Deacon Edmund RICE

Abt 1594 - 1663  (~ 69 years)

• Name	Edmund RICE
  Title	Deacon
  Birth	Abt 1594	England
  Gender	Male
  Death	3 May 1663	Marlborough, Middlesex County, MA
  Burial	Aft 3 May 1663	Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA
  Notes	(1) According to Anderson, Robert Charles, "Philemon Whale's English Account Book, 1632, 1633," American Ancestors, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter 2018), p. 47, Edmund RICE was a brother of Henry RICE. Following is an extract from that article: "On 24 January 1621/2, Philemon Whale and Elizabeth Rice were married at Bury St. Edmunds St Mary, Suffolk. Philemon's bride was Elizabeth (Frost) Rice, daughter of Edward and Thomasine (Belgrave) Frost of Stanslead, Suffolk, and widow of Henry Rice. Edmund Rice, brother of Henry, had married Thomasine Frost, sister of Elizabeth, at Bury St. Edmunds in 1618. Thus, the Rice brothers had married two Frost sisters, and so by marrying Henry's widow, Philemon Whale in early 1622 became Edmund Rice's brother-in-law. "After their marriages, Edmund Rice and Philemon Whale resided for most of the 1620s at Stanstead, Suffolk, where their wives' parents lived. About 1627 both men moved to Great Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where they remained until their departures for New England, Rice in 1638 or 1639 and Philemon Whale about 1641." (2) According to Threlfall, John Brooks, Fifty Great Migration Colonists to New England and Their Origins, Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2008, p. 85, Henry RICE was probably an elder brother of Edmund RICE, possibly his father. (3) Holman, Winifred Lovering, Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller, Vol. II, Concord, NH: 1952, p. 109: Apparently Edmund [Rice] had an elder brother, Henry, who m. Nov. 1605, Stanstead, Elizabeth Frost, elder sister of Thomasine, Edmund's first wife. Henry d. Nov. 1621; no estate has been found for him. He had issue: (Rice), Henry, bur. Sept. 1608; Edward, bapt. May 1608, named in will of Edward Frost, in 1616; Henry, bapt. Feb. 1609-10; Elizabeth, bapt. 18 Nov. 1612; Mary, bapt. June 1615; Ann, bapt. Mar. 1617-18; as recorded in the parish of St. James', Stanstead. (4) Edmund RICE, of Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA may have been related to Richard RICE, of neighboring Concord, Middlesex County, MA. Thus far, however, the compiler has found no evidence to connect them. (5) Who was Edmund Rice? <http://www.edmund-rice.org/edmund.htm>: Edmund Rice arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1638. Our first record of his presence is in Township Book of the Town of Sudbury in the year 1639. Regrettably, no ship's passenger list has survived and we have no record of Edmund Rice and his family before 1639 so we can not be certain when or where he and his family arrived in the New World. Knowing the names of Edmund Rice's children at Sudbury, family historians have traced his family back to England using church baptismal records for his children and, eventually, to his marriage to Thomasine Frost on 15 October 1618 at Bury St. Edmunds. However, we have found no record of his baptism or any other record that names his parents. Read more about the search for Edmund Rice's ancestry. 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. Edmund Rice was one of the prominent leaders of his community at both Sudbury and Marlborough. 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." and "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." If your ancestry goes back to Sudbury, be sure to read Powell's superb account of the development of this New England town in the mid 17th century. Although much respected by his fellow townsmen, Edmund seems to have had an independent side to his nature. In 1656 Edmund Rice and others petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a new town which became the City of Marlborough. Edmund moved his immediate family and was elected a Selectman at Marlborough in 1657. Later generations of Rices were founding members of many new communities, first in New England and Nova Scotia, and later across the United States and Canada. Like many early New England families, Edmund Rice's family was a very large one. Of his twelve children, ten survived to have children of their own. Edmund Rice's descendants through his great great grandchildren number nearly 1,450. This pattern of large families seems to have continued well into the 19th century. The result is that many living people can trace their ancestry