More Puritan Ancestors-Edmund Rice Family and Allied Families

 Marker of the House of Edmund Rice in Sudbury, MA  (By Innapoy (talk) 23:01, 18 November 2010 (UTC) - I created this work entirely by myself. Released to public domain 24 Mar 2009., Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22116588)


It has been so long since I posted here!!  It is June and this is the 1st Post of 2019! There are 2 main reasons-the 1st is that my circumstances have changed at work, so not as much time to write.  The 2nd is that I am quickly running out of ancestors!!  At least ancestors that I know enough about to write an entry on;  I may know names and dates and places, but little else.

It seems lately that every time I shake the Family Tree, another Puritan falls out!  I had no idea we had so many Puritan ancestors...I should have had, given the New England location and the time frame.  I just never gave a thought to the fact that these folks were Puritans!  I have never been a huge fan of the Puritans-what with the Witch hunts in Salem, hanging Quakers in Boston, not to mention the Regicide of King Charles I in England!  (A bit of a Royalist Romantic, I am...all those books I read in High School about the Stewart Kings, especially my favorite Charles II, the Merry Monarch!)  I blamed all their troubles on William of Orange, and earlier, The Lord Protector (who was a cousin of mine, turns out) Cromwell and his Roundheads.  Of course, I realize now that the Stewarts and their insistence on the Divine Right of Kings and other issues, like a Catholic heir,  were more to blame.  (Still  have a fondness for Charles II, however!)



The Puritan movement in Britain began in response to the Church of England, founded by King Henry VII.   It is very involved and complicated and lasted in Britain from the reign of Henry VII and the Protestant Reformation in England (1530's) thru the reigns of his children, Edward VI (1547-1553),  Mary (Bloody Mary)  (1553-1558) and Elizabeth I (1558-1603).   It continued during the reigns of the Stewart Kings, James VI and I (1603-1625), and Charles I (1625-1649)Beheaded.   The English Civil War (1642-1651) which pitted the Puritans (Roundheads) against the Royalists (Cavaliers) culminated in the beheading of King Charles I.     It reached its apex with the reign of Oliver Cromwell, The Lord Protector.  It was followed by the Restoration of Charles' son as King Charles II, and after he was succeeded by his brother King James II of England (VI of Scotland)they did not appreciate James' Catholicism.  This came to a head when James' young, Catholic  2nd wife gave birth to a male Catholic heir.  The supporters of King James, known as Jacobites, mostly Scots, but many English Catholics as well,  rebelled against his removal from the throne.  The conducted several rebellious battles against English and Protestant supporter of William and Mary who had replaced her father King James on the throne.   The 2 most important were in 1715 and 1745.  There is a concise and very good History of this at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/11494490/Outlander-amazon-prime.html.. (And yes, Claire's Jamie was a Jacobite)

There is also an article on English Puritanism worth reading at https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=th314h

The Puritan History in America begins with the Pilgrim Separatists who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620.  The Puritans later in 1629 founded Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The Pilgrim Separatists were not truly Puritan although both were Calvinistic sects which had developed out of hatred for the English Church as they felt Henry VIII had not gone far enough in removing the Catholic elements from his new Church.  The Pilgrims wanted to Separate from the English Church while the Puritans, wanted to purify it-rid the Church of England of its retained elements of "Popery" or the elements it had retained from the original Catholic Church.



The first family I want to explore here is the Puritan Rice family of Sudlow, Massachusetts, then we will move on to some of the associated families. The progenitor was Edmund Rice, (b. c. 1594  d.  3 May 1663).  (Keep in mind that he was born 27 years before the Pilgrims sailed in the Mayflower, and he died more than 100 years before The American Revolution-just to set the stage in the right era!).  Edmund Rice was my 9th Great Grandfather.

The line of descent is me, my Father Robert W. Wright (B 1927 Rock Island, Rock Island, Illinois-D 1978 same location);  his Father, Robert B. Wright ( B 1898 Seaton, Mercer Co, Illinois-D 1975 Moline, Rock Island Co, Illinois) his Mother,  Kate Pattison Wright (B 1856 Pensacola, Santa Rosa Co, Florida-D 1922 Seaton, Mercer, Illinois): her mother,Josephine Cushman Pattison (B 1832 Fort Gaines, Clay, Georgia- D1885 Ohio Grove, Mercer, Illinois);  her Father, Ira Harvey Cushman (B 1799 Barnet, Caledonia Co, Vermont-D 1849 Geneva, Geneva Co, Alabama);  his Mother,  Catherine Grout Cushman (B1744 Charlestown, SullivanCo, New Hampshire-D1837 Barnet, Caledonia, Vermont): her Mother, Mary Willard Grout (B 1735 Lunenburg, Worcester Co, Massachusetts-D 1786 Charlestown, New Hampshire);  her Mother, Kezia White Willard (B 1696 Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts-D 1739 Lunenburg, Worcester Co, Massachusetts);  her Mother, Mary Rice White ( B 1656 Sudbury, Massachusets-D 1733 Lancaster, Worcester, Massachusetts): her Father, Thomas Rice (B 1626 Massachusetts-D 1681-Sudbury, Massachusetts);  his Father, Edmund Rice (B 1594, Suffolk England-D 1663 Marlboro, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts).  (Goodness!!  That was not easy!!)

