52 Ancestors: #51, Frederick F. Rivers

 

Amy Johnson Crow of No Story To Small has started a challenge of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

From her blog “The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor. Not only should this get me blogging more, but also to take a deeper look at some of the people in my family tree.”

The focus of my blog post today is Frederick F. Rivers.

Frederick F. Rivers is my 5th Great Grandfather. His birth date is unknown but Census data tells us that he was born before 1754 and died after 1820. Frederick is enumerated in the 1790-1800-1810 and 1820 Censuses for Chesterfield County, South Carolina. ^{1 2 3 4}

His wife is totally unknown. If the oldest female in the above four mentioned censuses are accurate and the oldest female is his wife then we know she was was born between 1755 & 1765 and that she died aft 1820.

Census	Age	Predicted Birth Yr.
1800	21-45	1755-1779
1810	26-45	1765-1784
1820	45+	1775

Frederick and his wife had 4 children; 2 sons and 2 daughters. Three of these 4 children are known, William Rivers, Frederick F. Rivers, Jr, and Sarah Rivers.

Page 412 of ”The History of The Old Cheraw's” along with Audited Account AA-6452 proves his participation in the Revolutionary War. He was in Charleston, SC during the Sieze of Charleston, captured and imprisoned for a short while.⁵

After the war he received 3 grants for land for his active participation  consisting of 1000 acres, 227 acres and 200 acres for a total of 1427 acres of land in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. I have found no evidence that Frederick owned slaves during his lifetime. ^{6 7 8}

Equity Records for Alex Melton and Edith Lundy alias Edith Wages, J. J. Evans, Defts Solc, dated 11 December 1814 shows Frederick Rivers and Lewis Boatwright as the two witnesses to this document. This is the latest document I have other than the 1820 census for Frederick Rivers. ⁹

I have a Will dated 9 Jan 1769 that shows a Frederick Rivers as the Witness for the Will of Jacob Waldburger, St. Peter's Parish, Granville County. This is the earliest document I have that names a Frederick Rivers. I have no proof that this Frederick Rivers is in fact our ancestor.¹⁰
Exors: wife during her widowhood; Rev. J. Joachin Zubly; Dr. Heny Bourquin; Capt. Cornelious Dupont.
Wit: Lachn. McGillivary, Jean Jaque Goante, Temoin., Frederick Rivers.
D: 9 Jan. 1769.  P. 22 Mar. 1770    R:nd.    Page 436

Frederick's Wife.
In 1927, in an un-sourced history of the David/Davis Family by Harry Alexander Davis made the following comments. ¹¹


*Frederick Rivers b ca 1739 died 1810, married 1762 Mary Boatwright, b. 1745 died1814. Chesterfield Dist. S. C. He served as a Private in the Revolution. (Stub Entries to Indents, Lib. N, No. 650.) Left children; Frederick Jr. Isaac, James and Nancy.

On Page 54, Mr. Davis is detailing the facts for my Great Grandfather Thomas Davis states:
“He [Thomas Davis] married July 1786 Nancy, daughter of Frederick Rivers,* and Mary Boatwright, born 15 Dec 1767.” ¹²

I stated earlier that Frederick had two daughters as indicated by the 1800 Census:



You can see by this Census that Frederick had two sons and two daughters.
1 Female, Daughter?, age 10-15, birth year – 1785-1790
1 Female, Daughter?, 16-25, birth year – 1775-1884 – Daughter Sarah was born 1 January 1782. So we have a perfect match.  She married John H. Brown and died after 1870 in Arkansas.
1  Female, Wife?, 26-44

But, it quite obvious that the second presumed daughter in the household wasn’t even old enough to play when Thomas and Nancy were married in July 1786. She may not have even been born when Thomas & Nancy married.

