Person:James Rice (41)

James Rice appears to have been born in the mid to late 1820s in County Armagh in Ireland. His first confirmed sighting, however, is not in Ireland but his marriage in 1850 in Wigtownshire, the south-westernmost county of Scotland. Quite likely James had left Ireland at the time of the Potato Famine of the late 1840s. James's bride was a Jane Lemon, who was also Irish, being from County Tyrone. The couple married at Craiglemine in the parish of Glasserton, where James was working as an agricultural labourer. The 1851 census finds the recently married couple lodging at Little Craiglemine with a Brown family.

By 1852, James and Jane appear to have left Glasserton and been living in the neighbouring parish of Whithorn, where all six of their children were born. From at least 1857 until after 1871 the family lived not in the village of Whithorn itself, but at Sheddock, an isolated hamlet at the eastern edge of the parish, standing by the coast overlooking Wigtown Bay. At Sheddock the family lived in a one-roomed cottage. James appears to have worked as a ploughman and cattle man.

By 1881, James and Jane and their youngest son, John, were living in Whithorn village itself on Main Street. They occupied two rooms of a larger house here - there were six rooms in the house, but it was occupied by three families who had two rooms each.

In 1890, Jane died, aged 63, and was buried at St Ninian's New Kirkyard in Whithorn.

After Jane's death, James went to live with his son Peter, who was living at another cottage in the rural part of Whithorn parish. He also appears to have lived for a time at 24 Kings Road in Whithorn in 1895. However, James's other five children had by this time all moved to England, and were all living in or near London. James then went to live in London himself, appearing in the 1899 electoral registers at 19 Amberley Road in Paddington. The 1901 census finds James living there with his widowed daughter Margaret. Margaret had been left destitute when her husband Stephen Sweeney died in 1895 and oral tradition has it that James Rice's employer, the Marquis of Bute, took pity on the family and was generous to them, including paying for Margaret's children to be educated. This is perhaps supported by the fact that Margaret's son Stephen Sweeney appears at the Cathedral School in Oban in the 1901 census - it is unlikely that a poor carpenter's widow could have sent her son away to boarding school without assistance of some form.

James Rice did not stay in London. He returned to Wigtownshire where he had spent most of his life to live with his son Peter again. He died at Peter's house in Glasserton on 21st April 1907, aged 81. He was buried alongside his wife Jane at St Ninian's New Kirkyard. Their gravestone reads:

"Erected by James Rice in memory of his wife Jane Lemon who died 15th Feby 1890 aged 63 years

Also the above James Rice who died at Glasserton 21st April 1907 aged 81 years"

1. ↑ General Register Office for Scotland. 1851 Scotland Census. (Edinburgh)
   885/00 002/00 019, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: Little Craiglemine, Glasserton, Wigtownshire
   Joseph Brown, head, married, male, 26 [1824/5], Yearly Farm Lab, b. Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire
   Mary Brown, wife, married, female, 28 [1822/3], Lab's wife, b. Kirkmaiden, Wigtownshire
   William Brown, son, male, 5 [1845/6], b. Mochrum, Wigtownshire
   Hugh Brown, son, male, 3 [1847/8], b. Glasserton, Wigtownshire
   Margaret Brown, daughter, female, 1 [1849/50], b. Glasserton, Wigtownshire
   Margaret Brown, sister, unmarried, female, 22 [1828/9], b. Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire
   James Rice, lodger, married, male, 23 [1827/8], Farm Lab, b. Ireland
   Jane Rice, lodger's wife, married, female, 24 [1826/7], Indoor Farm Lab, b. Ireland

2. ↑ General Register Office for Scotland. 1861 Scotland Census. (Edinburgh)
   900/00 002/00 002, 7 Apr 1861.

