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- H. Uriah RiceAft 1734 -
- W. Eunice PeckhamAbt 1739 - 1814
m. 7 Sep 1780
Facts and Events
| Name |
Eunice Peckham |
| Gender |
Female |
| Birth[2] |
Abt 1739 |
Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island, United States |
| Marriage |
18 Aug 1756 |
Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island, United Statesto Charles Church |
| Marriage |
7 Sep 1780 |
Petersham, Worcester, Massachusetts, United Statesto Uriah Rice |
| Death[1] |
11 Apr 1814 |
Westminster, Windham, Vermont, United States |
References
- ↑ Vermont, United States. Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954: Database with images. (FamilySearch. Citing Secretary of State. State Capitol Building, Montpelier.)
[1].
Name: Eunice Rice
Age: 77 yrs.
Date of Birth: 1737
Name of Spouse: Uriah Rice
Date of Death: April 11 1814
Name of Cemetery: Old East Parish
Attest: Fred I. Lane Town Clerk of Westminster
- ↑ Looking under the name "Church" in the Petersham records where the marriage of Eunice Church to Uriah Rice is found, one finds, about this time, marriages for Charles Church to Betty Wheeler 1782, Mary Church to Clap Spooner 1783 and Constant Church to Deborah Wheeler 1784. These would appear to be the three oldest children of Charles Church and Eunice Peckham of Bristol, R.I., according to the presentation given in Source:Peckham, Stephen Farnum. Peckham Genealogy : The English Ancestors and American Descendants of John Peckham of Newport, Rhode Island, 1630, p. 313. Charles and Eunice are not said to have had a daughter named Eunice, and Charles is supposed to have died in 1766, so it appears the Eunice Church who married 1780 Uriah Rice is the widow. However, the author admits to confusion between two alleged Eunice Peckhams, daughter of Caleb and daughter of John. By family tradition, the wife of Charles Church is daughter of Caleb, but there is no record evidence that he had a daughter Eunice (his will named none of his children so is no help, but importantly, there was no daughter Eunice named in a group baptism of his children in 1741). This family tradition, however, would make her a different Eunice Peckham than the one whose father named his daughter Eunice Rice in his will. However, Eunice Rice is named in the will of John Peckham, so she is known to have been an actual person by record evidence, and would appear to be the widow of Charles Church based on the proximity of her adult children.
Comparing the above book of 1922, which calls her daughter of Caleb, to an article by the same author in NEHGR, p. 57:159 in 1903, which shows no daughter named Eunice for Caleb, makes things even more confusing. Normally, the book would be expected to be more complete and up-to-date. However as some of the book is guided by "family tradition" and unexplained facts, that may not be true in this case. Instead it may be more confused? On p. 268, it says this Eunice married John E. Rice, of Cranston, RI. No date is given (though the use of a middle initial in a person probably marrying well prior to the Revolutionary War is often indicative of bad research), nor has any record of this person or this marriage been found.
It is suspected, based on the will of John Peckham of Petersham, housewright, in 1792, naming daughter Eunice Rice combined with no real evidence of a daughter Eunice in Caleb's family, that John is the father of Eunice who married first 1756 Charles Church, and second 1780 Uriah Rice. But more research is needed, as this implies errors in both the above items. Among the items needing to be checked out is:
* why the 1903 article thinks Eunice belongs to John's second wife. (There is no birth record to support this, but if confirmed, the marriage to the second wife being in 1742, this would make her too young to marry Charles Church in 1756. However, is is probably wrong, since we know for sure that John's daughter married Uriah Rice and that the age at death of Uriah Rice's wife places her birth about 1736-1737. The more credible MF5G, Richard Warren, part 3, p. 85, places John's daughter Eunice with the first wife. Interestingly enough, MF5G gives both men a daughter Eunice, and frustratingly, does not identify the marriages of either one. This, of course, implies there is no academically-acceptable answer either way.)
* when John married his first wife. (Eunice's birth is shown about 1739, which appears chosen to fit in a gap between known children John and William, but if Eunice is older than John, 1735 would fit the marriage date of 1756 better and the age at death better, if it could be shown that the father married his first wife early enough. It again reinforces that most of the presentation is based on guesswork.)
* additional information about the Anna or Nancy Church or Russell b. 1772 claimed by family tradition to be a sister of Charles Church's children according to the book, but whose alleged birth and marriage cannot be found and whose death in New Hampshire calls her only widow Chapin with no identification of her parentage. (Based on which secondary source you believe, this would imply the widow of Charles Church married either a Mr. Church or a Mr. Russell, which may represent an intermediate marriage between Charles Church and Uriah Rice, or may rule out the widow as the woman who married Uriah Rice, or other complications. But as this story cannot be validated against actual evidence, its accuracy or meaning cannot be assessed.)
On top of the preceding, there is the story that John Peckham moved to Petersham "to prevent his sons from following the sea". So it would not be unexpected that a widowed daughter with young children might return to her parents, and thus end up in Petersham where her children are found to have their marriages recorded and where she remarried to a man named Rice, giving her a name of "Eunice Rice" in 1792 when her father wrote his will. This is the story of common sense, and until actual evidence is found to support any part of the alternative, little credence can be given to the various family traditions.
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