Edmund Rice Homestead East Sudbury, MA

Edmund Rice (1638) Association 24 Buckman Dr., Chelmsford MA 01824 Vol. 77, No. 2   Spring 2003 © Copyright 2003 by the Edmund Rice (1638) Association return to: [Information page]  [ ERA Main page]

President's Column:
    Genealogy is in grave danger of being smothered by false information arising from the Internet. The Internet's email system also has been badly damaged by SPAM. -Those ads one gets as he or she clicks on "you've got mail". The Internet arose from the need of ARPA (the Advance Research Projects Agency) to rapidly communicate with all the labs across the country. It was built upon trust and non-commercial use. Now greed in various forms is transforming this marvel of the world. No one monitors anything that is put on the web for veracity. Each user must do that and some new genealogists are not doing it.
    Many genealogy groups both local and national are suffering because people wrongly think they can do all their genealogy on line. The Edmund Rice Association luckily has so far not lost membership; in fact it has grown slightly to almost 500 dues-paying members.
    But if one were to type EDMUND RICE into a box of many search engines they would get mostly mis-information. They would be told the following from Family Search of LDS:
Birth, 1594, Of Stanstead, Suffolk, England; Christening, 11 Aug 1600, Buckinghamshire, Sudbury, England; Death 3 May 1663, Marlboro, Massachusetts, Burial May 1663 Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts.
    Only the death and burial are accurate. (Buckinghamshire is a county but Sudbury is a town in another county, Suffolk.) Furthermore they would be told that for his parents there were three choices: Henry (Thomas) Rice and Margaret Baker; or Henry Rice and Elizabeth Frost; Thomas Rice and Catherine Howard. All are wrong. WE DO NOT KNOW HIS PARENTS or when and where he was born.
    If you used Ancestry.com you would get back 2063 entries for Edmund Rice. For the first four you would be told:
1. Birth, abt 1594, Stanstead, England, death May 1663, Marlboro, MA., Father Thomas Rice, Spouses Mercy Hurd, Thomasine Frost
2. Birth nothing, death 1663, Marlboro, Spouse Mercy Hurd
3. Birth, 1594, Berkhamstead, death 1663 no place, Spouse Tamazine Hosmer, Mercy (2) UNKNOWN.
4. Birth NOTHING, death, NOTHING, spouse NOTHING, Father, Edmund Rice, Mother, Thomasine Frost. (Edmund did not have a son named Edmund).
    One could go on and on with other search engines to say nothing of message boards and individual web sites. If lucky you would be directed to our ERA web site. This inaccuracy has been known for many years. I am sure that both LDS and Ancestry know these entries are false as are many many others but they have chosen to do nothing to correct them. They advertise the millions or billions of names they have instead.
    In discussing genealogy from the Internet some of us at a local genealogy society concluded that the only response to someone who says they have gotten genealogical information from the Internet is to just START LAUGHING. If it is explained how the person verified the information then it is OK to stop laughing.
    Any better suggestions?
    All this is not to say the Internet is useless, it is not but must be used with caution and verification.

Bob Rice
P.S. Just in case: For accurate information about Edmund Rice see: www.edmund-rice.org

Editor's Column:
    This is my first newsletter of any kind since doing the gossip column for the school paper in seventh grade. Fortunately, I don't have to dig up juicy gossip anymore (and then get in trouble for it), so this should be comparatively easy.
    I think there are some other very interesting articles in this issue, particularly for me Gary Rice's on his Coat of Arms, and John Chandler's on "The Family Thicket". I thought coats of arms came from antiquity and had no idea that Canadians can have one designed for them, nor did I expect all the symbolism that a creative person can get into one design. And I'm sure that most of you have noticed, as  John did, how inter-related families were, especially in the early days of this country, resulting more in family thickets than nice, neat family trees.
    Very often, the articles are from the same people time after time. I assume they send them in because they enjoy doing it, but don't feel like they have a monopoly. I think it would be great to get contributions from a wider range of people, and I'd love to worry about having too much. If you have an idea, but aren't sure how to go about it, contact me and we can discuss it. Likewise if you'd like to contribute something, but don't know what to write about - together we could come up with ideas.
    As a former gossip columnist, I still think it is interesting and important to know about the milestones in the lives of us, the members. Send me that kind of stuff, it reminds us while we're poking around in the genealogical past that we a community of cousins.
    And let me know what you think, what you like and dislike about what is in the newsletter, or what is missing.

Lynn McLaughlin

An Armigerous North American

    It is my good fortune to have been gifted by my American and Canadian ancestors with dual citizenship. Because of this, I sometimes think of myself as a North American. This legacy allows me to enjoy the rights, and discharge the responsibilities, that were endowed by two great democracies. On the one hand, for example, I am rarely if ever hassled by immigration official when entering or leaving either country. And, I may vote in both countries, or elect to work and reside wherever I choose, and whenever I choose, anywhere between the Rio Grande and the North Pole.
    One the other side of the coin though, I am obliged to file separate annual tax returns with both the United States IRS, and the Canadian Revenue Agency.
    There are also historical differences that influence one's life. The United States Republic, born in revolution by 13 British colonies in 1776, largely severed America's British connection. Also, its Constitution provided for one elected individual, the President, to fulfill the responsibilities of Head of State and Head of Government. Conversely, Canada, retained its British ties until 1867, when its four British colonies were peacefully united as a Constitutional Monarchy. Under Canada's system, the functions of Head of State and Head of Government are separated. The Head of State is the Queen's representative in Canada, i.e., an appointed Governor General, and the Head of Government is an elected Prime Minister.
    Heraldry is a celebration based on ancient symbols of the sense people have of themselves, personally and in groups. The tradition of using distinguishing marks goes back more than eight centuries when nobles decorated the shields they used in jousting matches. Heraldry has been more broadly practised in the years since, to signify not just the individual, but societies and even nations.
    Until 1988, Canadian organizations and individuals wishing lawful armorial bearings petitioned Queen Elizabeth's traditional heraldic officers in London and Edinburgh. On that date, by Royal Letters Patent, Her Majesty transferred the exercise of her heraldic prerogative to the Governor General of Canada. The Canadian Heraldic Authority was then established within the office of the Governor General. With its creation, Canada recognized the important part heraldic symbols play in fostering Canadian identity and in visually dramatizing its history, geography and aspirations. The Heraldic Authority provides an indigenous mechanism for granting new coats of arms to Canadian communities, corporations, associations and individuals. The Authority gives all Canadians the opportunity to shape new symbols for themselves, individually and collectively.
    Requests for new arms take the form of a "petition" addressed to the Chief Herald of Canada, in a letter stating the wish "to receive armorial bearings from the Canadian Crown under the powers exercised by the Governor General".
    For individuals, it is necessary to forward with the letter: proof of Canadian citizenship; a current biographical sketch that includes educational and employment background , as well as details of voluntary and community service. They may also be asked for names of people to be contacted as confidential references.

