Edmund Rice (1594 - 1663)

Born 1594 in Stanstead, Suffolk, England [uncertain]

Husband of Thomasine (Frost) Rice — married 15 Oct 1618 in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England

Husband of Mercy (Unknown) Hunt — married 1 Mar 1656 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 3 May 1663 at about age 69 in Marlborough, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Jillaine Smith [send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], Carleton Procter [send private message], and Rolland Rice [send private message]

Edmund Rice migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 281) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

NOTE: This profile is protected under the care of the Puritan Great Migration project and any edits should be discussed first. Please use the G2G discussion topic linked to from this profile. Thank you.

Disputed Origins

Attempts have been made by well recognized researchers to discover the parentage of Edmund Rice. Mary Lovering Holman got negative results searching the parish records near Stanstead and Sudbury, Suffolk County, England.^[1] The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, in 1997, asked Dr. Joanna Martin, who lives a short distance from Stanstead and Sudbury, to search again. Once again, no records were found. Some of the parish registers for likely years of Edmund's birth do not even exist. Mary Holman did discover the baptisms of Edmund's first three children.

Several erroneous and/or speculative sets of parents have been published and are proliferated in internet trees and databases: Henry Rice and Margaret Baker; the same Henry Rice and his other wife Elizabeth Frost (whose marriage was recorded 23 Aug 1619 at Stanstead); Thomas Rice and Catherine Howard [neither of whom appear to have WikiTree profiles]; and Thomas Rice and Elizabeth Frost [this couple also does not appear to be represented on WikiTree].

An investigation by Donald Lines Jacobus^[2] determined that many of the false accounts first occurred in a book by Dr. Charles Elmer Rice, By the Name of Rice, privately published by Dr. Rice at Alliance, Ohio in 1911.

"In his address to the 1999 annual meeting of the Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Gary Boyd Roberts, Senior Researcher, New England Historic Genealogy Society, reviewed all of the genealogical sleuthing on Edmund's parentage. Mr. Roberts is well known for his research on royal lineage. He concluded that there was no evidence whatsoever that supports the published accounts of Edmund Rice's parents and no evidence that Edmund Rice was from a royal lineage."^[3]

Biography

Edmund Rice^[4] was born about 1594 (parents not yet confirmed), and came to this country from Barkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England. He married first Tamazine Frost, October 15, 1618 in Bury St. Edmunds, England. She died June 13, 1654,in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts^[5], where she was buried June 18, 1654. He married second March 1, 1655 Mercie (_____) Brigham, widow of Thomas Brigham of Cambridge. He had twelve children, nine of whom were born in England, and the others in Sudbury. They are listed below. Edmund Rice died May 3, 1663, at Marlboro, aged about sixty-nine, and was buried in Sudbury. His widow married William Hunt of Marlboro.

Early Settler & Leader in Sudbury

Edmund Rice arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1638, although no passenger list survives that names him.

The first record of his presence is in the Township Book of the Town of Sudbury in the year 1639.^[6]

As yeomen farmers, Edmund Rice and the other early settlers at Sudbury were well prepared for the tasks of forming and governing a new community. As yeomen they had assumed both personal and community responsibilities back in England. As Protestant churchmen they had been encouraged to read and write so that they could study and understand their Bible. Although not of the noble class, they had shared many community and church responsibilities in their former communities in England.^[6]

Mr. Rice was a prominent man in the settlement, owning lands in and out of the town, some of which came by grant of the General Court: ^[7]

• His first dwelling-place at Sudbury was on the old north street. September 1, 1642, he sold this place to John Moore.
• In September of the same year, he leased, for six years, the Dunster Farm, which lay just east of Cochituate Pond.
• He bought of the widow Mary Axdell (or Axtell) six acres of land and her dwelling house, which were in the south part of the town.
• Some years afterwards he bought of Philemon Whale his house and nine acres of land near "the spring" and adjacent to the Axdell place; and these taken together, in part at least, formed the old Rice homestead, not far from the "Five Paths" (Wayland). This old homestead remained in the Rice family for generations.

