Thomas Rice Sr. (bef. 1626 - 1681)

Born before 26 Jan 1626 in Stanstead, Suffolk, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (King) Rice — married 1651 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 16 Nov 1681 after age 55 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Jillaine Smith [send private message] and Rolland Rice [send private message]

Biography

Thomas Rice Sr. immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

Thomas Rice^[1][2][3] was baptized on 26 January 1625/26 at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England.^[4] He was the son of Deacon Edmund Rice and Thomasine Frost.

Note that the "History of Marlborough" and the "Rice Family" (Andrew H. Ward) cited here asserts no specific birth date and location for the English children of Edmund Rice but both say he was from Barkhamstead, Hertfordshire (without citing a source). The "Genealogical Register" source cited here asserts a specific christening date for all children along with a 1618 marriage at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk for Edmund Rice and first wife Thomasine Frost. While this pubilcation does not list it's source, the level of detail implies that parish registers matching this family structure were found. No such record is found at freereg, findmypast or familysearch nor is it found in the BSE St. James transcript^[5] (possibly it appears in BSE St. Mary where Edmund "Rise" married Thomasin Frost).

Mary Lovering Holman asserted in her publication on this family that the first three children of Edmund Rice were christened at Stanstead, Suffolk before his 1627 appearance at Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire and that those parish records (or information from them) were sent to her by the rector at Stanstead.^[6]

Thomas Rice probably arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1638, with his father Edmund Rice and family (although no passenger list has been found that names them). ^[7]

Marriage

Thomas Rice married Mary King in 1651 at Sudbury, MA, (not found in the published records). Thomas Rice died on 16 November 1681 at Sudbury.^[8]

He and Mary King resided in 1664 at Marlborough, MA. The Boston Gazette, of 26 December 1768, communicates the subject of the longevity of Thomas' children. Article contains errors regarding the age of Thomas. Follow up article: Middlesex News Extra, Jun 8-14, 1984. Thomas was a proprietor.

Children

1. Grace, born unknown, died 3 Jan 1653/4
2. Thomas, born 30 June 1654, married Mary; married 2nd Anna Rice
3. Mary, born 4 Sep 1656, married Josiah White
4. Peter, born 24 Oct 1658, married Rebecca How
5. Nathaniel, born 3 Jan 1660, married Sarah Stone
6. Sarah, born 16 Jan 1662, married John Adams
7. Ephraim, born 15 Apr 1665, married Hannah Livermore
8. Gershom, born 9 May 1667, married Elizabeth Balcom
9. James, born 6 Mar 1669, married Sarah Stone
10. Frances, born 3 Feb 1670/1, married Benjamin Allen
11. Jonas, born 6 Mar 1672/3, married Mary Stone
12. Grace, born 16 Jan 1675, married Nathaniel Moore
13. Elisha, born 11 Dec 1679, married Elizabeth Wheeler

Sources

1. ↑ History of the town of Marlborough, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, from its first settlement in 1657 to 1861; with a brief sketch of the town of Northborough, a genealogy of the families in Marlborough to 1800, and an account of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incoporation of the town by Hudson, Charles, 1795-1881; Allen, Joseph, 1790-1873 Publication date 1862 Publisher Boston, Press of T. R. Marvin & son p. 431 which does not assert a specific birth date for Thomas
2. ↑ 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 by Ward, Andrew Henshaw, 1784-1864 Publication date 1858 Publisher Boston : C.B. Richardson p. 6
3. ↑ Edmund Rice Association, www.edmund-rice.org
4. ↑ "A Genealogical Register of Edmund Rice Descendants", compiled by The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc.; privately printed for the Association by Charles E. Tuttle Company: Publishers, 1970, Rutland, VT, pp. 1 - 2.
5. ↑ Bury St. Edmunds. St. James parish registers .. by Bury Saint Edmunds (England). St. James Parish; Hervey, Sydenham Henry Augustus, 1846- ed Publication date 1915 Publisher Bury St. Edmunds, Paul & Mathew p. 94
6. ↑ Mary Lovering Holman, "Notes on Edmund Rice", The American Genealogist, Vol. X, p. 134.
7. ↑ Profile of Thomas' father Edmund Rice
8. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," Middlesex> County records, births> marriages, deaths 1651-1793, familysearch.org database online (Salt Lake City, UT: 1972) [1].

See also:

• Margaret Skinner Rice, Rice Family - S2/P1, p. 1.
• "Sudbury, MA Vital Records," published in NEHG Register, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1863 Volume, page 314
• New England Marriages Prior to 1700 about Thomas Rice & Mary King
• Coombs, Jan Gregoire. Coombs Family History (Janet Pulvermacher, Middleton, Wisconsin, 2013) Page 11