Three categories of armorial bearings may be requested: coats of arms, flags and badges. A coat of arms is centred on a shield and may be displayed with a helmet, mantling, a crest and a motto. A grant of supporters is limited to corporate bodies and to some individuals in specific categories. Figure 1 illustrates these components.      Grants of armorial bearings, as an honour, recognize the contribution made to the community by the petitioner. The background information is therefore an important tool for the Chief Herald of Canada to assess the eligibility of the request. After review, the Chief Herald may then seek a warrant from the Herald Chancellor (Secretary to the Governor General) to grant the arms or other heraldic device deemed fitting in particular circumstances.

Figure 1

If the warrant is issued, detailed design discussions are undertaken under the supervision of the Chief Herald. Once agreement has been reached regarding the content of the new symbol, Letters Patent are prepared, setting out the terms of the grant and providing paintings of the new arms.     The Government of Canada requires that the petitioner cover all direct costs related to the grant of armorial bearings. These are not inconsiderable, and include a fixed processing fee plus variable costs of artwork, research and Letters Patent preparation. The average time required to complete a grant is 12 to 14 months after the warrant has been signed. Grants of armorial bearings are made by the Crown to be valid forever. As a result, a sufficient amount of time is required to complete each grant.      I first petitioned the Chief Herald in November, 2000. My Letters Patent (grant of  arms) was finally received in May 2003. It is shown in Figure 2.     Shield: The symbolism of the six compartment shield is manifold. The predominant colours of red and white are the national colours of my Canadian homeland. The colour red also signifies a guardsman's tunic, emblematic of the military service of myself, my father, and our American and Canadian familys' predecessors. The shamrock division line points to Ireland, the mother country of my wife's Murphy forebears. The pine trees are an historic symbol of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and appear on the famous pine tree shilling of the 17th century. They honour my familial connections to the Rice and Royce families of colonial New England, and my paternal grandfather's contribution to the Ottawa Valley lumber trade. They also attest that we have three children. The Maltese Cross suspended below the shield recognizes my service to the Venerable Order of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, while the Canadian Forces Decoration acknowledges my service to Canada.     Crest: The red dragon symbolizes the Welsh homeland of my Rhys progenitors and its collar of white roses marks England as the mother country of my Royce antecedents. The blue sword signifies fidelity to the profession of arms. The blue double-bitted woodsman's axe symbolizes the role of my Surtees great-grandfather in the founding of the Upper Canada Village of Clarence and my paternal great-grandfather's work as a cobbler in Lower Canada's Wakefield Village. The coronet, comprised of alternating white maple leaves and white stars, attests to my dual Canadian and United States citizenship, and the knight's helmet with a mantling and wreath in the shield's red and white colours symbolizes my life-long devotion to the Canadian Army.

Figure 2

    Motto: "Pro Libertate" [For Freedom] on the scroll above the crest proclaims my resolve to defend freedom. "Dominos Agnoscimus Nullos" [We Know No Masters] on the scroll below the shield is derived from the Norseman's conviction:  "We know no masters, all men are created equals." It represents the essence of my personal credo, and acknowledges the legacy of my Norwegian great-grandfather.
    Cadet shields for my children were also requested, and are shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5.

Steven Ray Rice: The arms debruised of a gold label for use during his father's lifetime. Debruised is the term used in heraldry for 'differences'. Differences are used on shields to show that the bearers are sons of the main shield holder. The first born son's shield carries a label with three points. Figure 3

Terri Lynn Rice: The gold bordered arms bearing the Province of Alberta's red roses symbolize her birthplace. Figure 4

Jeffrey Allan Rice: The gold bordered arms bearing keys of the arms of the Town of Werl, Germany, symbolize his birthplace. Figure 5

Flag: The symbolization of my flag is the same as that of the shield. This is shown in Figure 6.     Badge : The alternating red and white colours and the blue sword repeats the major symbolism of the shield and crest. The book accents my life-long love of learning and achievements as an author. The diagonal division stands for the Cross of St. Andrew found on the flags of Scotland and Nova Scotia. It symbolizes the Scottish homeland of my Nisbitt and Henry ancestors and their homestead in Lower Canada, and is emblematic of my wife's Nova Scotia birthplace, and where her Murphy and Nickerson forebears first settled. The badge is shown in Figure 7. The technical description of my coat of arms, flag and badge is:     Arms (Shield): Per fess treflé Gules and Argent a pale per fess treflé countercharged, three pine trees Argent.     Crest (above the shield): On a helmet mantled Gules doubled Argent within a wreath of these colours, this Crest: Out of a coronet set on the upper edge with maple leaves and mullets Argent, a demi-dragon Gules gorged with a collar of roses Argentholding in the dexter talon a sword, the sinister talon resting on a double-bitted axe Azure.

