Ancestors
Thomasine Frost
1600-1654
Born 1600, Stanstead, Suffolk, England
Died 1654
Father: Edward Frost
Children include Samuel
Thomasine Frost was christened at St James's, Stanstead, in Suffolk on 11 August 1600, a daughter of Edward Frost, clothier, and his wife Thomasine. Her eldest sister Elizabeth had married Henry Rice there when Thomasine was five. Her father made his will in July 1616 and left something to each of his five daughters; she was the youngest of them and still Thomasine Frost. He was buried that August.
She married Edmund Rice at St Mary's in Bury St Edmunds in October 1618 and had her first four children christened at Stanstead, in her father's church: Mary in 1619, Henry in 1621, Edward in 1622 and Thomas in 1626. Henry and Edward were her sister Elizabeth's husband's name and her father's. In 1626 the family moved to Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, where five more were christened, one of them buried ten days old. In 1638, with the youngest not six months old, they crossed to Massachusetts and settled on the Sudbury river meadows. She died there on 13 June 1654. The Sudbury clerk wrote her Tamazine, and for two hundred years that one entry was the only record of her name.
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. 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. Mary Lovering Holman, "English Notes on Edmund Rice," The American Genealogist and New Haven Genealogical Magazine 10, no. 3 (January 1934), pages 133 to 137, from the Stanstead register as sent by its rector and the will in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 129 Cope (archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1934-01_10_3).
"Edward Frost of Stanstead, co. Suffolk, clothier, will dated 26 July 1616, proved 4 Oct. 1616. I make bequests to Thomasine my wife, William Frost my son; my five daughters, Elizabeth, now the wife of Henry Rice; Anne now the wife of Laurence Collen; Alice, wife of Thomas Blower, Mary Frost and Thomasine Frost; and to Edward Rice, son of my daughter Elizabeth Rice. Executrix, my wife Thomasine. Witnesses, Ambrose Bigges, senior & Ambrose Bigges, junior."
Stanstead baptisms: "1600 Thomasine Frost daughter of Edward Frost Aug. 11." Marriages: "1605 Henry Ryce to Elizabeth Frost November." Burials: "1616 Edward Frost was buried August 3." "1621 Henry Ryce was buried November." Baptisms: "1619 Marie the daughter of Edmund Ryce 23 August. 1620 Henry Ryce the son of Edmund Ryce 13 February. 1622 Edmund Ryce the son of Edmund Ryce 26 October. 1625 Thomas Ryce the son of Edmund Ryce 26 January."
If Thomasine Frost is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Thomasine Frost (1600-1654)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomasine-frost-1600-1654-36e2f6.