The second part of this is that there is no known Mary Boatwright that was the wife of Frederick Rivers. The Boatwright Family has been well documented and no evidence has been found that Mary Boatwright even existed.

http://www.boatwrightgenealogy.com/

But this was not going to stop those intent on creating a family history so Frederick Rivers wife Mary Boatwright morphed into a  female named Sarah Purvis, daughter of Gilbert Purvis.  

Well, Gilbert did have a daughter called Sally that most likely was named Sarah Purvis. The problem here is that she went to Mississippi with her family and when her older brother (Gilbert Johnston Purvis) died he left a stipend for her care. She died there some time after 1836 having never married.¹³



So on iteration #3, Sarah Purvis is now Gilbert Purvis’s sister thus her parents are John Purvis and Sarah Johnston who were married 2 April 1746 in Parish Prince Frederick Winyaw, South Carolina. No proof of this has been found as of today but that doesn't stop the tree copiers on-line from continuing to propagate this myth. ¹⁴

To summarize:
Frederick Rivers was born before 1754. His first son was born 25 February 1776 so he probably married about 1774 or 1775.  His wife is also unknown. She was was born between 1755 & 1765 and died after 1820. The Census shows they had 4 children; 2 sons and 2 daughters. One daughter is unknown. Frederick and his wife died after 1820. 

Frederick F. Rivers and his wife are my 5th Great Grandparents. The search continues to identify my 5th Great Grandmother.







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[1] 1790 U S Census, St Thomas, Cheraws District, South Carolina, population schedule, St Thomas, Cheraws District, South Carolina, page 373, Household of Fredk. Rivers; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed January 2009); citing National Archives Microfilm M637, Roll 11.
[2] 1800, Second Census of the United States, Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield District, South Carolina, page 109, Household of Frederick Rivers; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed January 2000); citing National Archives Microfilm M 32, Roll 47.
[3] 1810 U S Census, Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina, page 555, Household of Frederick Rivers; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed February 1976); citing National Archives Microfilm M637, Roll 60.
[4] 1820 Census of the United States, Chesterfield, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, population schedule, Chesterfield County, page 128, Line 21, about mid-page, Frederic Rivers; digital image, Ancestry.com
[5] Right Rev. Alexander Gregg D.D., History of the Old Cheraws (Columbia, South Carolina: The State Company, 1925), page 412.
[6] "Plats for State Land Grants, 1784 - 1868, S108092," SC Department of Archive & History (SCDAH), SCDAH Database Search (http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/search.aspx : viewed 11 October 2011), transcription, Frederick Rivers, "Plat for 200 acres," Volume: 0003, Page: 00151.
[7] "Plats for State Land Grants, 1784 - 1868, S108092," SC Department of Archive & History (SCDAH), SCDAH Database Search (http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/search.aspx : viewed 11 October 2011), transcription, Frederick Rivers, "Rev War Accounts Audited," Reel: 0125, Frame: 00255.
[8] "Plats for State Land Grants, 1784 - 1868, S108092," SC Department of Archive & History (SCDAH), SCDAH Database Search (http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/search.aspx : viewed 11 October 2011), transcription, Frederick Rivers, "Plat for 1000 acres," Volume: 0014, Page: 00112.
[9] Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Cheraw Equity Records, SC Archives, Equity Film, Second Section, Pages 0000-0014, Alex Melton ads Edith Lundy alias Edith Wages, 11 December 1814; SC Archives & History, Columbia, SC.
[10] Caroline Moore, ABSTRACTS OF WILLS OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA 1760-1784 (Columbia SC: R. L. Bryan Company, 1964), page 129.
[11] Harry Alexander Davis, The Davis Family (Davies and David) in Wales and America: genealogy of Morgan David of Pennsylvania (Washington, D.C.: H. A. Davis, 1927), 54.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Hinds County, Mississippi, Will Book 1: page 48, Gilbert Johnson Purvis; Family History Library, Film #878728, Salt Lake City, Utah.
[14] National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, The Register Book of Parish Prince Frederick Winyaw (Baltimore, Maryland: William & Wilkins Company, 1916), page 55.