Figure 6 Figure 7

    Flag: A banner of the Arms.
    Badge: A closed book per saltire Gules and Argent surmounting a sword Azure.
Cadet Shields:
    Steven Ray Rice: The Arms debruised of a label Or during his father's lifetime.
    Terri Lynn Rice: The Arms within a bordure Or charged with three roses Gules.
    Jeffrey Allan Rice: The Arms within a bordure Or charged with three keys Gules.

Colonel Gary H. Rice, (Ret.)

A Rice Family Migration

    We don't know where he came from (possibly Sudbury, England) to marry at Bury St. Edmunds, a Frost girl from Glemsford, Suffolk, England and so start the Edmund Rice extended family, which persists today. His brother or father, we really don't know which, probably introduced them for Henry had married Edmund's wife's sister, Elizabeth, some 13 years before in Stanstead only a mile away from Glemsford. I once asked a volunteer at the church in Glemsford why Edmund and Thomasine were married in Bury St. Edmunds which is more than 10 miles north. She immediately replied, "they were married where they were in service" referring to the fact that most young girls were sent out to work in their teens.
    Thomasine's ancestors were embedded in Stanstead and Glemsford back to the 1460s but she and Edmund Rice after only eight or nine years moved with four children 66 miles west to Berkhamsted, Herts. A number of other relatives and neighbors also moved to Berkhamsted which was a center of Puritanism. There was also recently released land there for sale. Edmund owned 15 acres when about 11 years later they moved to Sudbury, MA.and so did some of their neighbors. That move was some 3, 000 miles west!
    Edmund was extremely active in Sudbury town government and acquired a lot of land so that he was the largest landowner. He was also active in Massachusetts Bay Colony government, first serving as deputy to the General Court in 1640. Yet within twenty years or so he was among those who moved west again to found Marlborough, MA. His descendants kept moving west as soon as the Native Americans would let them. Worcester was settled three times, the last in 1713 by Jonas Rice, my sixth great-grandfather. His son, Jonas, died in Barre, MA in 1793. My branch remained in Barre but many cousins moved north and west. I left Barre in 1942 for the west, of course, and only returned to live for good in New England in 1977.
    Until my grandfather moved from his father's 500 acres four miles from Barre center to town in 1889 all my Rice ancestors were farmers and Yankee entrepreneurs. For instance, my great-grandfather had a sawmill on the Burnshirt River next to the railroad that took him 220 miles north to find a bride as his second wife in Bolton, Quebec, Canada when he was 44.
    In addition to Ward's, The Rice Family and Sumner Chilton Powell's, Puritan Village there is a very interesting book by Roger Thompson, Mobility and Migration-East Anglian Founders of New England, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 1994. He paints a broad picture but interestingly mentions the Rices, Frosts, Drurys, etc.
    David Dearborn at the Rice reunion will expand on many other families' moves from New England to the north and west. He may even mention more Rices.
    Haven't you some stories to tell about moving west? We'd like to hear them.

Bob Rice

[My own Rice ancestors moved slowly west in the 17th and 18th century, then north into southern Vermont after the Revolution. They stayed there about 100 years, then migrated south to Baltimore, where my grandfather was born. He lived in many places in France, the U.S. and the Caribbean, a restlessness that was inherited by at least one of his descendants - me! - Editor]

The Family Thicket

    We usually speak of the family "tree" and even picture it as a well-shaped elm tree with the sturdy trunk representing Edmund Rice, and the stately main branches representing his numerous sons and daughters, and so on. Looking at the on-line database of Edmund's early descendants tends to reinforce this view (if you have not visited that database yet, you really should -- it places a wealth of information at your fingertips). However, some tangles are apparent even in this simplified view, such as the Rice-Rice cousin marriages like that of Thomas3 (Thomas2, Edmund1) to Anna3 (Edward2, Edmund1). What really makes things complicated, though, is the interconnection of spouses who are NOT descendants of Edmund.
    Let's take as an example the family of William Ward, another early settler of Sudbury and Marlborough. He had 13 children, and, although only two of them appear in the on-line database (having married Rices), all 13 of them are connected in one way or another. Most of the following links can be seen in the master ERA database, and most have also been documented from the vital records of Marlborough and nearby towns, but some events were simply never entered in the vitals and are inferred from other sources, such as land and probate records.

