THE REEVES FAMILY

FIRST GENERATION

"WALTER REEVE, the progenitor of this family, settled in Burlington County, New Jersey (then West Jersey), some time prior to 1678.¹ The date of his birth is not known, but we can assume it to be between 1650 and 1657. He lived on the south side of the North Branch of Rancocas Creek, at first on land he never took title to. He later bought a plantation on the north side of the creek, about midway between the village of Rancocas and the present town of Mt. Holly. He says in his will that his plantation is on the north side of the creek, to the ‘northward of my dwelling house,’ so we might infer his dwelling house was still on the south side of the creek. This may have been, for the land he first occupied was called Reeve’s land in surveys and deeds up to 1743, when it was surveyed to Andrew Connaro, February 8, 1743, as seventy acres. And when Connaro sold it by deed of 18 June 1756, to Charles Reed² it says, ‘Whereas Andrew Connaro by virtue of a Warrant from the Council of Proprietors had surveyed to him the quantity of seventy acres of land situate in the forks of the Ancocas³ being the land formerly called Reeve’s land.’

Walter Reeve[s], besides the plantation above mentioned, had surveyed to him under Warrant, December 16, 1693, by Daniel Leeds, Deputy Surveyor, 150 acres on the west side of the North Branch of Rancocas Creek, and in June, 1695, he had surveyed to him 200 acres on the north side of the North Branch of Rancocas Creek, so that in all he had acquired 350 acres by survey and 160 acres he purchased beside the seventy acres where he first resided but never took title to.

It is not known to whom he was first married, but we believe her first name was Susannah, and it was probably several years before coming to Burlington County. His second marriage was to Ann Howell, November 11, 1682.⁴ He had issue by both wives. In his will, dated May 16, and proved June 18, 1698, he mentions: wife Anne, and sons John, William and Joseph, and daughter Susanna. His will does not recite the name Jonathan, but a conveyance dated August 1, 1710, shows his widow Anne, conveying ‘the tract of meadow land lying next above the fork of Northampton River, upon the north side of the South Branch of said river, heretofore purchased of John Wills by deed dated January 20, 1708’ to her son Johnathan.

To this time we have shown that Walter had four sons and one daughter. In the will of his widow, Anne, who survived him about forty years, dated September 23, 1732, proved July 31, 1733, the following additional sons are named: Walter, Elisha, Caleb, and Samuel, making eight sons in all.

In these early documents we find the name written at times without the final ‘s’ which we use today. The transition from Reeve to Reeves is not difficult to understand when we note the variations in spelling the name of the same person. Documents of record show the name, Reeve, Reve, Reave, Reeves. The later rendering seems to have become quite fixed from or about 1685.