Another Reeves' Mystery Solved?

The origins of John Reeves who died in Craven County, North Carolina in 1790 have previously been a mystery but recent Y Chromosome DNA tests of a direct descendant have identified another Reeves with whom he shares 37 of 37 markers indicating a close family connection. See previous post Craven County's John Reeves from 2012. Not only is it exciting to finally find the origins of John Reeves of Craven County, but also to identify the DNA of the Reeves of Charles and St. Mary's Counties in Maryland. There was a large Reeves' presence in those counties during the 18th century yet this is the first time a descendant from that lineage has tested.

Southern Maryland
Charles and St. Mary's Counties

The Reeves' individual who is a 37/37 match to the descendant of John Reeves of Craven County descends from Josias Reeves who migrated to Ohio where he died in Pickaway County in 1841. Josias was the son of Thomas Reeves and Mary Murphy of Charles County, Maryland. This individual has not joined the Reeves DNA Project but when FtDNA's complete database was searched they were found to have the previously mentioned 37/37 match to the descendant of John Reeves' of Craven County NC.

John Reeves' will was written on the 13th of July in 1790 and he was deceased by September of that year when it was probated, leaving his wife Courtney, their two small children, Jestenon, Francis and another child that would be born after his death, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Reeves. Older children by a first wife are named in that will as Elizabeth Cheshire, Jean Reeves and Mary Wilson. The identity of his first wife is unknown but he married a second time to the widow Mrs. Courtney Taylor Reed sometime after 10 July 1783 when she made a purchase at the estate sale of Frederick Foster in Craven County, North Carolina as "Courtney Reed".

A St. Mary's County deed of 16 Nov 1772 between John Reeves and Justinian Jordan refers to John Reeves as “of Halifax County in the Colony of North Carolina but now in St. Mary's County in Maryland” has interested me since I happened upon it some years ago. The use of the unusual name "Jestenon" (sic Justinion ?) for his child seemed to be another indication of a connection between the John Reeves of Craven NC and John Reeves of Halifax NC/Charles MD. John Reeves was the son of Ubgate Reeves of Charles County and is found in numerous other documents along with Justinion Jordan. There is, however, no known family connection between the two individuals. The identity of John Reeves' first wife and children, if any, is also unknown. He had obviously removed from Charles County sometime after 1760 and was living in Halifax County in North Carolina. This deed appears to be one of the last references to John Reeves in the records of St. Mary's or Charles counties which may suggest that he returned to North Carolina where he died.

The 1763 St. Mary's County will of James Mills leaves the “plantation whereon John Reeves now lives” to his grandson John Jordan. James Mills also left 5000# of tobacco to Lydia Reeves but no relationship is stated. It is unknown whether this could be another daughter of James Mills who was married to John Reeves, possibly his first wife and the mother of the older children named in his will. John Reeves is found in numerous transactions with both the Mills and Jordan families in Charles and St. Mary's Counties.

Once again, DNA is a thrilling compliment to traditional genealogical research.

A Few More Reeve(s) Signatures

The signatures of today's post are from various Reeves' individuals of several different surname variations and lineages. The excerpts of these pictured documents have come from collections of original documents scanned from archived records in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Over the last decade numerous collections of scanned original documents, not copies of pages from deed and will books that were written by county clerks, but documents written by or at the least signed by the parties executing the documents. Collections by Family Search, the Library of Virginia and other sites have put these documents online helping family researchers to make great advances in genealogy. These scans of original documents have also allowed us to see the actual signatures of our ancestors which is a tremendous help in differentiating between all the Reeves of the same given name.

Will of William Reaves of Wayne County NC
also includes signature of William Reaves, Juner as witness

The document on the left is from a scanned copy of the original 1790 will of William Reaves, Sr. of Wayne County, North Carolina. The document includes the signature of William Reaves, Sr. as well as the signature of his son William, Jr. as one of the witnesses. The origins of this family who appeared in now extinct Old Dobbs County in the late 1750s have been a mystery but recent DNA tests of several descendants from this family have now established that their DNA matches that of descendants of William Reeves who died in Granville County in 1751.

