Mark Rice (1787-1863) and Eleanor Whaley (1791-1862).
My 4My 4th great-grand uncle and aunt.
Mark Rice may have lived an uneventful life but several of his children emigrated to the USA as members of the Mormon Church.
Mark was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Balcombe, Sussex, on 27 July 1787 and married Eleanor Whaley at St Mary’s Church in Speldhurst, Sussex, on 20 April 1812. She had actually been baptised Ellina Willie on 19 June 1791 at St Nicholas’s in Worth, Sussex, to parents William and Hannah.
For many years Mark and his wife lived in West Hoathly, Sussex, raising a family. He received £5 per year for 10 years in his father’s will dated 1825 and worked as a farm labourer. The family were still in West Hoathly at the time of the 1841 Census but the 1851 and 1861 census records showed that they had moved to Croydon Old Town in Surrey, Mark continuing as an agricultural labourer. Eleanor died there in 1862 and was buried at St John’s Church on 10 February. Mark followed a year later and was buried on 12 December 1863.
The couple’s known children were:
- Mark Rice (1817-????), who was baptised in West Hoathly on 2 March 1817. He must’ve died young because a later child was also named Mark but I’ve yet to find a record of his burial.
- John Rice (?1818-1889), who was born in around 1818. I’ve yet to find a baptism record. John married Sussex-born Anne Longley in West Hoathly on 26 April 1842. They had several children while census records from 1851 showed the couple living in Godstone, Surrey. John worked on the railways but by 1871 they were living in Horne, Surrey, and he was an agricultural labourer. Anne died in 1873 and was buried in Horne on 24 September that year. John then married widow Harriet Ansell nee Sayers on 31 October 1877 at Caterham, Surrey – and by this time was described as a farmer. The 1881 Census showed them living in Horsham. Harriet was buried there on 26 August 1886. He died on 2 August 1889 in Croydon, his will describing him as a yeoman.
- Eliza Rice (1821-1884), who was baptised in West Hoathly on 22 April 1821 and married Thomas Rolls there on 11 April 1841. He worked as an agricultural labourer. They settled in Croydon, where he was living at the time of their marriage, and remained there until their deaths – Eliza in 1884 and Thomas in 1892. I don’t believe they had any children.
- James Rice (1824-1890), who was born in West Hoathly on 3 November 1824. He married Elizabeth Murrill of Tenterden in Kent in Croydon, Surrey, on 22 November 1847. They moved to Chelsea in Middlesex, where he worked as a policeman, and they were recorded in the 1851 Census. Around this time the couple joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. They sailed with their children for the USA from Liverpool in November 1855 and settled initially in New York, where the 1860 Census recorded James as a fireman. In 1862 they crossed the states, travelling in part with the Henry W Miller Company from Nebraska to Utah, where they settled in Pool Patch and North Ogden, Weber County. There they became farmers. In 1870, James took a second wife, Ann Oliver, and had more children with her – the families apparently living together as was permitted by the church. James died on 4 September 1890 and Elizabeth on 18 November 1893, both buried in Ben Lomond Cemetery, North Ogden, Utah.
- Martha Rice (1827-1828) was baptised in West Hoathly on 29 April 1827 and buried there on 10 April 1828.
- Mark Rice (1827-1862) was baptised in West Hoathly on 29 April 1827 and married Sarah Freeland of Croydon, Surrey, in nearby West Norwood on 4 July 1847. He was billed as a labourer at the time of his wedding and in the 1851 Census, when the couple were living with their two children and her family. Mark then disappeared from the records. Sarah described herself as a widow at the 1871 Census. A Mark Rice died of congestion of the brain while working as captain of the ship Barbara in Colaba, India, in June 1862. He was the right age but no further evidence exists and it seems unlikely that they were the same man. Sarah remained in Croydon and died in 1884.
- Margaret Rice (1829-1875), who was baptised in West Hoathly on 25 October 1829. She married labourer Charles Odd from Westerham in Kent in Croydon on 27 September 1852. The 1861 and 1871 censuses showed them in Croydon with their children, Charles listed as an agricultural labourer. They also converted to the Church of Latter-day Saints and emigrated to the USA with their children in June 1873 on board the ship Nevada. They settled in Utah but Margaret died of cancer in Salt Lake City on 12 January 1875. Charles remained in the city, shown in the 1880 Census working as a labourer there and living with several of his children. He died at Provo Asylum of heart failure on 16 August 1896.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Sussex Family History Group.
Wills: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858, at National Archives; Sussex Wills and Probate at East Sussex Record Office; Sussex Family History Group.
East Ogden Stake Lineages – Weber County, Utah: of Early New England Ancestry; Author: Barker, Vincy R Stone (copy on Ancestry).
Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints records. Saints by Sea website.