to Edmund Rice. (6) "Deacon Edmund Rice" <http://www.edmund-rice.org/era5gens/p30.htm#i1>: Deacon Edmund Rice was born circa 1594 in England, but no record of his birth or christening has been found. He married Thomasine Frost, daughter of Edward Frost and Thomasine Belgrave, on 15 October 1618 in Saint Marys Church, Bury Saint Edmunds, co Suffolk, England. Deacon Edmund Rice married Mercy (?) on 1 March 1655/56 in Sudbury, MA (literally 1655), registered as Mary Brigham. Deacon Edmund Rice died on 3 May 1663 in Sudbury, MA (not found in the published records). He was buried in May 1663 in Sudbury (Wayland), MA. The Marlborough vital records show that he was buried in Sudbury, but they do not indicate the location any more precisely than that. One possible site of the grave is marked by a monument designed by Arthur Wallace Rice of Boston, MA. It was dedicated by the Edmund Rice Association on 29 August 1914. A boulder with a bronze tablet was also erected by the Association and it marks Edmund's homestead on the Old Connecticut Path in Wayland. He and Thomasine Frost resided in 1627 in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England. In 1638 Edmund Rice acquired 4 acres in then Sudbury (now Wayland) and laid out in the fall of that year. He was one of the first to build in the area. According to Massachusetts Colonial Records, Volume 1, page 271, on 4 September 1639 Edmund Rice was one of the committee appointed by the Massachusetts General Court to lay out the land in Sudbury. Edmund Rice's house was situated on the "Old North Street", near Mill brook. He received his proportion of "Meadowlands", which were divided "to the present inhabitants" under dates of 4 September 1639, 20 April, and 18 November 164_, his share being 42½ acres. He shared in all the division of Uplands and Commons - the total number of acres which fell to his lot, as an original inhabitant, was 247. Deacon Edmund Rice was a Selectman in 1639, 1643, 1644 and subsequent years; a Deacon of the church in 1648, and, in 1656, one of the petitioners for a new plantation that became known as Marlborough in Sudbury, MA. He was a deputy to the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the Massachusetts legislature) representing the Town of Sudbury, serving in 1640, 1652, 1653, and 1654. He was designated a Freeman on 13 May 1640 in Massachusetts. He was appointed by the General Court to decide small cases in the town of Sudbury in the years 1641, 1646, and 1648. He resided after 1656 in Marlborough, MA, lived on "The Great Road" on the northerly side of the pond (Cochituate Pond), not far from Williams Tavern. The pond is also spelled Wachittuate, Caochituet, Chochichawicke, Coijchawicke, Catchchauitt, Charchittawick, Katchetuit, Cochichawauke, or Cochichowicke. Twice in the 20th century nationally recognized research genealogists have attempted to determine the parents and ancestors of Edmund Rice. Mary Lovering Holman described the negative result of her search for records in the parishes near Stanstead and Sudbury, Suffolk County, England in "English Notes on Edmund Rice", The American Genealogist, Volume 10 (1933/34), pp. 133-137. Mrs Holman is considered by many to be one of the best research genealogists in the 20th century. In 1997 the Edmund Rice (1638) Association commissioned Dr. Joanna Martin, a nationally recognized research genealogist who lives in Hitcham, Suffolk, England, only a few miles from Stanstead and Sudbury, to search again for records of Edmund Rice's parents. Dr. Martin reported in 1999 that she found no record that identified Edmund's parents or ancestral line. Several authors of published works and computer data sets have claimed names for Edmund Rice's parents. Regrettably they have not given sources that would assist in definitive genealogical research. For example, the Ancestral File and International Genealogical Index, two popular computer data sets widely distributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, offer parent candidates that include: Henry Rice and Margaret Baker, Henry Rice and Elizabeth Frost, Thomas Rice and Catherine Howard, and Thomas Rice and Elizabeth Frost. From Mrs. Holman's paper we have an excellent record of one Henry Rice's marriage to Elizabeth Frost in November 1605 at Stanstead. Mrs. Holman also documents the baptism of Edmund's first child on 23 August 1619 at Stanstead. If this is the Henry Rice and Elizabeth Frost to which the LDS records refer, the LDS records must be erroneous. Our researchers have not been able to find records that