Promissory Note by H. I. (Hezekiah) Reeves

On the right is a promissory note given by Hezekiah I. Reeves of Fauquier County, Virginia to William H. Tilley in 1819 which was the basis of a Chancery Case brought by Wm H. Tilley against Hezekiah Reeves, William and Daniel Thornberry. Hezekiah may have been a member of the Reeves family of Charles County, Maryland which is just across the Potomac River from Prince William County, Virginia where Hezekiah is also recorded. His signature is quite unique and should help to identify him. Sadly, there have been no participants from this lineage or other Reeves of southern Maryland in the DNA project which would greatly benefit Reeves' research.

Thomas Reeves' Signature as Witness

The witnesses to the above document include Thomas Reeves of Augusta, Virginia, previously of Spotsylvania County. The document is found in an Augusta County chancery case entitled Brewer Reeves vs. Aaron Hughes whose first pleadings are dated 1792. The witnesses signatures appear to be original as they are not similar to the body of the document which was written by a clerk or attorney with excellent penmanship - note the surname Reeves as written by the clerk is far more skillfully written than that of Tho. Reeves' signature. Brewer Reeves of this case was identified in other court documents as the brother of Thomas Reeves.

Signature by Edward Reavis on
1752 Northampton County NC Will

Edward Reavis is first found in Henrico County, Virginia, later migrating to northeastern North Carolina. He clearly wrote his name as Reavis differentiating it from the various other individuals of that area of North Carolina who used the Reeves and Reaves variations of the surname. Descendants of Edward Reavis are also totally different genetically to other inhabitants of Northampton and Halifax counties based upon DNA testing.

Signature of William Reeve, Soldier of the Revolution
on his 1833 RW Pension Application

Affidavit and Signature of James W. Reeve
son of William Reeve above

In April of 1833 William Reeve gave a statement in support of his application for a Revolutionary War pension. Appearing in court in Abbeville, South Carolina he gave a declaration regarding his service. He stated that he had entered the service in the summer of 1776 in Prince William County, Virginia as a drafted militia man serving in troops commanded by Colonel Henry Lee. That initial tour was followed by several others under different commanders.

William Reeve was originally from Prince William County, Virginia where his father, grandfather and other extended family consistently used the Reeve surname variation. However, within a few generations most of his descendants began to use the more common Reeves surname.

Bennett Reeves of Wilkes County, Georgia

It wasn’t my intention to write another post about the Maryland Reeves family but in the course of researching Reeves in Georgia, I have recently found several interesting items in regard to Bennett Reeves who left Charles County, Maryland after 1790 and relocated to Wilkes County, Georgia. On 2 Nov 1791, Joshua Hill and his wife Amey sold 300 acres on the waters of Newford creek in Wilkes County to Bennett Reeves. One of the testators to that deed was John Dyson, Bennett's cousin who was also from Charles County, Maryland.

Previously, Thomas Reeves who married Bethany Stinson in Wilkes County, Georgia in 1808 was believed to have been the son of Thomas Reeves the son of Malachi and Fortune Reeves of Guilford County, North Carolina, but the statements by three of his children who lived until the 1880 census contradict that theory. This supposition appears to have been based upon proximity due to the fact that other members of the family of Malachi Reeves had relocated to Wilkes County.

In the 1880 census, Hickerson Reeves, Thomas Reeves and Caroline Reeves Yeager, children of Thomas Reeves and Bethany Stinson, as well as Bennett F. Reeves and John D. Reeves, Jr., sons of John D. Reeves, each gave information that their father was born in Maryland. This confirms that they were grandchildren of Bennett Reeves, son of Thomas Reeves and Mary Murphy of Charles County, Maryland and identifies both Thomas Reeves and John D. Reeves as his sons. Bennett Reeves also had at least two daughters according to the census of 1820, but neither has been identified.

Additionally an 1816 deed for 33-3/4 acres in Guilford County on Mairs Fork of the Haw River from Thomas Reeves to Leven Covey describes Thomas Reeves as "of the State of North Carolina & County of Guilford". This indicates that as late as 1816, Thomas Reeves was still living in Guilford County on Mairs Fork of Haw River. This was undoubtably the same land willed to him by his grandfather Richard Burton in his 1799 will.

Following Bennett Reeves death sometime after 1820, both of his sons left the Wilkes County area. John D. Reeves is next found in the western portion of Georgia in Meriwether County where his descendants eventually migrated further southwest into Stewart County. Thomas and Bethany Stinson Reeves along with their children were found in Morgan County, Alabama after leaving Wilkes County.