   Address: Shadock Cothouse, Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   1 room with windows
   James Rice, head, married, 30 [1830/1], Ploughman, b. Ireland
   Jane Rice, wife, married, female, 34 [1826/7], Ploughmans Wife, b. Ireland
   Margret Rice, daughter, unmarried, female, 8 [1852/3], Ploughmans Daur, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   Peter Rice, son, unmarried, male, 6 [1854/5], Ploughmans Son, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   James Rice, son, unmarried, male, 3 [1857/8], Ploughmans Son, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   Mary Rice, daughter, unmarried, female, 9 months [1860], Ploughmans Daur, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire

3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 General Register Office for Scotland. 1871 Scotland Census. (Edinburgh)
   900/00 002/00 003, 2 Apr 1871.

   Address: Sheddock Cottages No.1, Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   1 room with windows
   James Rice, head, married, male, 42 [1828/9], Ag lab, b. Armagh, Ireland
   Jane Rice, wife, married, female, 44 [1826/7], b. Tyrone, Ireland
   Peter Rice, son, unmarried, male, 16 [1854/5], Farm Servant, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   James Rice, son, male, 13 [1857/8], Scholar, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   Mary Rice, daughter, female, 10 [1860/1], Scholar, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   Joseph Rice, son, male, 8 [1862/3], Scholar, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   John Rice, son, male, 5 [1865/6], Scholar, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire

4. ↑ General Register Office for Scotland. 1881 Scotland Census. (Edinburgh)
   900/00 010/00 001, 3 Apr 1881.

   Address: Main Street, Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   2 rooms with windows
   [one of three households listed in the same house - each household described as having two rooms with windows]
   James Rice, head, married, male, 55 [1825/6], Ag Labourer, b. Ireland
   Jane Rice, wife, married, female, 55 [1825/6], Ag Lab's Wife, b. Ireland
   John Rice, son, unmarried, male, 15 [1865/6], Ag Lab's Son, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire

5. ↑ General Register Office for Scotland. 1891 Scotland Census. (Edinburgh)
   900/00 004/00 010, 5 Apr 1891.

   Address: Burgess Outon Cothouse, Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   2 rooms with windows
   Peter Rice, head, married, male, 33 [1857/8], Agri Lab, employed, b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   Maggie Rice, wife, married, female, 30 [1860/1], b. Glenluce, Wigtownshire
   Bessie Rice, daughter, female, 12 [1878/9], Scholar, b. Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbrightshire
   Robert Rice, son (twins), male, 4 [1886/7], b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   James Rice, son (twins), male, 4 [1886/7], b. Whithorn, Wigtownshire
   James Rice, father, widower, male, 63 [1827/8], Labourer General, employed, b. Ireland

6. ↑ England. England. 1901 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   RG13/7/116/13, 31 Mar 1901.

   Address: 19 Amberley Road, Paddington, London
   2 rooms occupied
   James Rice, head, married, male, 74 [1826/7], Retired Farm Bailif, b. Ireland
   Margaret Sweeney, daughter, widow, female, 44 [1856/7], Waitress, b. Scotland
   Margaretta Sweeney, granddaughter, single, female, 13 [1887/8], none [occupation], b. Paddington, London

7. ↑ Death certificate, in General Register Office for Scotland. Civil Registration.

   1907 DEATHS in the Parish of Glasserton in the County of Wigtown
   No.5
   Name: James Rice, formerly Cattle man, widower of Jane Lemond
   When and where died: 1907 April Twenty first, 4h AM, Glasserton
   Sex: M
   Age: 81 years [1825/6]
   Father: James Rice, Crofter (deceased)
   Mother: Alice Rice, M.S. Graham (deceased)
   Cause of death: [blank]
   Informant: Peter Rice, son
   Registered: 1907 April 25th at Glasserton, John Gordon Registrar
   [in margin]: Result of Precogn. Cause of D See Reg. Cor Ent Vol I p.102, 9th May 1907

8.   Scotland. 1895 Valuation Rolls.

   Burgh of Whithorn
   No. 363
   Description: House
   Situation: 24 Kings Road
   Proprietor: John Cain, Mason, Whithorn
   Tenant: James Rice, Labourer
   Yearly rent or value: £2 10s

9.   Paddington Electoral Register, 1899
   North Division, No.6 Polling District - Maida Vale Ward
   AMBERLEY ROAD
   Rice, James / 19 Amberley road / dwelling house / 19 Amberley road