Ancestors
Dea. Edmund Rice
1594-1663 · Stanstead, Suffolk, England → Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England → Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts → Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Born 1594, Suffolk, England
Died 1663
Children include Samuel
He came out of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire with a wife and at least seven children and was at Sudbury by 1639, when the new town made the first of its three divisions of land and he had a share in each. No record says what ship he came in or where he landed, and there is not so much as a family tradition about it. His house stood on the east side of the Sudbury river, in the southern part of what is Wayland now, at the edge of the river meadows. He was a selectman from 1644 and a deacon of the church from 1648.
In 1656 he was one of thirteen Sudbury men who asked the General Court for a new plantation. Their petition explains why in their own words: "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." The place became Marlborough in 1660. He had a house lot of fifty acres there, in the western part of the town on the county road towards Northborough, in the bend where it passes round the north side of the pond, and he moved to it.
His wife Thomasine died at Sudbury in June 1654. In March 1655 he married Mercy, the widow of Thomas Brigham of Cambridge. He told a court in April 1656 that he was about sixty two. He died at Marlborough on 3 May 1663 and was carried back to Sudbury to be buried. He did not live to see the Indians burn the town he had founded.
Sources
ANDREW HENSHAW WARD, A Genealogical History of the Rice Family: Descendants of Deacon Edmund Rice (Boston, 1858). The register-format entries, each numbered, and the will abstracts printed under them.
SETH RICE, family (147): "SETH RICE [314.7] m. Dorothy Robinson of Marl., Feb. 27, 1727-8, and resided at Westboro', where they were ad. to ch., June 27, 1731, of which he was chosen Dea., April 19, 1738. He d. there, 1796, aged 91. His wid., Dorothy, b. Feb. 20, 1709, d. June 21, 1801, in her 93d year." Children: "896. 1 Persis, Sept. 7, 1728, m. Moses Warren. (333) 897. 2 Edmund, Oct. 30, 1729, m. Hannah Gassett. 898. 3 Dorothy, March 26, 1731, m. Phineas Maynard. 899. 4 Sarah, July 3, 1734, m. Joseph Grout. 900. 5 Ruth, May 8, 1736, d. Nov. 7, 1737. 901. 6 Seth, Nov. 9, 1737, m. Rachel Coolidge. 902. 7 Hannah, May 1, 1743." Every one of those seven matches the Westborough town book, and the town book is the primary record.
HIS FATHER, family (48): "EDMUND RICE [59.4] m. Ruth Parker, of Roxbury, Nov. 15, 1692, and resided in that part of Marl. that, by division, 1717, became Westboro'. She was the mother of all his chil., and probably d. at W. His 2d wife was Hannah Brown, of Sud., whom he m. June 23, 1720. He was one of the original members of the church at W., 1724; and d. there 1726, aged 63. His wid. Hannah, b. March 21, 1673, received from Sud. church to that of Westboro', Oct. 17, 1725, d. at Northboro', June 6, 1766, aged 93." Twelve children: Dinah 1693, Silas 1695, Timothy 1697, Nahor 1699, Huldah 1701, Moses 1703, SETH "Oct. 15, 1705, m. Dorothy Robinson," Thankful 1707, Eleazer 1709, Ruth 1712, Ebenezer 1714 and Anna 1716.
THE WILL THAT JOINS THEM: "Will of Edmund Rice, Aug. 10, 1726, proved 12th Sept., 1726, gave to wife Hannah; to son Seth, ('the eldest now with me,') the N. part of the farm; to son Eleazer, the S. part; to daus. Dinah Brigham, Huldah Wheelock, Thankful Rice, Ruth Rice, and Anna Rice. Brother Joshua Rice, and friend Caleb Rice, Ex'ors." The eldest son still at home in 1726 was Seth, because the two older boys were in Canada.
HIS GRANDFATHER, family (6): "SAMUEL RICE [6.5], was 32 years old May 2, 1666, according to his testimony on the court files at Cambridge. He m. Elizabeth King, Nov. 8, 1655, and resided at Sud. and Marl.; she d. at S., and was buried Oct. 30, 1667. His 2d wife was Mary Brown, whom he m. at Sud., Sept. 1668. Concord records say she d. June 18, 1678, should be 1675, instead of 1678. They had probably retired to Concord for a season as a place of refuge from the Indian enemy. His 3d wife was Sarah, widow of James Hosmer, Jr. of Concord, whom he m. Dec. 13, 1676. He d. at Marl., Feb. 25, 1684-5, aged about 51. The births of his four eldest chil. are on Sud. records; the births of the others are found at Marl., with the exception of that of the youngest, which is at Concord." Children: Elizabeth 1656, Hannah 1658, Joshua 1661, "59. 4 Edmund, 1663, m. Ruth Parker. (48)", Esther 1665, Samuel 1667, and more by the later wives. Edmund was born in 1663 and Elizabeth King was buried in October 1667, so she is his mother.