Again, this is another instance of the “perils of proximity”. In the course of Reeves research, we repeatedly find two or even three different Reeves families and lineages living in the same county so it should never been assumed that all the families in a particular county are related.


(Gravestone photos by Barbara Parks of the Herring Cemetery in Morgan County, Alabama and Christine Thacker of Red Hill Christian Church Cemetery in Stewart County, Georgia for Find a Grave.)

A Reeves Descendant - Dr. Samuel Mudd

Most Americans, even those with limited knowledge of our history, are aware of Dr. Samuel Mudd and his conviction as a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. What may not be so well known is that his mother was Sarah Ann Reeves, daughter of Dr. James Reeves and Anne Cecelia Dyer of Charles County, Maryland.

As John Wilkes Boothe was making an attempt to escape capture after President Lincoln's assassination, he and an accomplice stopped at the farm of Dr. Samuel Mudd seeking medical attention for Boothe's broken leg. Because the two had met previously on more than one occasion, Dr. Mudd was believed to be one of the conspirators and was tried accordingly.

On June 29, 1865, Dr. Mudd was found guilty and convicted of conspiring to murder President Lincoln. He escaped the death penalty by one vote and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Along with several other convicted conspirators, he was imprisoned at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas about 70 miles west of Key West, Florida.

During a yellow fever outbreak in 1867, the prison doctor died and Dr. Mudd agreed to take over the position. The soldiers in the fort later wrote a petition to President Johnson praising Dr. Mudd for his assistance, stating that many owed their lives to the care and treatment they received at his hands.

On February 8, 1869, Dr. Mudd was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, released from prison on March 8, 1869 and returned home to Maryland on March 20, 1869.

Dr. Mudd's Reeves' ancestors are recorded in St. Mary's and Charles County, Maryland by the latter part of the 17th century. His earliest known Reeves' ancestors were Mary Upgate and Thomas Reeves who died in St. Mary's County in 1719. Dr. Mudd's grandfather, Dr. James Reeves, was one of the beneficiaries of the estate of his wealthy cousin Thomas Courtney Reeves. Thomas Courtney Reeves was so immensely wealthy that he is recorded as owning 74 slaves in the 1810 census of Charles County, Maryland. Thomas Courtney Reeves has also been named as the father of Dr. James Reeves in some lineages but twice his will specifically states that James Reeves was his cousin. Thomas Courtney Reeves and his wife Elizabeth Edelin apparently had no children. When Elizabeth Edelin Reeves died some years after her husband, Dr. Mudd's parents Henry Lowe Mudd and Sarah Ann Reeves Mudd were beneficiaries of her will as well.

I became aware of his Reeves' ancestry at some time during the 1970's when my mother briefly corresponded with Dr. Mudd's grandson, Dr. Richard Mudd, in the course of Reeves' research. For many years, Dr. Richard Mudd unsuccessfully lobbied government officials including Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan seeking to have his grandfather's conviction set aside.



Source of photo of Samuel A. Mudd in prison - Wikipedia. The photo of Dr. Samuel Mudd House & Museum is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

Update on Samuel Reeves of Rowan County

As I mentioned in a previous post, Samuel Reeves who was previously believed to be a descendant of William Reeves of Granville County, North Carolina was actually descended from the Reeves family of Charles County, Maryland. Samuel and his brother William had migrated from Maryland to Rowan County after the death of their mother, Mary Murphy Reeves in 1793.

The earliest record of Samuel Reeves in Rowan County is a 1795 deed to Edward Taylor. By 1799, Samuel conveyed 91 acres of a tract he had purchased from James Dobbins in 1798, to his son Thomas Reeves. This transaction is mentioned in Samuel's 1801 will and he states that Thomas is therefore exempted from any further share of his estate. The only other children named in Samuel's will are James and Mary who was married by 1801 when the will was written and referred to as Mary Alexander. Other unnamed children are referred to in the will and were to be provided for when they reached their maturity, but there is no indication of their identity.

