New Information About the Rice Family of Frederick County, Virginia

Transcript of register of bible of Patrick Rice of Frederick County, Virginia, done in April 1898 by John Seaton at house of Adolphus Lafayette Reid, Greenup, Kentucky, apparent owner of this blbie in 1898; transcript found in the bible of George Rice, son of Jehu Rice of Greenup County, Kentucky
Transcript of register of bible of Jehu Rice, son of Elizabeth Rice, apparently done in April 1898 by John Seaton at house of Adolphus Lafayette Reid, Greenup, Kentucky, who perhaps owned the Jehu Rice bible in 1898; transcript found in the bible of George Rice, Jehu’s son

Or, Subtitled: Precious Transcripts of Old Bible Registers, Tucked Away in Family Bibles

This posting is another interruption in the series I’m currently doing about the children of Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) and wife Sarah Whitlock of Wythe County, Virginia, Wayne County, Kentucky, and Morgan County, Alabama. I’ve promised you a continuation of my discussion of the family of Thomas and Sarah’s son Thomas Whitlock Brooks (1805-1879). I’ll soon be posting information about Thomas W. Brooks’s children by his wives Nancy Gillespie and Nancy Westfall.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: John Jehu and Rachel Brooks

Will of Thomas Brooks, Wythe County, Virginia, Will Bk. 1, pp. 308-9

Or, Subtitled: “Upon James Brooks throwing in two hundred dollars, Robert Brooks one hundred and twenty dollars, Jesse Brooks one hundred dollars”

I’m now drawing to a close my lengthy series about the children of Thomas Brooks and wife Margaret Beaumont/Beamon of Frederick and Wythe Counties, Virginia. This series began with an examination of Thomas and Margaret’s years in Frederick County, where they settled after they married in 1771 and where Thomas had been living prior to 1771. The narrative then moved on to a discussion of their life together in Wythe County, where they relocated in 1792 and where Thomas died testate before 12 February 1805. His estate records suggest that Margaret may have died in Wythe County after 1808, or that she left Wythe County after 1808 to move to Kentucky with some of her children and died there.

Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Rebecca Rice (1783 – 1817) and Husband George W. Kiger (1782 – 1849)

A portrait of George W. Kinger uploaded by K. Grant to her “Kiger-Madera-Lucas-Wells Tree” at Ancestry, with no indication of its provenance

Or, Subtitled: Military Careers Persisting Down Family Lines, as Families Scatter to Four Corners of the Earth

The last child of George Rice and Elizabeth Brooks, Rebecca (who was probably named for George Rice’s sister Rebecca Rice Connell), produced an interesting family with husband George W. Kiger, with sons who followed in the military footsteps of their grandfather George Rice, and who scattered to various places from Winchester, Virginia, where all were born. I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to track the children of George W. Kiger and Rebecca Rice, primarily because there are gaps and inconsistencies in what I can discover about this family, and I had hoped to fill those gaps and resolve the inconsistencies by researching t the entire family.

Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Edmund Rice (1778/1779 – 1797) and George Rice (abt. 1780 – 1814)

Or, Subtitled, “I George Rice of the town of Winchester tavern keeper

Regarding George Rice and Elizabeth Brooks’s two sons Edmund and George, I have limited information. As we have seenEdmund died testate with a will dated 20 April 1796 in Frederick County, Virginia.[1] The will (a digital image is at the posting I just linked) was probated on 4 April 1797 in Frederick County, indicating that Edmund died between the 1796 date and the 1797 one, almost certainly in Frederick County.

Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Mary Rice (1776/1778 – abt. 1825) and Husband Joshua Wilson (1769 – 1823) (2)

John Clark Bayless, photo uploaded by John Blakemore Sellers to “Rev John Clark Bayless” Find a Grave memorial page, Bayless cemetery, Carter County, Kentucky, created by Marcella Mauk and maintained by Remembrance of Days Past

The previous posting ended its chronicle of Joshua Wilson and Mary Rice’s lives on 13 January 1812 as they relinquished to John Postlethwaite the inn they had leased from him in Lexington, Kentucky, and had managed for eight years. The posting states that at this point, the Wilsons moved from Lexington to Louisville, Kentucky. Robert C. Jobson thinks that they had actually moved to Louisville by 1811, prior to the 13 January 1812 relinquishment of their lease on Postlethwaite’s inn.[1] In his 1983 Filson Club History Quarterly article chronicling the life of Joshua and Mary’s grandson John Clark Bayless, Jobson says that Joshua Wilson first appeared on the scene in Louisville in 1811 as a “wealthy entrepreneur.”[2] According to Jobson, the Wilsons’ soon-to-be son-in-law Abijah Bayless arrived in Louisville the same year when he began a dry-goods mercantile business there.

Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Elizabeth Rice (1770/1775 – bef. April 1808) and Husband William McCormick (1768? – 1819 or 1824)

Transcript of bible register of Jehu Rice, made in April 1898 by John Seaton at home of Adolphus Lafayette Reid, Greenup, Kentucky, who then owned this bible; transcript is tucked into the bible of Jehu’s son George Rice, currently owned by Margene Scott

Or, Subtitled: From Virginia Farms to Kentucky Ironworks

I’ve listed Elizabeth as the second of George and Elizabeth Brooks Rice’s children, though it’s possible that her sister Mary was older, and that Elizabeth and not Ruth was even the oldest of George Rice and Elizabeth Brooks and George Rice’s children. The previously cited August 1802 list of George and Elizabeth’s children found in the case file of the Augusta County, Virginia, chancery court case filed by Province McCormick against George’s executors places Elizabeth first in the list of children.[1] But the 15 April 1808 complaint of Bartholomew Smith in his chancery suit against George Rice’s heirs and children, also previously discussed, which seems to me to have a more correct list of George and Elizabeth’s children by order of birth, lists Ruth first, followed by Mary and then Elizabeth.[2]

Children of Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Ruth Rice (1769 – 1852) and Husband Micajah Roach (1761 – 1805)

Tennessee Gazette (8 June 1803), p. 2, col. 3

Or, Subtitled: At the “ſign of the Indian Queen” in Bairdſtown, Micajah Roach is “determined to exert himſelf to accommodate travelers in the beſt manner the country will afford, excellent ſtables, clover lotts, &c

When I promised in my last posting a follow-up piece about the children of George Rice and Elizabeth Brooks, I thought I’d have that article done in no time at all — and that the task would be simple. I thought wrong.

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792): Wills of George and Elizabeth Rice

Will of George Rice, Woodford County, Kentucky, Will Bk. A, pp. 72-4

Or, Subtitled:I give and devise all my estate in Lands lying on the Western Waters to my six Children

George Rice died testate in Woodford County, Kentucky, with a will dated 4 August 1792 and proved at October court 1792 in Woodford County.[1] The will reads as follows:

Children of Mary Brooks (d. 1787, Frederick County, Virginia) — Elizabeth Brooks (1747/1750 – 1816) and Husband George Rice (1735 – 1792)

Will of Elizabeth Brooks Rice, 18 February 1816, Frederick County, Virginia, Will Bk. 9, pp. 535-6

Or, Subtitled: “Your Orator Further Sheweth” — Valuable Inheritances and Predictable Litigation

With this posting, I’m climbing back up the Brooks family tree and starting to track lines stemming from another daughter of Mary Brooks, the earliest Brooks ancestor I’ve been able to prove. As I’ve indicated previously, Mary died testate in Frederick County, Virginia, with a will dated 9 July 1786.[1] In her will, Mary named children Mary (Hollingsworth), Elizabeth (Rice), Thomas, Sarah (Asdril [i.e., Ashdale]), Susanna (Haynes), and James. As the posting I’ve just linked says, I have not been able to discover the name of Mary’s husband, or her maiden surname, or where this family lived before I first catch sight of them in Frederick County, Virginia, records in March 1767.