I'm pretty much convinced that this often-repeated descendancy is in error.
I know that John Ray & Hannah Hasty are often given as the parents of James Rea [Henry Co VA] in many internet trees. I've written emails to these various posters but have never gotten a response stating the source of their info. And at least one of the trees [from A Deason Smith (deceased)] even states that there is no proof of this connection.
On the other hand I have corresponded with Joseph C Rhea, author of Ray-Rhea: a family book of history and genealogy for Rhea and related families (1969) in which he describes how he is descended from John Ray & Hannah Hasty. The passage in the book that seems to have led to the confusion has been transcribed in this old RHEA-L post
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/rhea/1998-02/0... Joseph C Rhea obtained this information from notebooks made by his great grand uncle The notes were taken in the years after the Civil War from interviews with older family members, in this case a grandson of John Ray & Hannah Hasty. I suppose it comes down to whether one believes he knew the names of his grandparents.
In addition, it is now clear from Y-DNA evidence that the results from descendants of Joseph C Rhea do not match those of the descendants of James Rea of Henry Co, VA. Therefore these two Rea lines are not related.
I have also searched for the parentage of James Rea (Sr), but have not found any plausible candidate. I believe that James Rea (Sr) was likely born well before 1730, but the evidence is circumstantial and based on the probable birth years of his children. It's possible that he came from Ireland.