John Rice Sr (1698 - aft. 1769)

Born 18 Sep 1698 in New Kent County, Virginia

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Rice — married 11 Mar 1728 in Middlesex, Virginia

Descendants

Died after 13 Nov 1769 after age 71 in Hanover County, Virginia

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Biography

"John son of Tho Rice and Marcey his wife bapt the 18 Septemr 1698." St. Peter's Parish, New Kent County, Virginia Colony.^[1]

He died some time after 13 Nov 1769 when John sold land. He probably died in Hanover.

Marriage

We know John’s wife’s name was Mary from the deed ^[2] dated 8 Jul 1765 where John with wife Mary sold land. A deed for a land sale ^[3] dated 13 Nov 1769 does not name Mary so she likely had died by then. Although the deeds are land in Louisa County their resident listed in the deeds is Hanover.

Nothing is known about Mary's maiden name. John and Mary’s grandson through his son Thomas was named William Higgason Rice. Thomas wife’s first or last name is unknown. Many trees state both John Sr and his son Thomas married a woman named Higgason. It is likely one did marry a Higgason woman and the most likely one is son Thomas not John Sr because the Higgason name does not appear in Thomas' brother John Jr's tree – only twice in Thomas’ tree. But the specific way a Higgason was connected to the tree is unknown.

Middlesex Rices and Birth of son John

There 2 families with a John Rice with wife Mary and son John at the same period of time. This John Rice family of Hanover and Louisa County is not the same as the John and Mary Rice with son John of Middlesex County VA. Middlesex is 3 counties to the east of Hanover. Thomas and Marcy settled significantly to the west of Middlesex. Middlesex Rice records start with Nicolas Rice first in 1686 and there are a number of other Rice records in Middlesex contemporary to John Rice of Middlesex. John and Mary Rice of Middlesex had children John b 1728 James b. 1731 Mary b. 1734. John of Hanover was buying land in Hanover 24 Feb 1725, 25 Aug 1731, 17 Aug 1735 next his brothers during the same period. They are two different families. Also John Rice of Hanover’s eldest child Francis Rice Gooch was born around 1743 and her first child David Gooch was born 11 Apr 1763. It is unlikely John Rice Jr of Hanover has a grandson born when he was 35. John Rice Jr of Hanover is likely born around 1720.

Children

If John Sr left a will we do not have it because Hanover Court House records were burned up. Most regular deeds are lost to us as well. What we do have are Land Grants for Hanover and Louisa Counties but also regular deeds for Louisa County and some tax records. Their land grants were in northern Hanover County. Some grants were a little further west then the first ones and that area was broken off from Hanover to became Louisa County VA in 1742. It is the sale of the land in Louisa County which help with the family tree. The attached image shows the Land Grants for the Rices and some allied families. We only known children of John and Mary:

1. John Jr appears in Louisa County land records. A deed dated 18 Oct 1758 Richard Estes (current residence Hanover County) and John Rice Jr (current residence Louisa County) sell land jointly. The land was originally a Land Patent sold to to Richard Estes. It is adjacent to John Rice Sr’s land. We have no deed transferring half ownership to John Jr but Richard may have given John Jr half when John Jr married Richard Estes daughter Lettisha "Lettie" Estes. Richard Estes bought a lot of land in Caswell County NC near John and Lettisha when they all moved to Caswell County NC. When John Jr moved to Caswell he is called John Sr. It may be because his father is dead or simply that his father was still in Hanover and in Caswell John Jr is now called John Sr since he had an adult son there who is called John Jr.
2. Thomas Rice (Cabin Branch) The Cabin Branch (CB) notation is the location of his land. There were 5 John Rices and 3 Thomas Rices in Caswell and they used little identifiers to differentiate them. The other contemporary Thomas was called Thomas Esquire as he was a Justice (later genealogists referred to him as Sheriff). Most trees place Thomas CB as son of John Sr because there was a close relationship between the families of John Jr and Thomas CB. Also Thomas Esq/Sherriff named a daughter Joyce which was the wife of Thomas Sr and mother of Thomas Rice Jr who was executer of his father’s will as mentioned in Louis County land records. But there were no paper records and it was possible the two Thomas’s could be reversed in the family trees. The issue was resolved by Y-DNA Big Y testing. Fortunately, both John Jr/Sr and Thomas CB have very well documented trees through wills. We have 2 Big Y testers with well documented lines to John Jr/Sr and one tester through Thomas CB. The testers form the Haplogroup R-FGC17108 because of a mutation of John Sr found in these three testers but not any other testers including all in the Rice Group 4 testers which is the group of Thomas and Marcy descendants. This establishes John Jr/Sr and Thomas CB as brothers. Since John Jr/Sr is a son of John Sr then Thomas CB is as well. So any direct male descendant who thinks he descends from John Rice Sr can verify it through a y-DNA Big Y test.
3. uncertain Mary Elizabeth Rice married Alexander Kerr. She is in many trees as their child there are issues and no sources. She is given 2 different birth dates in the many trees 7 Dec 1731 Hanover VA and 7 Dec 1734 Middlesex VA. The Elizabeth of the Middlesex birth belongs to a different family and not a daughter of this John and Mary. But someone could have attributed the wrong birth date to the person in this profile and this person is a daughter of this John and Mary.

Land Transactions

• Rice, John, March 24, 1725, grant 400a. Adjoining Philip Higgison, Reuben Welch and David Thompson. Patents, p. 468 (Hanover County, Between Little and Newfound Rivers)

• Rice, John, January 28, 1733, Hanover County, grant 200a. Adjoining the lines of Thomas Hart, David Thompson, John Rice, &c. Patents 15, p. 145.

• John Rice to David Rice, Wm. Rice, Shadrach Rice & Macajah Rice; February 1734, Hanover County^[4] Note: David, William, Shadrach, and Micajah Rice are sons of William Rice whose will was proved 6 Dec 1734 in Hanover County.^[4]Hanover Deed Book 1733-5 page 185-6

Sources

1. ↑ New Kent County, Virginia St. Peter's Parish Vestry Book and Register, 1684-1786. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003. Original data: Chamberlayne, C.G., ed. The Vestry Book and Register of St. Peter's Parish New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia 1684-1786. Richmond, VA, USA: Library Board, 1937. pp 388-389
2. ↑ Louisa County VA Deed Book C ½ Page 97
3. ↑ Louisa County VA Deed Book D ½ Page 165
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Parks, Gary, Indexer; Virginia Land Records. From The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary College Quarterly, and Tyler's Quarterly Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1982. P. 93, 92

• Louisa County VA Deed Book B Page 24-5 dated 18 Oct 1758
• New Kent County, Virginia St. Peter's Parish Vestry Book and Register, 1684-1786. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003. Original data: Chamberlayne, C.G., ed. The Vestry Book and Register of St. Peter's Parish New Kent and James City Counties, Virginia 1684-1786. Richmond, VA, USA: Library Board, 1937. pp 388-389