Mr. Rice was made a freeman May 13, 1640, and was one of the committee appointed by the Colonial Court, September 4, 1639, to apportion land to the inhabitants. He served as selectman from 1639 to 1644, and was deputy to the General Court several successive years." ^[7]

In 1648, Edmund Rice was ordained as a Deacon in the Puritan Church at Sudbury.^[4]

He was prominent in the settlement of Marlboro, for which he was a petitioner in 1656.^[8][4]

In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Puritan Village, The formation of a New England Town, Sumner Chilton Powell sums up the high regard that his fellow citizens had for Edmund:

"Not only did Rice become the largest individual landholder in Sudbury, but he represented his new town in the Massachusetts legislature for five years and devoted at least eleven of his last fifteen years to serving as selectman and judge of small causes." He adds, "Two generations of Sudbury men selected Edmund Rice repeatedly as one of their leaders, with the full realization that they were ignoring men of far more English government experience who had come with him." ^[9][10]

He was appointed to apportion land in 1639, and became a Deputy to the General Court, a magistrate in 1641, and a selectman in 1644, and some years following.^[11]

”Far-reaching interest attaches to a pen-and-ink drawing by Pauline Atlee Long, reproduced above, which has for subject the Deacon Edmund Rice homestead, built in Wayland, Mass., in 1650. Deacon Rice was a Pilgrim, born in Buckinghamshire, Eng. in 1594. He settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1638, according to a tablet that has been erected near the site of the house pictured above.”^[12]

Founding member & leader in Marlborough^[4]

In 1656, Edmund Rice was one of thirteen petitioners belonging to Sudbury, who petitioned the General Court for a new plantation, saying,

"Whereas your petitioners have lived divers years in Sudbury, and God hath been pleased to increase our children, which are now, divers of them, grown to man's estate, and wee, many of us grown into years, so as that wee should bee glad to see them settled before the Lord take us away from hence; as also God having given us some considerable quantity of cattle, so that wee are so straightened, that wee cannot so comfortably subsist as could be desired; and some of us having taken some pains to view the country, wee have found a place, which lieth Westward about eight miles from Sudbury, which wee conceive might bee comfortable for our subsistence," &c.

Sudbury at that time contained less than seventy-five families, and in territory included what is now Wayland. Their petition was granted, and the plantation laid to them was incorporated by the name of Marlborough in 1660. Rice had a house lot of fifty acres granted to him by the proprietors of that town, upon which he built a house. The property sat in the westerly part of the town, on the old county road leading from Marlboro' to Northboro', and in the bend as it passes round the northerly side of the pond, a short distance northerly of the ancient "Williams tavern."

"In a leas still preserved are these specifications for a house to be built by Edmund Rice prior to 1655. The house was to be 30 foot long, 10 foot high, 1 foot sill from the ground, 16 feet wide with two rooms, both below or one above the other , all the doors, walls, and stairs with convenient fixtures and well planked underfoot and boarded sufficiently to lay corn in the story above-head."^[12]

He was elected a Selectman at Marlborough in 1657.^[6]

He was honored with several appointments by the General Court and referred to as "Goodman Rice". He was appointed to solemnize marriages in Marlborough.

Family

Edmund Rice married first Tamazine Frost on October 15, 1618,^[13] by whom he had ten children:^[6]

1. Marie Ryce, bapt. August 23, 1619, in Stanstead, Suffolk, England. She was unmarried and died before her father.^[1]
2. Henry Ryce, bapt. February 13, 1620/21, in Stanstead^[1] died February 10, 1709–-10, married Elizabeth Moore February 1, 1641–42.
3. Edward Rice, born October 20, 1622, died August 15, 1712, married (1) Anna, (2) Agnes Bent 1646. The Holman TAG article lists the baptism of Edmund Ryce, son of Edmund Ryce, bapt. 26 October 1622 in Stanstead.^[1] The recorder of baptisms, it would seem wrote the wrong name, and it should be Edward. See Note below.
4. Thomas Ryce, bapt. January 26, 1625/6^[1], died November 16, 1681, married Mary King 1652.
5. Lydia Rice, bapt. March 9, 1627/8, in Berkhamstead^[1], died April 5, 1675, married Hugh Drury 1645.
6. Matthew Rice, bapt. February 28, 1629/30, Berkhamstead,^[1] died 1717, married Martha Lamson November 2, 1654.
7. Daniel Rice, bapt 1 Nov 1632, Berkhamstead, buried there 10 Nov. 1632.^[1]
8. Samuel Rice, bapt. November 12, 1634, Berkhamstead^[1], died February 25, 1683–84, married (1) Elizabeth King, (2) Mary Dix September 1668, (3) Sarah White December 13, 1676.
9. Joseph Rice, bapt March 13, 1637/8, in Berkhamstead,^[1] died December 23, 1711, married (1) Sarah Prescott, (2) Mary Beers, (3) Mercy King.
10. Benjamin Rice, born May 31, 1640 in Sudbury, Massachusetts,^[14][1] died December 19, 1713, in Sudbury^[5], married (1) Mary Chamberlain, (2) Mary Browne.

