by sometime between April 1757 and April 1758 when a William Reaves and a Thomas Reaves were recorded in that index. In the index of April 1765 to April 1769 a Drury Reaves and Timothy Reaves are recorded. Timothy Reaves is currently unidentified but Drury may have been from the DNA Group 8 family since the name Drury is used repeatedly in that lineage. Drury Reeves/Reaves migrated further south to Darlington, South Carolina where he died intestate in 1792.

Duplin County was formed in 1750 from New Hanover County and is located just to the south of Wayne County and adjacent to Dobbs County on it's southwestern side. Hardy Reaves is first recorded in Duplin County on the 17th of October, 1770 when a summons was issued by the sheriff of Duplin County to value a horse which was the property of Hardy Reaves. The document states this was in the course of a sute (sic suit) by Stephen Herring. The horse was valued at twenty pounds and the reverse side of the summons has been signed with Hardy Reaves mark on that same date. The document was the only thing found in what was recorded as an estate file for Hardy Reaves.
It is unclear exactly which Hardy Reaves this document pertains to and there appear to be two different individuals by that name in early Duplin County. In the 1790 census, there are two Hardy Reaves recorded in Duplin County. One Hardy Reaves is listed with a household consisting of 4 Males over 16, 4 Males under 16 and 5 Females on page 44 of the census listing of James Kenan. Another Hardy Reeves is listed on page 40 of that same census listing with a household containing 2 Males over 16, 3 Males under 16 and 5 females. Since the total persons in the households differ, presumably there were two Hardy Reaves living in fairly close proximity in Duplin County but this could also be the result of errors by census enumerators. One of these Hardy Reaves is undoubtedly the parent of the next generation Hardy Reaves born 1785.

Hardy Reaves who is the documented ancestor of the individuals who have tested matching DNA Group 8 was born circa 1785 and died before January 1862 in Duplin County where probate records record the identities of his nine (9) children. Hopefully current research of this family will eventually be able to establish a connection to the Rives family of the southside of Virginia and document that relationship.

Interesting New Developments

In the earliest days of this blog, I added a post regarding the Reaves family of Wayne County, North Carolina whose origins prior to their arrival in Old Dobbs County have been a mystery. Thanks to DNA, that mystery may finally be solved. Two participants in the Reeves DNA Project who descend from William Reaves of Wayne County have now matched DNA Group 3. DNA Group 3 includes the descendants of William Reeves who died in Granville County, North Carolina in 1751.

Wayne County, North Carolina Area

The fact that their origins have previously been unknown probably stems from the 1878 courthouse fire at Kinston in Lenoir County which destroyed all the records housed there. Dobbs County had been formed from the eastern portion of Johnston County in 1758 and in 1791, Wayne County from the western portion of Dobbs. The records of early Johnston and other counties formed from Johnston - Wayne, Greene and Lenoir Counties, were placed at the courthouse there and all were lost in that fire. The only exception was the original grantee deed index from Old Dobbs County.

With this new DNA evidence, we are presented with the question of how the Reaves of Wayne County are related to the family of William Reeves who died in Granville County in 1751. Previously William Reeves, Jr. of that family was believed to have been the individual by that name who died in 1821 in York County, South Carolina. However, the William Reeves who died in South Carolina would have been well past 100 years old if that were the case since he must have been born about 1710. It is far more likely that a generation has been missed and the William Reeves with wife Elizabeth who died in York, South Carolina was the son or nephew of William Reeves, Jr. Recent research of the probate, tax and deed records of Granville County has established that the William Reeves who was present in the records of Granville County from around 1755 as a tithe of Malachi Reeves was undoubtedly Malachi's son. From 1755 when he is first listed, until November of 1796 when he is recorded in a deed transaction wherein he sold 257 acres on Tabbs Creek to John Hall (Deed Book P, p.342) before leaving for South Carolina, he is the only William Reeves in the records of Granville County.

William Reeves, Jr. along with his wife Hardy was often recorded in the deed records of Edgecombe County from at least 1740 and continued to be found in deeds there until the 1750's. As William Reeves of Edgecombe County, he was last found in the records of Granville County in May of 1753 when he sold 525 acres on Fishing Creek (Deed Book B, p.243-244) to his brother Malachi. His absence in the Granville and Edgecombe County records coincides with the appearance of William Reaves in the records of Old Dobbs County around 1758 based upon the extant deed indexes of Old Dobbs.

1790 Will of William Reaves of Wayne County

 These recent DNA results may indicate that some of the Reaves' individuals found in Old Dobbs and later in Wayne County were descendants of William Reeves, Jr., previously of Edgecombe County and that William Reaves may even have been his son. Hopefully records in the surrounding counties that were not destroyed in the Lenoir courthouse fire can be found to provide more documentation for this family.