Samuel makes mention in his will of $50 dollars that was in his possession which had been a legacy left to his son James by his grandfather James Watson. A James Watson left a 1795 will in St. Mary's County, Maryland (adjacent to Charles County) and mentioned a daughter Margaret Reeves. Research of that family produced a letter written circa 1896 by an elderly descendant who stated that James Watson's daughter Margaret Reeves had moved to North Carolina but no further information was known. There is no proof that this is the James Watson referred to in Samuel's will and since the daughter named in James Watson's will was recorded as Margaret and Samuel Reeves' will gives his wife's name as Mary, it is unclear whether this is the grandfather of Samuel's son James.

No other probate records have currently been located in Rowan County to identify these younger children so the deed records seemed to be the only option left to pursue. This happened to have been one of those occasions when the deed records contained a wealth of biographical information.

In 1815, John C. Reeves purchased the distributive share of his brother, Samuel Reeves, in their father's estate. A deed recorded in April of 1816, from Owen Harrison and his wife Sarah, identifies Sarah Reeves Harrison as another heir of Samuel Reeves. By January of 1821, William Reeves sold his share of their father's estate to John as well. Then finally in October of 1821, John C. Reeves sold the entire four fifths of his father's estate that he had acquired from his other siblings to Bennet Abner Reeves. Each of these deeds explicitely identifies the parties as descendants and heirs of their father, Samuel Reeves.

There is no further record of these children in Rowan County. By 1830 the only Reeves remaining there was Samuel Reeves, the son of William Reeves. Both of Samuel's older sons, Thomas and James, are recorded as having served in the War of 1812 and may have been awarded bounty land further west. If Samuel's other sons John C., William, Bennet Abner and his daughters Sarah Reeves Harrison and Mary Alexander migrated further west, there is currently no information to that effect.

Craven County's John Reeves

A John Reeves whose origins are another of the many mysteries of Reeves' research, died in Craven County, North Carolina in September of 1790. He left a will written on July 13, 1790 naming wife, Courtney (incorrectly spelled "Coatney" in the will), older daughters from a prior marriage and the younger children born to he and Courtney after their marriage circa 1784. Courtney Taylor was the widow of James Reed who had died in 1782 in Craven County.

The will of John Reeves named his daughters Elizabeth Cheshire, Jean Reeves and Mary Wilson, in addition to Jestenon (Justinion, later called Jesse Tinion), Francis and "the child that my wife is big with now" (Lucius Reeves).

Several years ago a book, "The River Reeves" was written which details the descendants of John Reeves. At one time, a researcher involved with that project indicated to me that there had been some thought that this John Reeves was part of the Reeves' family of Wake County, North Carolina, but that is doubtful and seems to be based solely upon proximity. John Reeves of Craven County, unlike William Reeves of Wake County and his descendants as well as their close relatives in Grayson County, Virginia who descend from George Reeves, Sr. all spelled their names as Reves and were able to read and write. Later generations of the family began to use the more common variation "Reeves" but throughout the 18th century and until around 1850, they always spelled their name "Reves" although the same cannot be said of county clerks and census takers.

Courtney Reeves was listed in the 1790 census of Craven County, but within the next few years, she and the four children from her marriage to James Reed along with the Reeves children moved to Baldwin County, Georgia. In Georgia, Courtney drew land for her children in the land lottery. Courtney died in Hancock County, Georgia and her children eventually moved on to Alabama.

The only other Reeves found in Craven County during this time period is a Nancy Reeves for whose estate an inventory was filed in 1797. This Nancy Reeves' identity is unknown and no other Reeves are named in the estate documents.

Interestingly, in the course of my recent research of Reeves in Charles County, Maryland as discussed in a previous post, I found the 1772 deed for a tract of land referred to as Basford Manor in Charles County by John Reeves of Halifax County, North Carolina to Justinion Jordan of Charles County. John Reeves was the son of Upgate Reeves of Charles County and is found in numerous other documents along with Justinion Jordan. There is, however, no known family connection between the two individuals. The identity of John Reeves' spouse and children, if any, is also unknown. He had obviously removed from Charles County sometime after 1760 and was living in Halifax County in North Carolina where he is believed to have died although there is no documentation to that effect.

Could it be that the use of the name "Justinion" for his child indicates a connection between the John Reeves of Craven, NC and John Reeves of Halifax, NC/Charles, MD? We now have another enigma to add to the ever increasing list of mysteries to be solved.