NOTE: Despite the presence of such in many locations (including here on WikiTree), the 1983 Edmund Rice (1638) Association publication "Supplement 2 part 1" says there is no proof that a son Edmund ever existed. An April 1714 Middlesex County probate^[15] gave the illusion of such a child, but subsequent research revealed this 1714 probate action was for son EDWARD. Somehow this probate involved the estate of the old man Edmund Rice Senior because essentially every one of his offspring had a descendant represented in that probate (see the Ward c1857 Rice book, the very same book that created the false illusion of a son Edmund).

After the death of Thomasine Frost Rice on 13 June 1654 in Sudbury, Massachusetts,^[5] Edmund Rice married second Mercy, widow of Thomas Brigham on 1 Mar 1655/6 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts.^{[16][13][17][18][19]}

Children of Edmund and Mercy:^[6]

1. Lydia Rice b. about 1657; m. James Hawkins about 1678^[20]
2. Ruth Rice b. 29 Sept 1659, Sudbury; m. Samuel Wells^[1]

After Edmund died, Mercy married (third) William Hunt in October or November 1664.^[21][17][19]

Death & Legacy

Edmund Rice died May 3, 1663, age about 69, in Marlborough, Massachusetts and was buried in the Old Burying Ground in what is now Wayland, Massachusetts.^[13][22]

Edmund Rice left no will. The inventory of his estate was taken both at Sudbury and Marlborough on 16 May 1663. His widow, Mercy (_____) (Brigham) Rice, survived him and as admnistratix, settled his estate.^{[citation needed]}

Of his twelve children, ten survived to have children of their own. According to the records, in 1858 this family numbered 1400 families and 7000 individuals.^[6]

DNA Testing

The Edmund Rice (1638) Association has conducted extensive ancestral haplotype DNA testing on males believed to have descended from Rice, identifying descendants from five of his sons. The testing also revealed an unrecorded adoption or illegitimacy that occurred.^[6]

Edmund Rice, an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony and a founder of Sudbury and Marlborough, belonged to haplogroup I1.^[23]

See Rice Family Y-DNA Project for more information

Notable Descendants

Edmund Rice was the progenitor of many eminent descendants. Among them are :

NOTE: a previous version of this profile contained a longer list, many of which have been shown to be NOT descended. Please do not add any descendants here without discussion of the evidence for it.

• Chris I. Whitten is the Founder and CEO of WikiTree.com. He is also the Founder of FreeMarket.Net, free-market.com, Henry Hazlett Foundation, hazlitt.org, libertarian.org, ifeminists.com, BureauCrash, UnitedHeroes.com, MomentofSilence.org, FAQ Farm, WikiAnswers, Answers.com. Chris is the 11th Great-Grandson of Edmond Rice via Edmund's Son Thomas Rice.

• US Congressman Edmund Rice (MN-4; 1887-1889) is listed as a 5th great grandson of Edmund Rice by the Edmund Rice (1638) Association

• US Senator Henry Mower Rice is not claimed by the Edmund Rice Association, however he is the brother of Congressman Edmund Rice above, and so should be a 5th great grandson of Edmund Rice.

• Brigadier General Edmund Rice, Medal of Honor, is documented as a 6th great grandson of Edmund Rice.

• Mary A. Rice Livermore, Civil War nurse, is the 4th great granddaughter of Edmund via his son Thomas.

• Ransom Eli Olds, of Oldsmobile Car Company fame. Some ancestries show Ransom is descended from Edmund's grandson Benjamin (via Edward) who married his first cousin. This lineage requires further research and is not presently documented, though it appears plausible.

• Stillman Pond, Mormon Pioneer [Note: Mormon records show his ancestry as being descended from Edmund's son Edward Rice and Agnes Bent.]

• A living retired NFL player has been removed from this list.

Edmund Rice (1638) Assoc. Inc.

