1Olsen, Wayne.
1Olsen, Wayne.
1Olsen, Wayne, PAF/Boslow_Anc_Stevens.
1Olsen, Wayne, PAF/Boslow_Anc_Stevens.
1Olsen, Wayne, PAF file: Boslow_Anc_Stevens.paf, rec'd via EMail 0n 14 APR 2002.
2Sumner Chilton Powell, Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, Wesleyan Univ. Press, Hanover, NH,1963. won the Pulitzer prize for history in 1964. Much of this book is about Peter Noyes and his yeoman role in creating the town of Sudbury. Much of "Puritan Village, The Formation of a New England Town" is about Edmund Rice and his differences with Peter Noyes in creating the town of Sudbury.
3Edmund Rice Association Website, http://www.edmund-rice.org/edmund.htm. "Who was Edmund Rice?
Edmund Rice arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1638. Our first record of his presence is in Township Book of the Town of Sudburyin 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 on another of these pages.
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 with 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 inEngland.
Edmund Rice was one of the prominent leaders of his community at both Sudbury and Marlborough. In his Pulitzer Prize winning book, PuritanVillage, 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 asselectman 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 NewEngland 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."4Edmund Rice Association Website, Our Mysterious Ancestor. "Deacon Edmund Rice 1,2
Deacon Edmund Rice was born circa 1594 at England. As reported later in this account of
Edmund Rice, no record of his birth or christening has been found.1 Deacon Edmund Rice
married 1st Thomasine Frost, daughter of Edward Frost and Thomasine Belgrave, on 15 October
1618 at Saint Marys Church, Bury Saint Edmunds, co Suffolk, England.3,2,4,5 Deacon Edmund
Rice married Mercy Hurd on 1 March 1655/56 at Sudbury, MA (literally 1655) registered as
Mary Brigham.2,6 Deacon Edmund Rice died on 3 May 1663 at Sudbury, MA (not found in the
published records).1,2 He was buried at Old Burying Ground, Wayland, MA. 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.2
Deacon Edmund Rice and Thomasine Frost resided in 1627 at Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire,
England.7,8
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 247.9,10
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 at Sudbury, MA.11,12 He was designated a Freeman on 13 May 1640 at
Massachusetts.13,14 Edmund Rice was recorded as being present as a Deputy at the Massachusetts
General Court (legislative assembly) in Boston on 7 October 1640.15 On 2 June 1641 at Boston
Edmund Rice was appointed an assosiate [sic] for the Courts and comission'r for the toune [sic]
of Sudberry [sic].16 He was a deputy to the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the
Massachusetts legislature) representing the Town of Sudbury, serving on 27 May 1652, 18 May
1653, and 3 May 1654 between 1652 and 1654 at Boston, MA.17 He resided after 1656 at
Marlborough, MA, lived on "The Great Road" on the northerly side of the pond (Cochituate
Pond), not far fromWilliams Tavern. The pond is also spelled Wachittuate, Caochituet,
Chochichawicke, Coijchawicke, Catchchauitt, Charchittawick, Katchetuit, Cochichawauke, or
Cochichowicke.18
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
PDF created with FinePrint pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com
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. I n 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
PDF created with FinePrint pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com
are not known and that Edmund Rice's descendants can not claim royal ancestry.19,20,21
Children of Deacon Edmund Rice and Thomasine Frost
* Henry Rice1
* Mary 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 Hurd (?)
* Lydia Rice
* Ruth Rice
Citations
1. [S1] Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward), p. 5.
2. [S3] Rice Gen'l Register, p. 1.
3. [S1] Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward).
4. [S258] Harold F Porter, "The Strutt Ancestry of Thomasine Frost", p. 166.
5. [S1171] Letter, Dr Joanna Martin to Dr Robert V Rice, 13 November 1997.
6. [S2365] SudburyMA, Sudbury, MA, Vital Records, p. 258.
7. [S53] Mary Lovering Holman, "TAG, Vol. X, Notes on Edmund Rice", p. 136.
8. [S120] David Kent Young, Young, Siobhan Eddy.
9. [S228] Josiah H Temple, Framingham Families (Temple), pp. 680-681.
10. [S1150] Nathaniel B Shurtleff, Massachusetts colonial records, vol. I, p. 271.
11. [S1] Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward), p. 1.
12. [S3036] Sudbury, MA, Town records: book 1.
13. [S233] Lucius R. Paige, Freemen of Massachusetts.
14. [S1150] Nathaniel B Shurtleff, Massachusetts colonial records, vol. I, p. 377.
15. [S1150] Nathaniel B Shurtleff, Massachusetts colonial records, vol. I, p. 301.
16. [S1150] Nathaniel B Shurtleff, Massachusetts colonial records, vol. I, p. 328.
17. [S1150] Nathaniel B Shurtleff, Massachusetts colonial records, vol. 3, pp. 259, 297, 340.
18. [S1] Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward), p. 2.
