Edmund Rice (1638)

Edmund Rice (1594 Suffolk, England – May 3, 1663 Marlborough, Massachusetts) arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638 in the town of Sudbury. He was married to Thomasine Frost on October 15, 1618 and had 12 children including: [cite web| last = Court| first = Helen Glenn| title = Rice/Massachusetts| work = Genealogy| url = http://www.glenncourt.com/family/chart_rice.shtml| accessdate = 2007-05-14]
* Mary Rice, born August 23, 1619
* Henry R. Rice, born February 13, 1619–20, died February 10, 1709–-10, married Elizabeth Moore February 1, 1641–42
* Edward Rice, born October 20, 1622, died August 15, 1712, married (1) Anna, (2) Agnes Bent 1646
* Thomas Rice, born January 26, 1625–6, died November 16, 1681, married Mary King 1652
* Lydia Rice, born March 9, 1626–27, died April 5, 1675, married Hugh Drury 1645.
* Matthew Rice, born February 28, 1627–28, died 1717, married Martha Lamson November 2, 1654
* Daniel Rice, stillborn
* Samuel Rice, born November 12, 1634, died February 25, 1683–84, married (1) Elizabeth King, (2) Mary Dix September 1668, (3) Sarah White December 13, 1676
* Joseph Rice, born March 13, 1636–37, died December 23, 1711, married (1) Sarah Prescott, (2) Mary Beers, (3) Mercy King
* Benjamin Rice, born May 31, 1640, died December 19, 1713, married (1) Mary Chamberlain, (2) Mary Browne

Rice was a leader in his communities at both Sudbury and Marlborough. Edmund and twelve other colleagues founding of Marlborough were pioneers of the concept of closed-field (owner-operator) farming in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Between 1638 and 1657, Edmund resided in the Massachusetts towns of Watertown and Sudbury where open-field or communal farming was practiced, following traditions of the commons and governance practices brought from central and western England. Edmund and the other dissenters from Sudbury petitioned the Massachusetts General Court in 1656 to create the town of Marlborough in which individual ownership of farmland was to be practiced. Rice was elected a Selectman at Marlborough in 1657. 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." [cite web| title = Who was Edmund Rice?| publisher = The Edmund Rice (1638) Association, Inc.| url = http://www.edmund-rice.org/| accessdate = 2007-05-14]

The Edmund Rice (1638) Association has conducted extensive ancestral haplotype DNA testing on males believed to have descended from Rice, identifying descendants from five of his sons. The testing also revealed an unrecorded adoption or illegitimacy that occurred. [cite web| last = Perego| first =Ugo A.| title = The Science of Molecular Genealogy|publisher = National Genealogy Society| month = December | year = 2005| url =http://www.smgf.org/resources/papers/The%20_Science_of_Molecular_Genealogy_NGSQ_2005.pdf| accessdate = 2007-05-14|format=PDF] [cite web| title =Rice Family DNA Project| publisher = Edmund Rice (1638) Association| url =http://www.edmund-rice.org/haplotype.htm| accessdate = 2007-05-14]

He has several notable descendants including Brigadier General Edmund Rice, Congressman Edmund Rice, and Senator Henry Mower Rice.

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