Edmund Rice's Descendants have been holding Reunions as early as 1851. In 1912 they formed the Edmund Rice (1638) Association, and In 1934 it was incorporated under Massachusetts Law, and became the Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Incorporated. It's known as the ERA for short. Descendants and all other interested parties are welcome and encouraged to join. https://www.edmund-rice.org

Research Notes

The 1907 Brigham family genealogy gives Edmund Rice and his second wife, Mercy, a daughter named Ann Hunt, born in Marlborough on 19 Nov 1661.^[24] There was an Ann Rice born on that date, but she was Ann Rice, born in Sudbury and was the daughter of Edward Rice and Ann (Bent) Rice.^[14]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11} Mary Lovering Holman, “English Notes on Edmund Rice,” The American Genealogist, New Haven, CT: D.L. Jacobus; 10 (1933/34): 133-137.
2. ↑ published first as Donald Lines Jacobus, "Pre-American Ancestries: Edmund Rice of Sudbury, Mass.", in The American Genealogist, Vol II (1936), pp 14-21; reprinted in the fall of 1968 and the winter of 1998 issues of Newsletter of the Edmund Rice (1638) Association
3. ↑ Quote and information in this section from "Who were Edmund Rice's ancestors?" Edmund Rice (1638) Association.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Andrew Henshaw Ward, A Genealogical History of the Rice Family: Descendants of Deacon Edmund Rice, who Came from Berkhamstead, England and Settled at Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638 or 9, (1858).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Vital Records of Sudbury, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (The New England Historical and Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass. 1903) (Free e-book) pp. 322-3.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6} Edmund Rice (1638) Association; better source sought
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Alfred Sereno Hudson, The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts 1638-1889, (No location):R. H. Blodgett (1889), p. 41.
8. ↑ Charles Hudson, History of the town of Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts: from its first settlement in 1657 to 1861…, (Boston, Massachusetts, United States: T R Marvin & Sons, 1862), p 431.
9. ↑ Sumner Chilton, Powell, Puritan Village, The formation of a New England Town, Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press (2011), p 21.
10. ↑ John Buczek, History of Marlborough: An In Depth Look Source Program Book - Marlborough Tercentenary Celebration," Marlborough Tercentennial Commission; Retrieved 27 June 2009.
11. ↑ Clayton Silas Rice, ‘’We sought the wilderness,’’ (1949) p. 23.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Mary Evaline Burroughs, “Burroughs Genealogical Notes” from ‘’Memoirs of a War Bride,’’ Danton Burroughs Family Archive; in some cases citing Lillian Kimball Stewart, The Hudson Thompson Memorial (1941).
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2} Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Better source sought.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} Vital Records of Sudbury, p. 119
15. ↑ Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org): link for NEHGS members. Also at: "Probate records 1648--1924 (Middlesex County, Massachusetts)". Catalog: Probate records 1648--1924 (Middlesex County, Massachusetts) Probate papers 18607-18706 Film number: 007553751 > image 1146 of 1488. FamilySearch Image: 3QS7-99DP-1J1S.
16. ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Society, Vital Records of Sudbury, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. 1903)(Free e-book) p. 258
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1} Mrs. Brinkerhoff, "Rice Genealogy" p. 5, in The American Genealogist, 30:101. W. Vasile
18. ↑ Willard Irving Tyler Brigham, History of the Brigham Family, NY, NY: Grafton Press (1907-1927), p. 69.
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1} James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers, Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co. (1862), Volume 1, p 252.
20. ↑ Holman, Mary Lovering, and Winifred Lovering Holman, Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller, two volumes (Concord, N. H., 1953), 2:130-131 (this volume authored by W. L. Holman), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066286642;view=1up;seq=146 and https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066286642;view=1up;seq=147
21. ↑ Marlborough Vital Records, Marriages, p. 275
22. ↑ Find A Grave Memorial, Edmund Rice. Find A Grave: Memorial #29453093
23. ↑ "Rice Family DNA Project," Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
24. ↑ Brigham, W. I. Tyler, and Emma E. Brigham, The History of the Brigham Family, A Record of Several Thousand Descendants of Thomas Brigham, the Emigrant, 1603-1653 (New York, 1907), 52 (https://archive.org/details/historyofbrigham01brig/page/52)

See also:

