University of Virginia Library

REA.

The name of Rea is found in the county at the time of its
formation. In 1747 Fergus Rea bought a portion of the Chiswell
patent on Rockfish. About the same time John Rea was
the owner of land on the Rivanna near Martin King's Ford,
the present Union Mills. Whether these persons were related
to those hereafter mentioned, does not appear.

Andrew, Thomas and Samuel Rea were considerably interested
in real estate during a period extending from 1744 to
1788. At the first of these dates, Andrew entered a small
tract on the south side of the Rivanna, a short distance above

the mouth of Ivy Creek, and at the time was the owner of
land adjoining. Beyond doubt he gave name to the ford so
called, though it should be written Rea, not Ray; in the patent
it is written Reay. Thomas owned land on the head waters
of Mechum's near Round Mountain, and subsequently purchased
in the vicinity of Rea's Ford, and on Meadow Creek,
not far from the old Poor House. Samuel also had a place
near Rea's Ford, and in 1788 bought on Beaver Creek between
Crozet and Whitehall. All three were married, the name of
Andrew's wife being Mary, that of Thomas's Ursula, and
that of Samuel's Jane, daughter of Daniel Maupin and his
wife, Margaret Via. These persons, it is likely, were brothers.
Samuel's children were Daniel, Andrew, Thomas, Robert,
and Margaret, the wife of Ezekiel McCauley. Robert
married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Maupin and his wife,
Mary Elizabeth Dabney, lived in the Beaver Creek neighborhood,
and died in 1831. In a report of Bernard Brown of
persons listed to work on the roads near the foot of Buck's
Elbow in 1792, Andrew and Thomas Rea are mentioned;
and in an order of Court on the same subject made in 1823,
occur the names of Robert, Thomas and Bland.

Thomas, the third son of Samuel, lived beneath Buck's
Elbow, and died in 1850. His wife was Ann, daughter of
Bland Ballard, and his children Daniel, Jane, the wife of Garland
Maury, Bland, Jemima, the wife of Richard Beckett,
Ann, the wife of John Bales, Samuel, and Margaret, the wife
of George Wolfe. Bland married Sarah Alexander, and secondly
Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel John Jones. In his
youth he was associated with Benjamin Ficklin in the manufacture
of tobacco, but afterwards settled as a farmer near
the old homestead, and died in 1868. His children were
John A., Joseph, William, James, Mary, the wife of Bernard
Tilman, and Maria, the wife of Oscar Lipscomb.