1. 1. John (c1626-1708) married Hannah Jackson and had a son John whose daughter Sarah married William Trowbridge. The Trowbridges' granddaughter Mary Trowbridge married Zerubbabel6 Snow (Abigail5 Brigham, Gershom4, Mary3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1). The two Johns are not in the ERA master database, but the rest of the connection is there.
2. 2. Joanna (c1628-1718) married Abraham Williams, and their grandson Abraham Beaman married Mary4 Rice (Caleb3, Joseph2, Edmund1).
3. 3. Obadiah (c1632-1717/8) had a wife Mary and also a daughter Mary who is sometimes confused with (but who was definitely NOT) the Mary Ward who married Caleb3 Rice noted above. Obadiah also had a son Obadiah Jr, who in turn had his own daughter Mary who married Thomas4 Drury (Rachel3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1). At the risk of getting too tangled, I must point out here that the father of Thomas4 Drury was also a grandchild of Edmund Rice. Back in our story, Obadiah Jr had a son Beriah who also married into the extended Rice family -- his wife was Hannah6 Stow (Elizabeth5 Brigham, Nathan4, Mary3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1). That's not all. Obadiah Jr had yet another son Jabez, who married Phebe5 Eager (Lydia4 Woods, Lydia3 Rice, Edward2, Edmund1).
4. 4. Richard (c1635-1666) married Mary Moore and had two children who figure in the Rice thicket: Obadiah, who had a son Richard who married Lydia4 Wheelock (Lydia3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1), and Lydia, whose son Hezekiah Maynard married Tabitha5 How (Deliverance4 Rice, John3, Edward2, Edmund1). Note that Mary Moore was the daughter of Elizabeth Rice, daughter of Henry Rice and Elizabeth Frost, sister of Thomasine Frost (and, of course, Henry Rice is thought by many to be an older brother of Edmund1, though proof is lacking). Mary (Moore) Ward went on to marry Daniel Stone and had a daughter Sarah, who married James3 Rice (Thomas2, Edmund1), and a daughter Mary, who married Jonas3 Rice (Thomas2, Edmund1). Note: A.H. Ward compiled a Ward genealogy which lists Mary (Moore) Ward as another child of William, but it is clear that she was actually a daughter-in-law. Mary also happens to be a pivotal figure in the search for living persons with the mitochondrial DNA of Thomasine Frost (see page 7 of the Fall 2000 Newsletter).
5. 5. Deborah (c1637-1697) married John Johnson and had a daughter Elizabeth whose daughter Elizabeth Witherby married Nathan4 Rice (Caleb3, Joseph2, Edmund1).
6. 6. Hannah (c1639-1717) married Abraham How and had a number of children who find their way into our little tangle: Mary, whose son Asa Bouker married Martha5 Eager, sister to Phebe5 mentioned above in section 3, and whose son Ezekiel Bouker married Abigail4 Rice (Peter3, Thomas2, Edmund1); Joseph, whose son Joseph married Ruth5 Brigham (Jonathan4, Mary3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1) and whose son Abraham married Rachel4 Rice (Benjamin3, Edward2, Edmund1); Hannah, whose son Ephraim How married Elizabeth4 Rice, sister of Rachel4 just mentioned; Elizabeth, whose granddaughter Prudence How married Isaac5 How (Deliverance4 Rice, John3, Edward2, Edmund1) and whose grandsons Antipas and Asa Brigham married, respectively, Catherine5 Woods (Benjamin4, Lydia3 Rice, Edward2, Edmund1) and Elizabeth6 Warren (Zipporah5 Brigham, Nathan4, Mary3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1); Rebecca, who married Peter3 Rice (Thomas2, Edmund1); and Sarah, whose daughter Sarah Stratton married Thomas5 Brigham, brother of Zipporah5 and Elizabeth5 mentioned previously.
7. 7. Samuel (1641-1729) married Sarah How and had a daughter Mary who actually did marry Caleb3 Rice already mentioned. They also had a son Joseph whose granddaughters Ruth and Mary Ward married, respectively, Ithamar6 Brigham (son of Thomas5 and Sarah mentioned in part 6 above) and Jonas6 Morse (Lucy5 Eager, Lydia4 Woods, Lydia3 Rice, Edward2, Edmund1) and whose grandson Daniel Ward married Anna5 Rice (Andrew4, Joshua3, Samuel2, Edmund1). Their son Samuel had a granddaughter Abigail Ward who married Josiah7 Bridges (James6, Hackaliah5, Sarah4 Brewer, Elizabeth3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1).
8. 8. Elizabeth (1643-1710) married John How in 1662/3 although the marriage record fails to include the maiden name of the bride. That lamentable lapse in the official records leaves a trace of doubt, but the identification seems very likely. In any case, John How's widow Elizabeth married second Henry Kerley and had a daughter Mercy, who married Joseph3 Rice (Joseph2, Edmund1).
9. 9. Increase (1644/5-1690) married Record Wheelock and had a daughter Record whose daughter Persis Newton married Eleazer4 Rice (Edmund3, Samuel2, Edmund1) and a daughter Tabitha whose grandson Solomon Fay married Mary5 Pratt (Anna4 Allen, Mercy3 Rice, Henry2, Edmund1). Increase and his daughter Tabitha do not appear in the master ERA database, but the rest of the connection does.
10. 10. Hopestill (1646-1718) married James Woods, and this is where things start to get complicated. They had a son James whom Ward's Rice Family incorrectly identifies as Deacon James Woods (see page 114), but the Genealogical Register of Edmund Rice Descendants corrects the error and points out that the deacon in question was actually the son of John and Lydia3 (Rice) Woods (see page 6). Part of the confusion undoubtedly stems from the fact that Hopestill's husband had also served as deacon. Ward's error unfortunately propagated all the way into the published vital records of Marlborough, which accepted Ward's misstatement of the deacon's age at death, "adjusted" to fit the birth date of Hopestill's son. Nonetheless, since the Deacon's age is clearly inscribed on his gravestone, still standing in Springhill Cemetery, the problem is easily resolved. At any rate, the son of James and Hopestill quietly vanished from the scene in Marlborough sometime between his birth in 1685 and the 1718/9 marriage of the other James Woods, since the latter was then styled simply "James Woods" instead of "James Woods Jr". By the way, other children of John and Lydia Woods have already popped up in parts 3, 6, and 7 above.
11. 11. William (1648/9-1697) married Hannah Brigham and had two children who appear in our story: William, whose son Elisha married Ruth4 Rice (Joseph3, Joseph2, Edmund1), and Nahum, whose daughter Persis married Bezaleel5 Eager, brother to Phebe5, Martha5, and Lucy5 already mentioned in sections 3, 6 and 7.
12. 12. Eleazer (1650-1676) married Hannah3 Rice (Henry2, Edmund1).
13. 13. Bethia (1658-1721) married Daniel3 Rice (Edward2, Edmund1).