 Edmund Rice was born around 1594 in the East of England, in Suffolk County, possibly in the Village of Stanstead.  I have also seen Horsmonden, Kent listed as a birthplace as well as Birkhampstead, Hertfordshire.  Suffice it to say, no one is sure where Edmund Rice was born!  In fact, the Edmund Rice Association states that his ancestry and parents are unknown despite the efforts of acclaimed Genealogists.  https://www.edmund-rice.org/ancestors.htm

 On 15 Oct. 1618, Edmund married Thomasine Frost  of Stanstead at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk.  The couple had 10 children, only the youngest was born in Massachusetts.  The Rice family immigrated to Massachusetts in about 1638.  Thomasine (Tamazine) died in 1654.  Edmund remarried Mercie Hurd (The Widow Bringham) and had 2 daughters with her. 

Sudbury, Massachusetts 1885

 Edmund is consider one of the Founders of the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639.  It was the 3rd permanent Inland community in the Colony-the 1st being Concord, founded by another Grandfather Simon Willard, (whose Great Granddaughter, Mary Willard {see above paragraph delineating the line of Grandparents} married Elijah Grout and their daughter married into our Cushman Family); the 2nd inland community was Dedham.

Saltbox style home of Edmund Rice in Sudbury, Massahusetts.  Apparently this stayed in the family from 1643 when it was built until 1910, when it burned.  Edwin Rice - Original in archives of Edmund Rice (1638) Association.

The town of Sudbury has an interesting history-it is the home of the Wayside Inn which was used by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for his book of poems "Tales of the Wayside Inn"-one of which began "Listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere".  (One of my favorite poems as a child!)

The Wayside Inn, Sudbury, MA     By John Phelan - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10055811

It is also the home of the Redstone School which is believed to be the school in the poem "Mary had a Little Lamb".           https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-redstone-schoolhouse-sudbury-massachusetts



Edmund served as a Deacon in the Puritan Church and was active in local politics.  He also served in the Great and General Court of the Colony, for several years.

Sumner Chilton Powell wrote, in Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, "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."

Edmund also later was instrumental in the founding of  the Massachusetts town of Marlborough, Middlesex County.
 Rice and 13 other colonists settled there in 1657; the town was incorporated in 1660 and Edmund was named a Selectman.   Apparently he and the other settlers had become unhappy with the type of land allotment practiced in Sudbury which was Open field or Communal farming.   Using this system-a left over from the Medieval period, the arable land in a community was held in common and was divided into strips which were then alloted to each eligible man according to his standing in the community, marital status etc.   Rice and his fellow dissenters preferred the more modern Closed field system whereby land was bought and sold and owner operated.  This Closed field system led to the Enclosure Movement in Britain whereby small farms and crofts were consolidated and sold and then usage of it was restricted by the owner.  Land was becoming a sought after commodity.

Edmund also served as a Deacon in the Puritan Church-he was ordained in 1648, while living in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  There is one artifact owned by Edmund Rice and his 2nd wife (not our Grandmother).  A Tudor period Bible Box is at the Worcester Massachusetts Museum.  The Bible Box pictured below while not the Rice artifact is similar to the one owned by Rice.  The top of the box was slanted like a podium to facilitate reading the large heavy tome.

By Bradshawhall at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3757731

Edmund and his first wife Thomasine had 8 children who survived to adulthood, 2 more also from Mercy, his 2nd wife.  His son Thomas (1626, Stanstead, Suffolk, England-1681, Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts  Bay Colony) was our 8th Great Grandfather.  Thomas married Mary King (1630, Dorset, England-1715, Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony)  Thomas and Mary had 14 children and he died in 1681 in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The oldest child of Thomas and Mary King Rice was another Mary born in 1653 in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  She married, in 1678,  Josiah White born in Wenham and was baptised in Salem, Massachusetts B. C. in 1643.  Josiah was the son of John White and Joan West White; the Whites moved to Lancaster shortly after Josiah's birth.  

Josiah and Mary Rice White were our 7th great Grandparents.  Together they had seven children, the youngest being our 6th great grandmother Keziah White born in 1697 in Lancaster, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Colony. After the death of Keziah's father Josiah in 1714, her mother Mary remarried a man named Thomas Sawyer.  Five years later in 1719, Keziah married Jonathan Willard.  From the Willards, the line goes to the Cushman Family.  I will cover the Willards in a later post.  


It is uncertain where Edmund Rice is buried but there is a Memorial placed by the family on the site of the First Sudbury Meeting House.