Person:Sarah Royce (1)

The name in later generations will be Rice.

From New England Ancestors, Winter 2004

Donald Lines Jacobus published a genealogy of the Robert Royce family as primarily researched by Helen Elizabeth Royce.[4] Robert Royce’s origins in England are unknown but land records (which called him Rise or Rice) place him in Stratford, Connecticut, by 1648.[5] In 1658 the town of New London, Connecticut, gave Robert Royce ten acres. Robert, a keeper of an ordinary, became a prominent citizen of New London, serving as constable and deputy to the General Court. He had five sons; presumably most were born in England, probably with Mary, Robert’s wife, as their mother. The sons all married in New London except Nathaniel, who married in Wallingford, Connecticut, but they all left New London for either Wallingford or Norwich, Connecticut, before the deaths of their father in 1676 or their mother in 1688. Some of Robert’s property in New London was sold in 1688 and another portion in 1697.[6]

Robert Royce of Connecticut was not the same man as Robert Rice of the 1630 Winthrop Fleet in Boston and there was no connection between the two.[7] The hypotheses that Royce came from Martock, Somerset, England, or that he married a wife there whose last name was Sims have also been disproved.

NEHGS Register Vol. Vol. 80, p. 108 (1926) Notes by Donald Lines Jacobus investigating Jonathan Royce and his daughter Mary states that his second marriage and his children's births were recorded in New London "apparently all at the same time... whither he removed from New London... the record of Jonathan's family from the printed "Norwich Vital Records" vol. 1, p.33" includes "The marriage of Jonathan Royce with Deborah Calkins was in June Anno Do 1660"

The third child, "Sarah Royce was born in Octob An: 1665", the same birth date assigned by another researcher to John Chapman's wife. Jonathan Royce died before 22 Sept 1690. Nothing in the extant will and inventory mention his daughter Sarah, nor does similar material available on another child of Jonathan's, David. But infomation provided in the article from "Norwich Deeds" vol. 3b, p. 443, is another piece of evidence.

"To all people to whom these presents shall come, Greeting - John Roise of Mansfield and William Chapman of Colchester both of ye county of Hartford and Jonathan Roise and Thomas Stodder of Norwich in ye county of New london and Joseph Bennatt of Stonington in ye county of New london we being heirs to ye estate of our Brother and Uncle David Roise late of Norwich Deceased..."

This deed is dated 5 Mar 1712/13 and is signed by Joseph X Benit, William X Chapman, John Roise, Jonathan Roise, Thomas X Stodder, Deborah X Stodder. John Chapman and his wife had a son William, of whom no further information is known by this auther. Based on the circumstantial evidence, I conclude that the article in the Register confirms that Sarah Royce, wife of John Chapman, was the daughter of Jonathan Royce and Deborah Calkins.

1. ↑ Researcher.

   Dickinson ged

2. ↑ New England Historic Genealogical Society. NEHGS Register
   Vol. 80, p. 108 1926.