John Chandler

[My own addition to the Rice-Ward thicket: Deborah (#5) Ward Johnson's 4-great granddaughter Virtue Johnson married Ephraim 7 Rice (Daniel 6, Ephraim 5, Perez 4, Thomas 3, Thomas 2, Edmund 1). Virtue and Ephraim were my 4th g-grandparents - Editor]

RICE REUNION 2003

SATURDAY 20 September 2003:
9:00 AM: Social time with coffee and juice in our meeting room. ERA Genealogy Books will for sale and we'll be able to examine the ERA Genealogical Computer Data Base on laptop computers.
10:00 AM: George King will hold a session on the database where you can ask questions.
Noon: Lunch will be served by RESERVATION only.
1:00 PM: our speaker, Mr. David Dearborn, FASG, 6th Floor Library Supervisor of the New England Historic Genealogical Society will speak on Migrations Out Of New England.
2:00 PM: Annual Business Meeting

RESERVATIONS
Reservations Forms for the lunch on Saturday 20 June 03 and the Tour on Friday will be in the Summer News Letter which will be sent by First Class Mail late July. The Saturday lunch will cost $20.
Reservations for sleeping rooms at the Sheraton must be made directly to the Hotel at 1-888-627-7185. Ask for the special rate of  $109/room/night for the Edmund Rice Association meeting 19 and 20 September 2003 at the Sheraton Lexington, MA Hotel. Ten rooms for Friday night and five for Saturday night are being held.
Less expensive motels are some distance away in Marlboro for the Super -8 Motel at 1-800-800-8000 or in Framingham at the Motel-6 number 1-800-466-8356 or at Red Roof Inn number 1-800-733-7663.

DIRECTIONS
Take the Mass Turnpike east to Route 95 (128) north to exit 30 B. The Sheraton is just west of the interchange.

The ERA People Page

Dorothy Ann Rice Krause, sister of the ERA Historian/Information Manager Dennis Rice, passed away 1 May, of cancer. Our sympathy goes out to all he family.

Keep your eye on Broadway!
Laura McLaughlin, 17-year-old niece of your beamingly proud editor, recently performed as Luisa in The Fantasticks at The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves, MO. This was not a kids' production. The St. Louis Arts paper said,
"Whatever the cause, over the past decade too many Fantasticks have seemed hollow at the center.
So here's a happy surprise. The version on view at the Theatre Guild of Webster Groves is a beguiling delight.", and
"But it's Laura McLaughlin's sylphlike Luisa that strikes the nerve of truth. For too many years now, Luisas have been sopranos first; the required innocence has been incidental. McLaughlin is a lovely singer. But she's also so natural, one senses she might have been plucked from her back yard and dropped onto the stage. She is simply, purely Luisa, the sweet embodiment of a character who for too long has been reduced to a canary-like trill.

Welcome, new members!

Other new members are
Scott R. Huntsman of  Walnut Creek, CA
Perry L. Bent of Framingham, MA
Gordon L. Rice of Powhatan, VA
Dean & Mary Rice of Three Rivers, MI

And welcome to the newest Edmund Rice!
ERA Board of Directors member  George Rice has a new grandson. He writes "My son Edmund Rice and his wife Kerri just had their first baby boy on May 7, 2003. His name...what else.... Edmund Rice, Junior! He was 8 lbs., 10 oz. and 22 inches. Ted and Kerri along with their new baby live in the Wayland Historic District on Old Sudbury Road. Their home is mid way between North Cemetery where Deacon Edmund Rice was laid to rest and his first homestead on Old Connecticut Path. The new baby EJ hasn't moved very far in 365 years". Edmund, Junior's line to the Deacon is:

John Chandler, ERA Recording Secretary, visited Historian/Information Manager Dennis Rice in Richardson, TX last year, and sent this photo, taken in Dennis' front yard. The people are John, Holly and Cedric Chandler and Dennis, Kenny, Randy and Gail Rice.

Genetics Committee Interim Report Spring 2003

    The discovery by Y-DNA analysis that two well-documented descendants of sons of Gershom Rice could not be descendants of his grandfather, Edmund Rice, prompted further research[1]. A descendant of Gershom's first son did have Edmund Rice markers. A short account of stumbling upon the Rice -Royce mix-up appeared in the New England Ancestors where we could only point out the exact matching of 12 genetic markers for two apparent descendants of Gershom Rice with a single descendant of Robert Royce. That this Royce descendant bore the surname Rice, not Royce, complicated a clear understanding of the situation. DNA analysis is able to pinpoint family relationships that do not rely wholly on paper genealogy and cast new light on basic assumptions of parentage. A lot of library research was required, however, to clarify the DNA evidence and those results needed bolstering with more male Royce DNA analysis.

Chart 1

    Three males have traced their ancestry back to Robert Royce who is first recorded in 1648 in Stratford, Connecticut. Their pedigrees have been verified. Chart 1 above shows the relationship of each verified descendant from two sons of Robert Royce. Also the generation in which surnames were changed is evident. Royce was determined to be the most common spelling in the 17th century. Filled rectangles indicate living males whose Y-DNA were analyzed.
    Four other males with current surnames of Rice or Royse along with the two descendants of Abishai and Matthias Rice also have identical or nearly identical markers. Table 1 shows the detailed DNA analyses of the Royces and three different Rice families.
 

    DYS refers to D=DNA, Y= Y Chromosome, and S= segments. Under each DYS number are the number of repeats of each segment. For example under DYS448 for Edmund Rice there are 18 repeats of AGAGAT whereas DYS393 has 13 repeats of AGAT where A = adenine, G = guanine, and T = thymine. New nomenclature for DYS464, is used here.