19. [S53] Mary Lovering Holman, "TAG, Vol. X, Notes on Edmund Rice", pp. 133 - 137.
20. [S60] D. L Jacobus, TAG - 11, pp. 14 - 21.
21. [S61] Mary Lovering Holman, The American Genealogist, p. 227."
1Olsen, Wayne, PAF/Boslow_Anc_Stevens.
1Olsen, Wayne, PAF/Boslow_Anc_Stevens.
1Ancestry.com, Historical Outline of the Ransom Family in America, Vol. 2 by Wyllys Ransom. "From "Historical Outline of the Ransom Family of America, Volume 2" by Wyllys Cadwell Ransom
"The record of Joshua's life and career is obscure and involved in much uncertianty. It is obvious from a close review of the Plymouth records that he was a man active in affairs, having numerous land deals, indicating that he was a general trader and property man. After his second marriage his relations to his children seem to ahve been mainly restricted to John, the son, by his wife Susanna, and gave him the home at Plympton previous to his death. IT seems qiute likely that Robert and Mary, the children by Mary Gifford, remained in Rhode Island after their mother's death in their uncle's (Yelverton-Gifford) family, where they were reared."
1Dawn Anderson, email of 22Mar2016.
2Ancestry.com, 1940 Census-San Gabriel, Los Angeles, California. "Name: Manford Nelson
Age: 28
Estimated birth year: abt 1912
Gender: Male
Race: White
Birthplace: Wisconsin
Marital Status: Married
Relation to Head of House: Head
Home in 1940: San Gabriel, Los Angeles, California
Map of Home in 1940: View Map
Street: Rosemont Blvd
House Number: 125
Farm: No
Inferred Residence in 1935: Rochester, Olmsted, Minnesota
Residence in 1935: Rochester, Olmsted, Minnesota
Resident on farm in 1935: No
Sheet Number: 27B
Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 703
Occupation: Truck Dir
House Owned or Rented: Rented
Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 30
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: College, 2nd year
Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 60
Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker in Government work
Weeks Worked in 1939: 52
Income: 1404
Income Other Sources: No
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members:
Name Age
Manford Nelson 28
Bernice Nelson 24
Nancy Nelson 2."
1Dawn Anderson, email of 22Mar2016.
2Social Security Death Index.
3Social Security Death Index. "Name: Bernice B. Cushing
Last Residence:
94901 San Rafael, Marin, California, USA
BORN: 24 Jul 1915
Died: 22 Dec 2005
State (Year) SSN issued: California (Before 1951)."4Ancestry.com, Family Tree Rudy/Anderson-Dawn 10210. "22 Dec 2005 San Rafael, Marin, California, USA
Not buried: ashes were scattered. "Bernice Belle Nelson [Bernice B Kangas] [Bernice Cushing] [Bernice Cushing Heembrock] "."
1Dawn Anderson, email of 22Mar2016.
2Ancestry.com, Rudy Anderson Family tree/Dawn10210.
1Dawn Anderson, email of 22Mar2016.
2Social Security Death Index.
3Social Security Death Index. "Name: Bernice B. Cushing
Last Residence:
94901 San Rafael, Marin, California, USA
BORN: 24 Jul 1915
Died: 22 Dec 2005
State (Year) SSN issued: California (Before 1951)."4Ancestry.com, Family Tree Rudy/Anderson-Dawn 10210. "22 Dec 2005 San Rafael, Marin, California, USA
Not buried: ashes were scattered. "Bernice Belle Nelson [Bernice B Kangas] [Bernice Cushing] [Bernice Cushing Heembrock] "."
1Dawn Anderson, email of 22Mar2016.
2Ancestry.com, 1916 Canada Census Manitoba Saskatchewan Alberta. "Name Reginald Clarence Cushing
Gender Male
Marital Status Single
Age 5
Est. Birth Year 1911
Birthplace Alberta
Home in 1916 Regina, Saskatchewan - 03D
Address Apartment 4, Cornwell Street
Racial or Tribal Origin English
Relation to Head of Household Son
Father's Name George Clarence Cushing
Mother's Name Sarah M Cushing
Sub District Desc. (A-P) inclusive, city of Regina
Household Members
Name Age
George Clarence Cushing 35
Sarah M Cushing 33
Reginald Clarence Cushing 5."3Ancestry.com, Family Tree of John Thomson.
1Dawn Anderson, email of 22Mar2016.
2Social Security Death Index.
3Social Security Death Index. "Name: Bernice B. Cushing
Last Residence:
94901 San Rafael, Marin, California, USA
BORN: 24 Jul 1915
Died: 22 Dec 2005
State (Year) SSN issued: California (Before 1951)."4Ancestry.com, Family Tree Rudy/Anderson-Dawn 10210. "22 Dec 2005 San Rafael, Marin, California, USA
Not buried: ashes were scattered. "Bernice Belle Nelson [Bernice B Kangas] [Bernice Cushing] [Bernice Cushing Heembrock] "."