Reeves/Reaves Research Project

In the past, a fellow Reeves’ researcher, Richard Reeves, and I have consolidated our efforts in searching the records of York County, South Carolina for Reeves information and were able to resolve many mysteries in addition to identifying several misconceptions and fallacies in the previously held theories of the Reeves family who migrated there from Granville County, North Carolina. We’ve also searched all of the available records of Granville County for more information on that family.

There actually are many original documents that contain previously undiscovered information in the tax records, deed and will books when a detailed search of the available records is conducted. And if there are also estate files such as we found to be available in the York, South Carolina files now online at www.familysearch.org, they are a goldmine.

We are now planning to start systematically reviewing and researching the extant records of the southeastern portion of North Carolina, primarily Wayne, Green and Duplin counties as well as any surviving records from Old Dobbs County in an attempt to learn more about the Reaves family who settled there around 1750. That Reaves family’s origins are a mystery that we would like to attempt to resolve. We may not find all the answers but you never know what great new discoveries are hiding in the reels of microfilm. Once we learn more about the Reaves of the Wayne County area, we plan to move on to those in Brunswick County who are similarly a puzzle.

Family Search hasn’t been able to upload all of the copies of original records to their site as yet, but they microfilmed them in the past and those films can be rented for a small fee and viewed at their LDS Family History Centers.

Richard has developed a list of the documents available on microfilm and online from Family Search, such as:

Dobbs County, crown patents, 1759-1775 – Microfiche 1997. 3 microfiche.

Duplin County, Court 1Minutes 1784-1793 FHL US/CAN Film 18804

Wayne County, Minutes, 1787-1868, (1 unlabeled volume) 1787-1794 FHL US/CAN Film 1730559

Wayne County, Wills, accounts, inventories, and sales of estates, 1807-1957; indexes, 1782-1965, 1782-1965

We’re going to upload the list of microfilm reels and share it on Google Documents while we work together to rent the films, then copy and transcribe any and all Reeves documents we find. Any other Reeves/Reaves/Rives/Reavis researchers who would like to participate as we search the surviving records of North Carolina for more Reeves’ information may contact Richard or Beverly and we can share the file with you on Google or make other arrangements to share it if you don’t have a Google account.

Reeves' Mysteries - the Reaves of Southeastern North Carolina

There are far more Reeves' family lineages of unknown origin than those whose immigrant ancestor has been established. The Reeves DNA Project has identified many families who share a common ancestor, even though that ancestor is currently unknown. That is not the case for the Reaves families of Duplin, Wayne, Brunswick and Columbus counties of southeastern North Carolina, no records have been found of them before their arrival in this area around 1750 or to positively confirm their relationship to each other.


The first record of several of these Reaves families is in the now extinct North Carolina county of Dobbs where the deed indexes record both William Reaves and Thomas Reaves owning property in 1757. Sadly, only the deed indexes remain of the Dobbs County records. Other Reaves listed in those indexes over the span of the next 20 years include Jane (or James?), Joseph, Drury, Timothy and Reuben.

Dobbs County was formed from the eastern portion of Johnston County in 1758 and in 1791, Wayne County from the western portion of Dobbs. The records of early Johnston and other counties formed from Johnston - Wayne, Greene and Lenoir Counties, were placed at the courthouse in Lenoir County. In 1878, a courthouse fire in Kinston destroyed almost all of these records except the original grantee index. The loss of these records is undoubtably the reason this family's origins remain an enigma.

There is a deed dated April of 1757 and recorded in the index of Book 5 (Page 638) from Andrew Bass to William Reaves. The 1790 Wayne County will of William Reaves contains a reference to land he purchased from Andrew Bass which confirms his identity as the same William Reaves recorded in this Dobbs County index. Sons of William Reaves named in that 1790 will are found in Wayne County as well as Duplin where a Hardy Reaves who appears to be related was recorded in the census of 1790 and 1800.

The families of Brunswick and Columbus counties descend from brothers Joel and Solomon Reaves whose parents are believed to be William Reaves and Prudence Harralson. Prudence Harralson was the daughter of Paul Harralson II, a resident of Edgecombe County circa 1730-50, who was associated in deeds with William Reeves, Jr. the son of William Reeves who died in Granville County in 1751. Whether that has any significance in establishing their ancestry is unknown.

There are currently no participants from these families in the Reeves DNA Project. Hopefully someday that will change providing clues to their origins and possibly help solve this Reeves' mystery.

(Photo by Mark Stanley for Findagrave.)