    The second row shows the reconstructed haplotype (marker set) of Edmund Rice from 17 male descendants with verified pedigrees from five sons of Edmund for comparison to the third row which is the haplotype of Robert Royce reconstructed from three of his verified descendants, 3156, 7242, 7628. Only one of these (7628) has a single mutation at DYS19. The next four rows show the markers of males (3730,5333,3758, 7360) with Rice or Royse surnames that have as yet to have verified paper genealogies back to Robert Royce. They have several single mutations that may help in determining their pedigrees. The next two rows are from descendants of Abishai (#1669) and Matthias (#1668) Rice whose verified pedigrees placed them as sons of Gershom Rice. It is again obvious that the latter two as well as the other 7 cannot be biologically descended from Edmund Rice or Gershom Rice. Finally the last two rows are of a Rice (4507) descended from John Rice, d 1730 at 86 yrs at Warwick, R.I. and a Rice (7648) descendant of Samuel Rice, first white male born in Woodstock, Connecticut and grandson of another John Rice who married 1649 in Dedham, MA. Both the latter Y DNA results do not agree with that of Edmund Rice or Robert Royce.
    Only eight markers of twenty-five are common to the Edmund Rice and Robert Royce haplotypes which places their most recent common ancestor back well before surnames were used. The huge difference makes impossible any biological connection between the two surnames, which sound somewhat alike but have been considered variants by many past historians and genealogists.
    Acting as administrator for the Rice DNA Project of FTDNA we have found over 20 Rice families with sets of markers distinct from either those of Edmund Rice or Robert Royce. One such set is from a male with a current Royce surname but an incomplete pedigree indicating that at least two different Royce families live in the United States today. More details are found on the Internet at edmund-rice.org.

Donald Lines Jacobus[2] in Families of Ancient New Haven published the early genealogy of the Robert Royce family primarily researched by Helen Royce in 1931. Vital records verified her entries. It is not known where he came from in England but Stratford, Connecticut land records are said to place him there as early as 1648 though he was then called Robert Rise. In 1658 the town of New London gave Robert Royce 10 acres. He became a prominent citizen of New London as Constable and Deputy to the General Court among other town offices and was keeper of an Ordinary. He had five sons all of whom were presumably born in England and probably with Mary, his wife, as their mother. The sons all married at New London except Nathaniel who married in Wallingford, Connecticut but they all left New London for either Wallingford or Norwich, Connecticut before Robert's or Mary's death in 1676 and 1688 respectively. Some of his property in New London was sold in 1688 and another portion in 1697.

That Robert Royce of Connecticut was not the same man as Robert Rice of the 1630 Winthrop Fleet in Boston was also addressed by Jacobus and others and more recently by Hewitt^[2] with the conclusion that there was no connection between the two. In addition Hewitt debunked the notion that Royce came from Martock, Somerset, England where he married his wife whose last name was Sims. It is assumed that both came from England.
 
 

Ward[3], the first author of Edmund Rice Family genealogy, recounts Gershom's early married life based on Groton VR land records, and a letter from his mother in law to his wife Elizabeth Balcom but notes that evidence of his marriage was not known.

Gershom³ Rice was born at Marlborough, MA, 9 May 1667 and died 19 December 1768 at Worcester, MA. No record has ever been found of any marriage ceremony. Gershom Rice is found in a list of Massachusetts Militia in May 1690 but by Nov. 1698 Elizabeth is identified in Stonington, Connecticut as his daughter, although he is listed as of Sudbury. He also appears on a list of settlers in Groton, Connecticut "east of the river before 1700" but he was not in a list of Freemen there until 1708. Gershom Rice served on a jury in New London County 31 May 1703 and land records of Groton, Connecticut place him there in 1704. He was given 10 acres by the Town of Groton on 28 April 1704 and purchased with his brother, Jonas Rice of Sudbury, MA, 200 acres on both sides of the river on 8 May 1708. By 10 February 1709/10 and again on 27 February in that year he sold part of the land, as did Jonas separately, including partial rights to an iron mine. In May of 1709 he and Jonas apparently made a division of their land with no details now known.

In the first four months of 1714 Gershom sold to various people what appears to be the remainder of his land in Groton. Jonas Rice apparently did not sell at that time, at least, for Gershom reserved half of the iron mine in favor of his brother, Jonas. These sales provided Gershom with at least 172 pounds just before he migrated to Worcester, MA in 1715. He was given 80 acres there by 1718.

It is not clear just when Gershom left Groton and whether he went to Marlborough or Sudbury, MA before permanently taking up residence in Worcester. Ward reported that he removed from Groton before 13 October 1713 because on that date he and Jonas Rice signed a petition in Marlboro to begin again the settlement of Worcester. Unfortunately there is not evidence of that petition in the Massachusetts Archives. The Groton Land Records also show that Gershom was in Groton during February and April of 1714 but it may have been only for a visit to sell his land. The 29 April 1714 sale record at Groton has the statement that "GR personally appeared". This might make one think that he had not appeared for some previous sales[4].

Elizabeth Balcom was born 16 May 1672, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Haynes Balcom of Charlestown, MA. No record of any marriage has been found. However, as reported previously, her name and identity as a daughter of Henry Balcom and wife of Gershom Rice do appear in a land transaction in Massachusetts on 12 November 1709. "Gershom Rice, of Groton, Conn., and his wife, Elizabeth (Balcom) Rice sold to her brothers, John and Joseph Balcom, of Sudbury, Nov 12, 1709 for Forty and Two pounds…". Thus they sold her inheritance from her father.

Ward reports a letter from her mother Elizabeth (Haynes) Balcom dated 1 April 1713 to "her loving daughter, Elizabeth Rice, living in Groton".  We have searched for this letter with no success. No record of her death exists except (according to Ward) a reference Gershom made in an interview with the Boston Gazette in which her "age at death was about 80".