THE SETTLER, from the introduction: "Edmund Rice came from Barkhamstead, in the county of Hertfordshire, in England, and settled in Sudbury, Mass., in 1638 or 9; as he shared in the three divisions of land in Sudbury, the first of which was made in 1639, he was no doubt residing there at that time. No record has been found of his embarkation for this country, nor in what ship he came, or at what place he first arrived; there is not so much as tradition on the subject. The first we find of him is at Sudbury, with a wife and family of at least seven children that came over with him." "He was Selectman in 1644, and subsequent years; Dea. of the chh. 1648, and, in 1656, one of thirteen petitioners belonging to Sudbury, who besought the General Court for a new plantation." "His wife 'Tamazine' died at Sudbury, June 13, 1654; the record of her death is the only one wherein her name has been found. His 2d wife was 'Mercie,' wid. of Thomas Brigham of Cambridge; whom he married, March 1, 1655." "He died at Marlboro', May 3, 1663, and was buried at Sudbury. A deposition of his on the court files at Cambridge states his age, April 3, 1656, to be 'about 62 years', hence he was born about 1594, and about 69 years old when he died." Inventory taken 15 May 1663 by Thomas King, John Woods and John Stone, 566 pounds; a second paper in the Probate Office puts the estate at 743 pounds 8 shillings 4 pence.
WHAT IS PRIMARY HERE AND WHAT IS NOT. Ward worked from the town books, the church records and the Middlesex probate files, and he quotes the wills. He is a serious compiler and he is still a compiler. The Westborough entries on Seth and his children have been checked against the printed town book and agree; the Sudbury, Marlborough and Concord entries above him have not been. W. I. TYLER BRIGHAM, The History of the Brigham Family: a Record of Several Thousand Descendants of Thomas Brigham the Emigrant, 1603-1653 (New York, 1907).
"1 THOMAS BRIGHAM, born probably in England in 1603; died in Cambridge, Mass., 8 Dec., 1653; married, probably in 1637, Mercy Hurd, born probably in England; died in Marlboro, Mass., 23 Dec, 1693." The passenger list: "VIII April 1635. Theis under written are to be transported to New England imbarqued in the Suzan and Ellen, Edward Payne Mr (Master). The p'ties have brought certificates from ye Ministers and Justices of the peace yt they are no subsidy men; and are conformable to ye orders and discipline of the Church of England. Thomas Brigham 32." "Aboard the same ship were Symon Crosby and his wife and infant, future neighbors in Cambridge; Ralph Hudson and Percival Green, who were to be fellow-townsmen there, and also two boys, Benjamin and Daniel, with their father, the learned and reverend Peter Bulkley," who founded Concord that year.
MERCY: "Thomas Brigham married probably in 1637 his wife Mercy, but of this date there is no record. We know she must have been a woman of unusual strength, force and determination. The Rev. Abner Morse says, on the authority of tradition, that her maiden name was Mercy Hurd, that she was 10 or 15 years younger than her husband, and that, persecuted in England for nonconformity, she came to New England with her sister, who married William (?) Cutter. Tradition should be taken as a clue to the truth rather than truth itself." "She married for her second husband, 1 March, 1655, Edmund Rice, then of Sudbury, but who removed in 1660 to Marlboro, where he died 3 May, 1663." "Mercy married, 1664, as her third husband, William Hunt."
MARY, second generation: "2 MARY, daughter of Thomas and Mercy (Hurd) Brigham; born probably in Cambridge, Mass., about 1638; died in Watertown, in 1676; married John Fay, the emigrant, who settled in Marlboro, Mass., and died 5 May, 1690, ae. 50. Mary was the first Brigham born in America, and as such deserves especial mention. Paige, in his History of Cambridge, chronicles that 'Mary went to Sudbury and Marlboro with her mother, brothers and sister, when her father died, where she married John Fay of Marlboro.'" The book prints the 1703 suit from Middlesex Deeds xiii 527, in which "John Fay & Samll Fay children of Mary Faye all of Marlburrough" stand among the heirs of Thomas Brigham against the buyer of the Cambridge homestead.
The surname HURD rests on Abner Morse's tradition and the compiler says so. It is the name she is known by in every printed account. Ward, in 1858, could find nothing of Edmund Rice before Sudbury. The work since then, as the Edmund Rice (1638) Association sets it out in its six-generation database and as the standard accounts summarise it, runs: EDMUND RICE married THOMASINE FROST on 15 October 1618 at St Mary's church, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Their children were baptised at St James, STANSTEAD, in Suffolk: Mary, 23 August 1619; Henry, 13 February 1620/1; Edward, 20 October 1622; Thomas, 26 January 1625/6. The family then moved to BERKHAMSTED in Hertfordshire, where the next were baptised at St Peter's: Lydia, 9 March 1627/8; Matthew, 28 February 1628/9; Daniel, 1 November 1632, who died ten days later; SAMUEL, 12 November 1634; and Joseph, 13 March 1637/8. The crossing falls between that last baptism and 6 September 1638, when the Sudbury petitioners were all of Watertown.
The printed articles behind this are in The American Genealogist: the English-origin work in volumes 10 (1934) and 11, the marriage in volume 15, and Harold F. Porter's "The Paternal Ancestry of Thomasine Frost" in volume 63 (1988). The account above follows the Association's summary of them, and Thomasine's own parents, which Porter's article supplies, are not given.
From this, Thomasine has a surname, Samuel has a baptism and a parish, and the deacon's move from Suffolk to Hertfordshire in 1626 explains why Ward found him "from Barkhamstead" and nothing earlier. If Dea. Edmund Rice is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Dea. Edmund Rice (1594-1663)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/dea-edmund-rice-1594-1663-1b8849.