Sir Ralph Rice

Sir Ralph Rice, barrister and judge, awarded compensation for estates in Clarendon, Jamaica as a trustee, under the will of his father-in-law Edmund Fearon Bourke (1755-1812).

1. Married Anne Lydia Bourke, daughter of Edmund Fearon Bourke, at Exmouth 1809. A tablet in St John's Withycombe Raelgh commemorates her 'She died on the 29th day of Decr 1816 after a long and painful illness in the 31st year of her age and lies in the same tomb as her sister Jane Peters Bourke [1793-1815]. Her afflicted husband placed this memorial of his love and sorrow.'  

2. Baptised 21/04/1781 at St Nicholas' Church, Tooting Graveney, son of John and Frances Rice. Graduated BA from Oriel College, Oxford in 1802, Inner Temple 1805. Recorder of Penang (1817-1824); Senior Puisne Judge, Supreme Court, Bombay (resigned November 1827). Knighted 29/05/1817.

3. Gave evidence to the Select Committee of the East India Company, 11/03/1830.

4. The correspondence of Sir Ralph Rice between 1798-1807 and the journal of his travels in Italy and France in 1829 are held at East Sussex Record Office.

5. Sir Ralph Rice at 4 Hanover Terrace, London, in 1831, 1833 and 1847. Died on 03/06/1851 at his house at 6, Royal Terrace, Brighton, age 69.

T71/915 Clarendon Nos. 157, 158, 160 and 161.

1. Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919), Vol. 5, p. 247, Monumental Inscriptions in England relating to Jamaicans St John's Withycombe Ralegh, Co. Devon; The Morning Post, 22/3/1809.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; Joseph Foster (compiler), Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886 (4 vols., Oxford, Parker and Co., 1888) Vol. 3 p. 1190; http://app.supremecourt.gov.sg/default.aspx?pgID=2601 [accessed 26/10/2011]; Sir John Malcolm, The Government of India (London, J. Murray, 1833) p. 117.

3. Minutes of evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Lords appointed to enquire into the present state of the affairs of the East-India Company (London, Parbury, Allen, and Co., 1830) Part 1, pp. 1730186.

4. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=179-amsu&cid=47#47 [accessed 26/10/2011].

5. 'Fashionable Arrivals', Morning Post, Thursday 5 May 1831, Issue 18845; London Royal Blue Book (1833); Boyle's Directory (1847); Morning Post, Friday July 05, 1851 p. 8, Issue 23890.

We are grateful to William Norton for his help compiling this entry.