No birth record of Gershom⁴ Rice, Jr. has been found either in Connecticut or Massachusetts but from his gravestone it can be estimated as 1696. That date is consistent with the birth of his first child. As noted before, Gershom³, but not his wife, appears in the baptismal record of his daughter, Elizabeth, in the First Congregational Church of Stonington, Connecticut 27 November 1698. One child was listed in the VR of New London:

Rice, Abisha, s. Gershom & Elizabeth, b. Oct. 16, 1701.

All except Gershom, Jr. were listed in the Groton VR, vol. 1 p. 112 of the original record:

Elizabeth⁴, b. 20 October 1798 [sic] (1698)

Abishai⁴, b. 16 October 1701

Sarah⁴, b. 9 February 1703

Matthias⁴, b. 26 January 1707/8

Ruth⁴, b. 11 April 1710

The original record has been compared at Groton Town Hall and found to be in one handwriting suggesting they were all simultaneously entered by one person in 17^th century handwriting obviously after Ruth's birth in 1710[5].  There does not appear to be a clear reason why the birth of Gershom, Jr. was not listed.
 
 

Because of the supposed identity of the surnames Royce and Rice it was necessary to search for other Rice families in Connecticut and Rhode Island in the 1600s and early 1700s. We have found three Rices other than Gershom Rice.

                A John Rice[6] had settled in Rhode Island by 1644 and his descendants stayed near Warwick, R.I. One of his descendants with verified pedigree in Table 1 as sample 4507 was tested for Y-DNA and proved to have a set of genetic markers not in agreement with either Robert Royce or Edmund Rice. Another John Rice family[7] migrated from Dedham, Massachusetts to Woodstock, Connecticut where Samuel Rice was born 18 April 1689 and one of his descendants (sample 7648) has had Y-DNA results that are not in agreement with descendants of either Robert Royce or Edmund Rice. Descendants of Richard Rice[8] of Concord, Massachusetts settled in Simsbury, Connecticut in 1701.
 
 

Y-DNA shows that Abishai and Matthias have the genetic markers of the Robert Royce family and not that of Edmund Rice. Since the two surnames, Rice and Royce, have for so long been considered variants it was prudent to search for both names in the records of Connecticut. Neither of the surnames before 1710 is listed in Barbour's collections or separately published vital records except for the following towns: Wallingford, New London and Norwich have both; Rices but no Royces in Groton, Woodstock, and Simsbury; and Royces but not Rices in Windham. Close examination of all these vital records and Helen Royce's genealogy did not reveal any children named Abishai or Matthias, except Gershom's. No instances were found of children orphaned, even partially, or deaths that left either fathers or mothers alone without soon re-marrying.

Wallingford has many VR entries under Royce, Royse and Rice and it was those entries that form the bulk of Helen Royce's Genealogy of the Robert Royce family. In the later part of 1700 both Royce and Rice appear in many towns throughout not only Connecticut but into Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. But between 1657 to 1710 these surnames were rare in Connecticut and confined to the towns discussed above. One name in Greenwich attributed to Rice has proven not to be a Rice at all. The Simsbury Rices belong to Peter Rice of the Richard Rice^[8] family of Concord, MA who removed there in 1701. Simsbury and Groton are 70 miles apart. John Royce, son of Jonathan moved to Windham after living in Mansfield, Connecticut.

The Gershom Rice family was probably living within the boundaries of New London County from mid-1690s, isolated from any other Rices or Royces until 1714 or 1715, except for the family of Jonathan Royce ten miles up the Thames River in Norwich. If Gershom often went back to the Boston-Sudbury Rices by horseback to consult with his brother, Jonas, about land deals, the family may have had to have a hired hand. Such a person probably would not have been recorded in any record.

Most Royce males in Table 1 below are possible father candidates for both Abishai, b. 16 Oct 1701 and Matthias, b. 26 Jan 1707/8 but the two were born six years apart and unless mutated markers in Royce Y-DNA turn up, parsimony requires one Royce father for them. Wallingford is 60 miles west and Mansfield is 30 miles north of Groton.
 
 

                                             TABLE 1

                                Royce Males Alive February 1701- April 1707

                                Candidate Fathers for Abishai and Matthias
 
 
 

NAME	AGE	LOCATION	COMMENTS
Nehemiah	64	Wallingford	Died 1706
Joseph	38-43	"	Died 1707
Nehemiah	19-24	"	Married 1710
Samuel	57-62	"	Died 1711
Robert	31-36	"	Married 1692
Samuel	27-32	"	Married 1695
Isaac	13-18	"	Married 1713
Nathaniel	54-59	"	Mar to death 1708
Benjamin	24-29	"	Mar to death 1703
Robert	27-32	"	Married 1709
Joseph	11-16	"	Married 1711
John	38-43	Mansfield	Married 1683
Jonathan	23-28	Norwich	Married 1700
David	19-24	Norwich	Unmarried d 1711

As of Fall 2002, the New London City-County Hall Probate Record Book does not have any Rice entries for February 1675 thru October 1713 but does have a Probate Record in which John Royce was appointed executor of his dead brother David's estate in Norwich 13 November 1711.

However Jacobus reported in 1926 on finding another record book for New London County for 1689-1703 giving more information about the estate of Jonathan Royse, father of John, Jonathan and David. He deposited that old record in the Connecticut State Library, Hartford. Parts of its content as reported by Jacobus are described below[9].

