On his death in 1845, the personal estate of Rives Sr. would be valued at $100,000 (~$3.11 million in 2023) and included lands in Albemarle, Buckingham, Campbell and Nelson Counties.

His distant nephew Alexander Brown wrote books about the early history of Virginia as well as The Cabells and their Kin.

Following the war, Judge Rives continued to operate the farms using paid labor until entering the federal judicial service in 1871, as described below.

[10] Albemarle County voters elected him to the Virginia Senate in 1857, and he served one term in that part-time position.

[12] In 1870, Rives ran for the United States House of Representatives as a Republican, but lost to Richard Thomas Walker Duke.

[1] In 1878, Judge Rives took the then-controversial view that the exclusion of blacks from jury service in Virginia state courts was a violation of the Equal Protection rights of two criminal defendants, granting their petitions for habeas corpus relief.

[14] The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution denouncing the Reynolds decision, and demanding an appeal.

[17] Over 100 years later, the Supreme Court ruled that even the use of peremptory challenges where exclusion was made on the basis of race was unconstitutional, in Batson.