Thanks for the Graves and Groves records. We think my John Graves goes back two or three generations to Capt. Thomas Graves who came to settle Jamestown. But we still need a male from that line to test their DNA for positive proof. But that still leaves me tryng to find the maiden name of Sarah who married James Graves, son of John Graves and Frances unknown. He is the one closest to Capt. Thomas Graves. Marianne Dillow

Southern Biographies and Genealogies, 1500s-1940s   Page 132 The last will and testament of William Rice was probated and recorded in Culpeper county the 17th day of April, 1780. It was dated the 9th day of February, 1780. He divided his property about equally between his children, Richard, John, Benajah, Hannah Rice, Ann Graves, wife of John Graves, and Sarah Graves, wife of Edward Graves. In his will is the following provision, "I lend to my beloved wife, Sarah Rice, one- half of my estate during her natural life." After that it was to be divided equally between his children. He appointed Benajah, John, and Richard Rice, his sons, and John Graves, his son-in law, his executors. Among the property inventoried are slaves, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, plantation tools, six spinning wheels, two looms, one copper still, a desk, warming pan, books of sundry kinds, valued at £70, money scales, cash in metal £7, 13s. 9d., cash in paper £55, 8s., punch bowls, valued at £16. He gave the copper still to his unmarried daughter. Perhaps he thought she would be less likely to misuse it. The fact that "money scales" were considered a part of the equipment of a plantation would seem to indicate that coin, or metal money, as it is called in this inventory, was valued according to its weight in those days.   John Rice, one of the sons of William Rice, removed to the valley of Shenandoah. He obtained there a large tract of land about six miles long. Built a log cabin upon it, and there went back. He married Mary Finney. Upon his marriage his father made the newly married couple a wedding present of a set of silver spoons, marked W. R., the initials of the donor. If they were marked on purpose for the occasion it shows a different custom in marking wedding presents from that which now prevails. These spoons are still in the possession of some of their descendants. After marrying, he returned to Rockingham county, lived and died there, and his will was admitted to probate there A. D. 1804. He willed all of his land and slaves to his wife during her life, to be divided, at her death, amongst his children, except his daughter, who had married James Snaden, and gone to Bourbon county, Ky. He had probably given her her share when she went to Kentucky. John Rice, shortly after his return to Rockingham county, and about the year 1776 to 1779, built his new house, which is still standing, and is in good order and occupied. The roof is a little steeper than 45 degrees. The first roof was on the house seventy-one years. It was made of yellow pine shingles, about three quarters of an inch thick, pinned on with locust pins. There is a cellar under the whole house, part of which was used as a kitchen, and part of it for a store-room, for bacon and whiskey. Almost every large plantation, in those days, had its own distillery and made the whiskey for the use of the plantation, and, according to modern standards, they used too much. The cellar walls and fireplaces were built of brick, which was not usual at that time. The house is a frame one. It is weather-boarded with siding, 6 inches wide, and little more than half an inch thick, of yellow pine. All the lumber in the house was sawed out by hand with whip-saws. Every one of the weather-boards has a bead run on the edge for ornament. The siding is nailed on with wrought iron nails, which still show the mark of the blacksmith's hammer. The doors are six panel doors, and the window blinds are made the same way. All the hinges are wrought iron, made by hand, and also show the marks of the blacksmith's hammer. There is a profusion of moulding all through the house. It was the first frame house lathed, plastered and weather-boarded and painted in all that region. It is in good order now, much better than Thomas Jefferson's, which was built sixteen years later. This house was called "The Painted House," and that part of the country was called "The Painted House Neighborhood," houses painted on the outside being so rare. The neighborhood is sometimes known yet among the old settlers, as "The Painted House Neighborhood," Page 133 though this house lost all its paint long ago, and has not received a new application lately. The Rices of Rockingham county are buried in the Dayton burying ground, commencing at the South side of the graveyard and extending Northward. First is old Mrs. Finney, who came over from Accomac county, or Culpeper, to live with her daughter, Mary, and son-in-law, John Rice. Next to her is John Rice; then Mary, his daughter: then Ursula Gaines Rice; then Mary Finney Rice, the wife of John; then three or four children; then William Rice, John's oldest son, who is the first one who has a lettered tombstone. The rest have just plain stones from the creek. William's gravestone is marked as follows: "William Rice, born July 27th, 1779, and departed this life August 2nd, 1838. Aged 59 years and 6 days." Benajah Rice, brother of John Rice, also obtained land in the same county, and adjoining John. He never lived there himself, but some of his children did, and some of his descendants are living there now. The Mary Finney, whom this John Rice married, belonged to the family of Finneys who have lived, for the last 250 years or more, in Accomac county, on the eastern shore of Virginia. There is a place now, called "Finney," and a place called "Finney's Wharf." Honorable Louis C. H. Finney was a member of the Virginia Senate a few years ago, and was well versed in the history of the Finney family. It is probable that William Rice was an Episcopalian; also his son, John Rice, and probably his daughter-in- law, were. An old negro slave, called "Lark," was born on the property of this John Rice, and was baptized, as all the other slaves born on the plantation were, after the fashion of the patriarch, Abraham, who baptized his whole family, including all his servants. This old negro was made free by Ann Hopkins Rice, a daughter-in-law of John Rice, who inherited him, and he died in Illinois about 1863, living with one of John Rice's grandsons. Except these, nearly all of the Rice family, including even the descendants of these, were, and are, Presbyterians.   David Rice, who was sometimes called the "Apostle of Kentucky," and who was instrumental in the founding of Hampden and Sidney College, Virginia, and of the Transylvania University, Kentucky, and the Danville Theological Seminary, Kentucky, was the first moderator of the first Presbytery, and the first moderator of the first Synod of Kentucky, and a member of the first constitutional convention of Kentucky, was a nephew of William Rice, of Culpeper. Benjamin Rice, David's brother, was a lawyer, of Bedford county, Virginia, whose son, John Holt Rice, D. D., was the first pastor of Richmond Memorial church, and first Professor of Christian Theology in Union Theological Seminary, Virginia, and once moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly Another son, Benjamin Holt Rice, was a professor in Princeton, and was once moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. Nathan Lewis Rice, D. D., also one of the descendants of this Thomas Rice, was once a moderator of the General Assem bly, and was a theological professor. Quite a large per cent of the Rice family have been, and are lawyers, ministers of the Gospel, or doctors of medicine.   The Rices, when living in Wales, had a Coat of Arms, of which the widow of Izard Bacon Rice long ago had a copy. The widow of John Holt Rice, D. D., who died in 1831, also had a copy. Mrs. Sara A. Pryor, a prominent member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, wife of General Roger A. Pryor, late Justice of the Supreme Court, New York, now has a copy. Mrs. Pryor is a descendant of Thomas Rice, of Hanover.   The Rice motto was "Fides Non Timet." In the old days, when written in Welsh, the name was spelled "Rhys," though even then, when written in English, it was often spelled, as now, "Rice."