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UPDATE to the story of John Reeves of Craven County NC - Another Reeves' Mystery Solved?

The Maryland Connection

Over the last several years when researching Rowan County, North Carolina in order to separate fact from fiction in regard to the Reeves’ families of that county, I was repeatedly directed to The History of Rowan County, North Carolina originally published by J.J. Bruner, Salisbury, N.C., 1881.

From Page 227: “The last wife of Michael Braun of the ''Stone House" was Mrs. Eleanora Reeves. Mrs. Reeves was a Maryland lady, named Wakefield, and was first married to William Reeves, when quite young, by whom she had four children — Thomas, Samuel, Sally, and Nancy. Samuel was the late Samuel Reeves, the father of Dr. Samuel Reeves and of Mrs. Sarah Johnston. Nancy Reeves married a Mr. Kiestler, and was the mother of Mrs. Jane Price, and the grandmother of Robert Wakefield Price and others, now of Salisbury.”

Page 230: “Joseph Hughes left one son, Hudson Hughes, who married the daughter of Col. Andrew Balfour. The daughter of this couple, Mary, became the wife of Samuel Reeves, Esq., and the mother of the late Dr. Samuel Reeves, and of Mrs. Sarah Johnston, now of Cincinnati.

Page 241: The War of 1812 – “Patriotic speeches were made, and volunteers stepped into the ranks of the recruiting officers. Barracks were erected on the eastern side of Crane Creek, on the plantation owned by the late Samuel Reeves…

There seemed no way to correlate the commonly held beliefs regarding the Reeves residents of that county with the published history. An 1801 will for a Samuel Reeves was recorded in Rowan County, as well as guardian records for Nancy and Sally Reeves above, the daughters of William Reeves who died before 1804. I have always been puzzled by these passages since it had been assumed that the Reeves of Rowan County were descendants of William Reeves of Granville County, North Carolina.

Several members of that family had lived briefly in Rowan County in the 1760’s in an area that became Guilford in 1770. William Reeves’ son James Reeves along with his sons Jeremiah and William in addition to several other unidentified Reeves individuals – Benjamin, Samuel and a William Reeves with son George. However, from 1770 until the mid 1790’s no Reeves are recorded among the taxpayers or in the deed indexes of Rowan County.

I recently happened upon information regarding the family of Thomas Reeves of Charles County, Maryland when researching Reeves in Ohio for the Reeves Project. Josias Reeves, son of Thomas Reeves and Mary Murphy of Charles County, Maryland, had migrated to Ross County, Ohio around 1804. Josiah Reeves' obituary, as published in the Scioto Gazette, Chillicothe, Ohio, and reprinted in the Ohio State Journal, Columbus, on October 6, 1841, reads as follows:

"At his residence in Pickaway County, Ohio, on the 22nd day of September, Mr. Josias Reeves, Senr. a soldier of the War of Independence, in the 81st year of his age. Mr. Reeves was born in Charles County in the colony of Maryland and in October 1760 O.S. and after the Revolution settled in Culpeper County, Virginia, when he emigrated to the state of Ohio in 1804.
The writer of this has heard him say that he was never in debt at any time, five dollars - never had a lawsuit of any kind, either as plaintiff or defendant. He lived as far as possible, peaceably with all men and 'owing no man anything'.
He left an aged widow with whom he lived for sixty years, and many descendants who hold his memory in grateful remembrance. Mr. Reeves was for thirty-seven years a member of the Methodist Church."

As I began to search Charles County, Maryland probate records for documentation of Josias’ origins, listed among his siblings in the probate documents of Thomas Reeves estate in 1778 were Samuel, born 1749, and William, born 1770, as well as Bennett, born 1766, who had migrated to Wilkes County, Georgia at around the same time Samuel and William relocated to Rowan in North Carolina. The three siblings appear to have remained in Maryland until after their mother Mary's death which was recorded in 1793, with Samuel and William arriving in Rowan County by 1795 and Bennett in Wilkes County, Georgia by 1800.

Finally the Rowan County published history corresponds with historical documents and the Reeves in that county can now be correctly recorded. As always, I have to comment that it would be wonderful for someone from this lineage to participate in the Reeves DNA Project and further clarify their history.


(Photo by "schcrochet" for FindAGrave)