On 6 October 1818, Rice was married to Elizabeth Knight (1800–1884), the sixth (of eleven) child of
Edward Austen Knight of
Godmersham Park (who added Knight to his surname to inherit from his relative,
Thomas Knight) and Elizabeth Bridges (herself the daughter of
Sir Brook Bridges, 3rd Baronet). Through her father, she was niece of author
Jane Austen. Together, they lived at Dane Court in
Tilmanstone, Kent, and were the parents of ten sons and five daughters: •
Sir Edward Bridges Rice (1819–1902), an Admiral with the Royal Navy; he married Cecilia Caroline Harcourt, daughter of Rev.
William Vernon Harcourt, of
Nuneham Park, in 1864. • Henry Rice (1821–1849), a Captain with the
72nd Highlanders. who married, as his third wife,
George Finch-Hatton, 10th Earl of Winchilsea, in 1849. • John Morland Rice (1823–1897), the Rector of Bramber who married Caroline Penelope York, daughter of
Edward York of Wighill Park, in 1861. After her death in 1884, he married Lady Matilda Horatia Seymour, daughter of Admiral
Sir George Seymour and sister to
Francis Seymour, 5th Marquess of Hertford. • Walter Brook Rice (1837–1892), a Major General with the
British Army. • Arthur Rice (1838–1861), a Lt. with the
72nd Highlanders. •
Ernest Rice (1840–1927), also an Admiral who achieved flag rank in the
Royal Navy; he married Laura Marianne York, another daughter of
Edward York of Wighill Park, in 1870. After her death, he married Fanny Julia Dawkins, daughter of Clinton George Augustus Dawkins,
Consul-General to
Vienna, in 1903. • Lionel Knight Rice (1844–1929), who married Eleanor Murray, daughter of Robert Hay Murray, Esq., in 1878. Rice died on 27 November 1878 in
Eastry, Kent, and was buried at St. Andrew Churchyard in
Tilmanstone.
Descendants Through his son Cecil, he was a grandfather of
Walter Francis Rice,
Lieutenant Governor of
British Crown Colony of
Burma. Through his daughter Fanny, he was a grandfather of
Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea,
Henry Finch-Hatton, 13th Earl of Winchilsea, Lady Evelyn Georgiana Finch-Hatton (who married the
4th Viscount Templetown), and
Harold Finch-Hatton. ==References==