• William Barry, "A History of Framingham, Massachusetts: Including the Plantation, from 1640 to the Present Time, with an Appendix, Containing a Notice of Sudbury and Its First Proprietors; Also, a Register of the Inhabitants of Framingham Before 1800, with Genealogical Sketches", (Boston, MA: J. Munroe and Company, 1847, 456 pages (Google eBook)
• Ella A Bigelow, Historical reminiscences of the early times in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and prominent events from 1860 to 1910 : including brief allusions to many individuals, and an account of the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, (Marlborough, Mass.: Times Pub. Co., 1910), p 156-7.[1]
• Willard Irving Tyler Brigham, and Emma Elisabeth Brigham. The History of the Brigham Family: A record of several thousand descendants of Thomas Brigham, the emigrant, 1603-1653. (New York : Grafton Press ; Rutland, Vt. : Tuttle, c1907-c1927), p. 69, 1907-1927.
• John Buczek, History of Marlborough: HISTORY: An In Depth Look Source Program Book - Marlborough Tercentenary Celebration.
• Edgar John Bullard & Gail Wheeler Prithard, Bullard and Allied Families, (Detroit, Mich.: E.J. Bullard, 1930), p 113. Digital version available to subscribers of Ancestry.com.
• William Richard Cutter, Genealogical and personal memoirs", (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Co, 1910). Google Play; Archive.org
• Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Edmund Rice Profile
• Ernest Flagg, Genealogical Notes on the Founding of New England, (Hartford, CT: Clearfield Co., 1926; Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1990, 1996). (subscription required). Ancestry.com
• Ella D. King, An Interim Tracing of the Ancestry of Valarie Daly King, 1956, p. 24.
• “Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850,” Database, www.americanancestors.org, New England Historical and Genealogical Society.
• Lucius Robinson Paige, History of Cambridge, MA 1630-1877, (Cambridge, MA: H.O. Houghton, 1877).[2]
• Lucius R. Paige, "Freemen of Massachusetts," [where?]
• Ebenezer Parker, The Story of the Rice Boys: Captured by the Indians, (Westborough Historical Society, 1906).[3]
• Harold F. Porter, Jr., “The Paternal Ancestry of Thomasine Frost, wife of Deacon Edmund(1) Rice of Sudbury, MA," in The American Genealogist, Demorest, GA: 63 (Jul 1988):129.
• Harriet Augusta Robinson, Brewer Genealogy, (self-published (1903), p 9.[4]
• James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register, (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862), 3:532.
• Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, vol. 3, pp. 259, 297, 340.
• Elsie Hawes Smith, Edmund Rice and His Family, (Boston, MA: Meador press, 1938).
• “Sudbury Records - Vitals taken from Middlesex records,” ‘’NEHG Register,’’ (Boston, MA: NEHGS), 17 (Jan 1863):170-172; 254-260; 311-315; 18 (1864):45-48;… more?...
• Josiah H. Temple, Gen Reg of Framingham Families, pp. 680-681.
• Mary F. Vance-Shaw Hosmer Heritage, Medium: Book (more details needed).
• Vital Records of Marlborough, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849, (Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1908), p. 34.
• Andrew Henshaw Ward, "A Genealogical History of the Rice Family: Descendants of Deacon Edmund Rice, who Came from Berkhamstead, England, and Settled at Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638 or 9", (Boston, MA: C.B. Richardson, 1858), 379 pages. Questionable quality (significant errors have subsequently been revealed; use with caution) Google eBook.
• Andrew Henshaw Ward, Ward family; descendants of William Ward: who settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1639, (Boston: S. G. Drake, 1851), p 17.[5][6]
• The Wheeler Family of Clermont County Ohio and Lincoln, Middlesex, Norfolk, & Worcester Counties Massachusetts, Descendants of Richard Wheeler of Dedham.Wayback Machine Archive, 25 Oct 2021
• Wikipedia Contributors, “Edmund Rice (1638),” ‘’Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,’’ 15 Aug 2013 (last revision); retrieved 7 Sept 2013.
• Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4. More volumes are available at Google Books.

Images

Edmund Rice Signature

Homestead, 2nd Home, Farm Sketch

Homestead Marker, Memorial, Plaque

The Ancient Abbey, Saint Mary's Church

St James, Stanstead, St. Peter's Church in Berkhamsted

Map of the First Roads & Houses of Sudbury

Acknowledgements

A number of people contributed to the content of this profile, including:

• J. C. Adamson, Midge Broadfoot, Alexis Connolly, Dee Christophel D'Errico, Bill DeCoursey, Buck Howe, Michael Lechner, Ted Harold Lechner; Molly Rice Patricia Short Jillaine Smith, Robert Bates Tom Elliott James Hamilton Geer Paul Murray, Richard Terrass, Carleton Procter