The male Royce who by age and location may be the best candidate father of Abishai and Matthias (Rice) is David³ Royce (Robert¹, Jonathan²), b. 19 August 1682 at Norwich, d. before 13 November 1711. He was the youngest of ten children. No marriage has been found for him. His mother^[9] gave him land in Norwich 14 Dec.1709 that had been his father's. He received his share of his father's estate in 1690 (presumably held in trust for him until age 21). Probate records for November 1711 and for January and March 1712/13 after David's death involved the distribution of his assets that mentioned many members of his extended family. No wife or children were mentioned, as they certainly would have been if any existed.  It appears quite certain that he was single and lived within 10 miles of Groton from 1700 to 1711.

Because David is the only male Royce unencumbered by a family and living close (10 miles) to Groton, he may be the most plausible match. David was seven when his father died in 1689 leaving David and his brother Jonathan at twelve the only males in the family. The last of his sisters married in 1699 and Jonathan married in 1700. When his mother remarried and moved to Lebanon northwest of Norwich is not known except it was before 1709^[9] and probably much earlier as was the custom for widows. In probate records his surname is spelled Rice, Roise and Royce. We have 25 genetic markers for a descendant (# 7242) of Jonathan Royce, David's father, that agree with other Royces and with descendants of Abishai and Matthias.

Of course not all births, marriages and deaths found their way into records at that time period.

It is possible but not likely that the single mutation for the descendant of Matthias found at DYS464d (the 25^th marker) might lead in the future to the father of Matthias. Mutations are entirely random and could have occurred very recently or by Matthias himself. The descendant of Abishai does not have that mutation.

It remains uncertain whether or not confusion over the surnames Rice and Royce played any part in the saga. However someone named Rice might have been most welcome in Gershom's isolated household.

All the children of Gershom Rice were well integrated into the extensive Rice clan in Worcester and Sudbury, Massachusetts with no historical evidence that Abishai or Matthias were treated differently. The current Directors of the Edmund Rice (1638) Association, while they have corrected the records, have continued to welcome all descendants of Gershom Rice.

In addition to the fact that Y-DNA by itself cannot ever identify an individual Royce male as the father of Abishai or Matthias, there are a number of unanswered questions about Gershom's family in Connecticut.

Why was his first son never listed with his siblings' births in Groton VR? Was the reason because he was born in Massachusetts? Why was Sarah, b. 1703 not listed along with Abishai in New London? Where were Gershom and his first son when his wife delivered his first daughter, Elizabeth, in a strange bed?

How did he happen to go to New London County from Massachusetts? Was it solely to find an iron mine? It appears that the Iron Works of John Winthrop, Jr. at Montville 6 miles up the Thames River from Groton did not thrive just as Winthrop's previous iron venture at New Haven had foundered well before Gershom arrived[10]. But the Iron Works of northwestern Connecticut did, as did that of Saugus, Massachusetts, much closer to Gershom's original home.

It is also unclear what if any role religious turmoil played, but New London was the center of the Rogerenes, a Baptist offshoot, in 1674, and regular Baptists began meetings in Groton in 1705[11]. As far as we know the Gershom Rice family remained Puritans within the Congregational Church in Groton and later in Worcester, Massachusetts.

    But Gershom Rice migrated farther from home than any other grandson of Edmund Rice. He was obviously close to his brother Jonas, younger by 6 years, who stayed behind in Sudbury, yet it was Jonas who seemed to have been the leader. He was the first permanent settler of Worcester, not Gershom.
Details of Y-DNA analysis, genealogy of both Rices and Royces, and the complete 25 loci, in many cases, of over seventy Rice, Royce, Roys, and Royse DNA haplotypes are continually updated on the Edmund Rice website, edmund-rice.org.
Judith Johnson, genealogist of Connecticut Historical Society, found several records for us and we thank her. We also thank Joyce Pendery, CG and George Sanborn, FASG for discussions.
The ERA Genetics' Committee is composed of John Chandler, George King and myself. Any errors are mine alone. -
Bob Rice

Endnotes
[1] New England Ancestors, 3, 50-51, (2002).
[2] Donald Lines Jacobus, Families of Ancient New Haven, collected as, TAG, VII, 1549 (1931); Frank Starr, Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodman, Hartford, CT, Vol. 1, pp 296-301 (1915); Donald Lines Jacobus, Register, 80 (1926) pp 107-109; Clarence L. Hewitt, Jr., Register, 122 (1968) pp 274-277.
[3] Andrew Henshaw Ward, A Genealogical History of the Rice Family of Deacon Edmund Rice (Boston, MA: C. Benjamin Richardson, Boston, 1858, reprinted 1989/90 by Edmund Rice (1638) Association. Hereafter cited as Ward.
[4] Gershom Rice's genealogy was reported in the ERA Newsletter vol. 76 Fall 2002, p 7-8 (also on line at edmund-rice.org). In addition see Groton, CT. Land Records, Vol. 1, pp 29, 45-47, 70, 166, 197, 210, 256, transcriptions at Connecticut Historical Society, courtesy Judith Ellen Johnson.
[5] Judith Ellen Johnson, personal communication 2002.
[6] John O. Austin, Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island (1969).
[7] Donald Lines Jacobus in Bowen, The History of Woodstock, Connecticut, American Antiquarian Society, Vol. 8, p 206 (1943).
[8] George E. McCracken, Richard Rice of Concord, Massachusetts, The Register, 112 (1958) pp 65-70.
[9] Donald Lines Jacobus, Notes, The Register, 80 (1926) pp 107-109; Jacobus includes Norwich Deeds, vol 1, pp 422-433 and Probate Session 13 Jan 1712, New London Probate Journal, vol 1, p 131.
[10] Henry A. Baker, History of Montville, Connecticut, Formerly the North Parish of New London, from 1630 to 1896 (1896).
[11] Richard L. Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee; Character and Social Order in Connecticut 1690 - 1765, Harvard University Press (1967) pp 164- 165.