support any Henry Rice and Elizabeth Frost, Henry Rice and Margaret Baker, Thomas Rice and Catherine Howard, or Thomas Rice and Elizabeth Frost as parents of Edmund Rice. A scholarly investigation by Donald Lines Jacobus, considered by many as the dean of modern American genealogy, appeared in The American Genealogist, volume 11, (1936), pp. 14-21 and was reprinted in the fall of 1968 and the winter of 1998 issues of Newsletter of the Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Jacobus traced many of the false accounts to the book by Dr. Charles Elmer Rice entitled "By the Name of Rice", privately published by Dr. Rice at Alliance, Ohio in 1911. Sudbury, England includes three parishes, two of which do not have complete records for the years near 1594, which is Edmund's most likely birth year. Edmund Rice deposed in a court document on 3 April 1656 that he was about 62 years old. Thus, if he were born in Sudbury his records have been lost and we may never know his origin. 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. The Edmund Rice (1638) Association is very interested in proving the ancestry of Edmund Rice. The association encourages anyone who can identify a primary source that names Edmund and his parents to identify that source. Records of a baptism, estate probate, or land transaction naming Edmund and his parents are the most likely records to contain that proof. Until someone can cite such a record, the association must state emphatically that Edmund Rice's parents and ancestry are not known and that Edmund Rice's descendants can not claim royal ancestry. Children of Deacon Edmund Rice and Thomasine Frost: • Mary Rice • Henry Rice • Deacon Edward Rice • Thomas Rice • Lydia Rice • Matthew Rice • Daniel Rice • Samuel Rice • Joseph Rice • Benjamin Rice Children of Deacon Edmund Rice and Mercy (?): • Lydia Rice • Ruth Rice © Copyright 2002, 2019 by the Edmund Rice (1638) Association. (7) www.findagrave.com: Deacon Edmund Rice Birth: 1594, Haverhill, England Death: May 3, 1663, Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA His first wife was Thomasine (Frost) Rice. His second wife was Mercy Hurd Brigham Rice, widow of Thomas Brigham. She later married William Hunt. His parents are unknown, but he was a brother of Henry Rice, who married Thomasine Frost's sister Elizabeth. He was of Berkhempstead, Co.Hertfordshire, England, and he married Thomasine Frost Oct 15, 1618 at Bury St. Edmund's, Co. Suffolk. Children(by first marriage): Henry Rice, Edward Rice, Thomas Rice, Lydia (Rice) Drury, Matthew Rice, Samuel Rice, Joseph Rice, Benjamin Rice, Edmund Rice Jr, and Daniel Rice. Children(by second marriage): Ruth (Rice) Welles, Ann Rice, and Mary Rice. From Ken Smith #46985536: "Edmund Rice was born in England. According to a deposition he made in 1656, at which date he claimed to be about 62 years old, he was probably born about 1594. Edmund married Thomasine Frost in St. Mary's Church at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk on October 15, 1618. ["]They had four children who were baptized at Stanstead, Suffolk by 1626. About that time, they must have moved to Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire. Five more children were born to the couple there. ["]Around 1638 they left England and sailed for America. The settled for a short time in Watertown, then moved to Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1693. That place is where Edmund is first mentioned in the records of the records of New England. At that time he had a wife and seven children, two of their children having died young. Edmund and Thomasine had one more child born in Sudbury. ["]Edmund shared in all three division[s] of land there. His home in Sudbury was on the east side of the river, in the southerly part of what is now Wayland. He build up a large farm by renting, buying and selling land near Dudley Pond in present Wayland. In fact, that part of Sudbury came to be known as Rice's End. ["]He was a selectman in 1644, deacon of the church in 1648. ["]Thomasine died in Sudbury on June 13, 1654, and Edmund married second, Mercy, widow of Thomas Brigham of Cambridge on March 1, 1655. Mercy also bore Edmund two children. ["]Although he was one of the largest landholders in Sudbury, Edmund was one of the petitioners of 1656, asking the General Court to grant a new plantation to the west. The petition was granted, and the new town was incorporated with the name of Marlborough in 1660. Edmund immediately moved to Marlborough, received a house lot of fifty acres on the west side of