Rice Curtis Sr. 1680-1749 My 7th Great Grandfather on My Father’s Side

Christ Church in Middlesex County, Virginia

Rice Curtis Sr. was the son of Giles and Mary Curtis. He was born on November 4, 1680, in Christ Church Parish in the Colony of Virginia, and baptized the following January 15^th. He had at least one sister Jane who was baptized on July 24, 1687. Rice married Elizabeth Merry, the widow of Peter Montague. Rice’s name appeared in the Christ Church registry when his son Rice Jr. was born in 1704, he was 23.  When he was 27 Rice again appears in the record books when Thomas Montague chose him to serve as his guardian after the death of Thomas’s father Peter Montague.

Christ Church from the Library of Congress collection of
Historic American Building Survey (HABS)

One of the best sources for Rice Curtis Sr. is the Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex County, Virginia 1653 to 1812 published by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in 1897. This book lists births, marriages, and deaths of family members and slaves. This is the first time I have found such information about the African American’s who enabled one of our ancestors to thrive as a tobacco Planter. This source has twenty entries about the workers owned by Rice.  Jenny or Jeney gave birth to five children between 1714 and 1725 who were named Nanny, Ned, Natt, a Winnie, and a Winney. Judy had a son Frank on 5, 1723, and Jack on July 12, 1725. Phillis had sons Enos on October 21, 1724, and Will on January 17, 1726. Frank, Sarah, and Judith were born between 1708 and 1711 but for some reason, Rice did not register their births until 1726, and the names of their mothers were not recorded. That year was notable because four of the farms' laborers died in 1726 – Dinah on February 26^th, Dick on July 29^th, two-year-old Minta, Jone’s daughter, on December 10^th, and Tom on December 12^th.  I checked Evan’s Early American - A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases; and learned that the summer of 1725 was particularly wet and cold and the winters between 1722 and 1725 were called, “the hard winter.” There was a severe frost in January of 1726. People suffered and died from fevers in summer and “inflammatory” in winter.

Middlesex County historic marker

In the Spotsylvania Roads Order Book from 1722-1744, I found an interesting set of entries starting in March of 1730 at which time Rice was ordered to take over as overseer for building the County Road to Greens Branch. The following month, Rice refused to accept the responsibility and was fined 20 shillings. In May, Robert Hutchison was appointed to take over the task, and on May 5^th Rice presented his case for having his 20 shillings refunded. The entry stated that Rice had ample reasons for not accepting the responsibility but did not explain what those reasons were. On May 4^th the topic changed to “pining down a plank” at the Po River Bridge which Rice was responsible for maintaining. That same day there was a cryptic note stating that Rice would be responsible for maintaining the bridge for ten years and it seems he was to be paid £6000 pounds of tobacco. 

Christ Church historical marker

In October of 1731, Rice was charged with building and maintaining a bridge over the River Ny. This transaction was for £2000 of tobacco. Two other bridges were mentioned in a November record – the Mine Bridge and the East North East Bridge. Rice was involved with both projects. Two additional entries addressed who would continue to maintain these bridges and included a reference to the Hazel Bridge. These types of records are not uncommon but it still amuses me that individuals were responsible for building their own roads and bridges – tasks we now leave to our various branches of governments.

I found a couple of source books that mention that Rice served as a Vestryman in Spotsylvania County from 1731 to 1738 which indicates he was actively engaged in civic affairs. According to the Christ Church Parish Registry, “Vestrymen were chosen from the leading citizens of the parish.” According to Wikipedia, “A Vestry may also have had the role of supervising local (Parish) public services, such as the workhouse, administration of poor relief, the keeping of parish records (baptisms, deaths, and marriages) and so on. Usually the term vestryman (as used in the UK) would denote a member of the parish council at a certain period in history (and is synonymous with or equivalent to a parish councilor) but the term may depending on context, also signify an official (or employee) of the Parish Council although strictly, this should be in the form Vestryman.”

Display in the Middlesex museum

Between 1741 and 1751 when Rice was aged 49 to 59 he was involved in several land transactions. In one source – Spotsylvania Vital Records 1722-1800 I found 3 records showing that Rice purchased a total of 795 acres in the county, and eight more records of sales totaling 1927acres.  Clearly, he must have acquired much of his land prior to 1722.

Location of Middlesex County in Virginia

Christ Church from the HABS collection, Library of Congress

Rice Curtis made his will on January 22, 1742. In it, he distributed his property to his family. Phillip Vass received the slaves that were currently in his possession plus a desk. Phillip was Rice’s great-granddaughter Mary Curtis’s husband. Henry Pendleton, husband of Rice’s granddaughter also received two slaves and a looking glass. He stipulated that fifty pounds was to be raised from his estate and used to purchase two female Negroes aged about fourteen and given to his son Rice Jr. He directed that his slaves Cate and Little along with their current and future offspring be equally divided among his three youngest daughters. Anything that was left of his estate after his mother died was to be given to his son Rice Curtis Jr. A provision was added by his wife Elizabeth certifying that she resigned her right and title to the administration of her husband’s estate. I do not know where Rice Curtis is buried.