Ancestral Overview: William Rice (b. 1845)
According to current records available on Ancestry.com, it appears that William Rice (Latin: Gulielmi), born in 1845, was baptised in Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland. At the time, there was no formal church in Enniskerry; Catholic services were held in a barn. William’s baptismal record lists his parents as William Rice (b. 1816) and Mary (née Mahon).
William (b. 1845) is believed to have emigrated to Liverpool, England around the age of 16, as he appears in the 1861 England census. In 1875, he married Elizabeth Halliwell (b. 1847) at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Bolton, Lancashire. Together, they had four children: Mary, Elizabeth, William (b. 1881), and Margaret. Their son William (b. 1881) would later become the grandfather of the Rice family of Greerton.
William (b. 1845) died in 1891 at the recorded age of 44, although evidence suggests he was actually 46. The reason for the consistent underreporting of his age by two years in both census and death records remains unclear.
The most compelling evidence linking William (b. 1845) to the baptismal records in Enniskerry is through his elder brother, James (Latin: Jacobum) Rice, born in 1842. James’s 1870 marriage record from St Patrick’s Church in Bolton lists his parents as Gulielmi (William, b. 1816) and Mariae (Mary) Rice — the same names found on both James’s and William’s Enniskerry baptism records. This strongly supports the conclusion that William was indeed born in 1845, not 1847 as occasionally recorded elsewhere.
Further confirmation of family connections is found in Catholic Church records. The marriages of all daughters of William (b. 1845) and Elizabeth (b. 1847) are recorded in Catholic registers. Likewise, the marriage of their son William (b. 1881) to Susan Flint is documented in church records. Sadly, their first child, Mary, died shortly after her birth in 1915.
The baptism record of William and Elizabeth’s daughter Elizabeth (b. 1883) provides another familial link: her godfather is listed as Jacobum (James Rice), reinforcing the sibling relationship between William (b. 1845) and James (b. 1842). Additionally, James (listed as Jocobo) Rice is recorded as a witness at William and Elizabeth’s wedding, further affirming the close familial bond and shared lineage.
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