the town, north of the pond and became a leader in his new town. ["]Edmund died in Marlborough on May 3, 1663 and was buried at North Cemetery in Wayland. The grave is marked by a monument designed by Arthur Wallace Rice of Boston, Massachusetts. It was dedicated by the Rice Association on August 29, 1914. A boulder with a bronze tablet was also erected by the Association which marks Edmund's homestead, on the Old Connecticut Path in Wayland. ["]Edmund's burial is recorded in Marlborough vital records as "At Sudbury". ["]The value of his estate in both Sudbury and Marlborough was 566 pounds in addition to 170 Pounds for his home and land in Marlborough. Edmund died intestate, and a petition for the division of his estate was brought to the court on June 16, 1663. She later returned to the court and asked that the division be suspended, pending clarification of the portion of the estate given to son Benjamin. Mercy married, for her third husband, William Hunt of Marlborough in 1664." Family links: Spouses: Thomasine Frost Rice (1600 - 1654), Mercy Hurd Brigham Rice Hunt (1615 - 1693); Children: Mary Rice Maynard (1619 - 1680), Henry Rice (1620 - 1711), Edward Rice (1622 - 1712), Thomas Rice (1625 - 1681), Lydia Rice Drury (1627 - 1675), Samuel Rice (1634 - 1685), Joseph Rice (1638 - 1711), Ruth Rice Welles (1659 - 1742) Note: This is a large monument and lists his wife and a son and a grandson and their wives. Burial: North Cemetery, Wayland, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA Created by: Charles Waid Record added: Aug 31, 2008 Find A Grave Memorial# 29453093
  Person ID	I5063	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	--- RICE
  Family ID	F16691	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Thomasine FROST,   b. Bef 11 Aug 1600, Stanstead, Suffolk, England d. 13 Jun 1654, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 53 years)
  Marriage	15 Oct 1618	St. Mary's, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England   [1]
  Children	1. Mary RICE,   b. Bef 18 Aug 1619, Stanstead, Suffolk, England d. Bef 1638, England (Age < 18 years)   2. Henry RICE,   b. Bef 13 Feb 1621, Stanstead, Suffolk, England d. 10 Feb 1711, Framingham, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 89 years)   3. Deacon Edward RICE,   b. Bef 20 Oct 1622, Stanstead, Suffolk, England d. 15 Aug 1712, Marlborough, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 89 years)   4. Thomas RICE,   b. Bef 26 Jan 1626, Stanstead, Suffolk, England d. 16 Nov 1681, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 55 years)   5. Lydia RICE,   b. Bef 9 Mar 1628, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England d. 5 Apr 1675, Boston, Suffolk County, MA (Age > 47 years)   6. Matthew RICE,   b. Bef 28 Feb 1629, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England d. 1717, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 87 years)   7. Daniel RICE,   b. Bef 1 Nov 1632, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England d. Bef 10 Nov 1632, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England (Age < 0 years)   8. Samuel RICE,   b. Bef 12 Nov 1634, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England d. 25 Feb 1685, Marlborough, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 50 years)   9. Joseph RICE,   b. Bef 13 Mar 1638, Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England d. 23 Dec 1711, Stow, Middlesex County, MA (Age > 73 years)   10. Benjamin RICE,   b. 31 May 1640, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA d. 19 Dec 1713, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA (Age 73 years)
  Family ID	F2810	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family 2	Mercy (BRIGHAM),   b. Abt 1618, England d. 28 Dec 1693, Marlborough, Middlesex County, England (Age ~ 75 years)
  Marriage	1 Mar 1656	Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA
  Children	1. Lydia RICE,   b. Abt 1657, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA d. 1709 (Age ~ 52 years)   2. Ruth RICE,   b. 29 Sep 1659, Sudbury, Middlesex County, MA d. 30 Mar 1742, Glastonbury, Hartford County, CT (Age 82 years)
  Family ID	F2855	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

• Sources

  Details: Details: Details: Details: Details: Details: Details: Details: Details: Citation Text: (1) Holman, Mary Lovering, "The Wife of EdmundRice," The American Genealogist, Vol. 15 (1938), p. 227: Marriage Register of St. Mary, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England: 1618 October Edmunde Rise & Thomasin Frost.