Cursive estate record of intestate Hezekiah Rice and widow/relict Mary (Bullock) affects her date of death, heirs

Question

The following is the last page of her husband's estate record. It seems, in combination with earlier pages in this same record, that she was still alive? I can only read about every other word at best...

What's important are identifying where the disputed land came from [William Bullock, most likely her nephew, is mentioned on an earlier page, suggesting that Mary (Bullock) Rice's father may have been the source]; who were the ultimate heirs (Ibzan Rice is the only clear name that I've seen and he was active as administrator for at least part of the time that the estate was being adjudicated).

What additional family, land or dates can be identified from this estate record? Note that Gideon Rice had been attached as a child at some point, but nothing that I've seen in the records appears to name him as a son; nevertheless, I do not see any sort of identification of Hezekiah and Mary (Bullock) Rice's children from what I've been able to read from this record set.

"North Carolina Estate Files, 1663-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRVX-2DF?cc=1911121&wc=Q6WY-ZFX%3A183208301%2C183381101%2C193200001 : 21 May 2014), Caswell County > R > Rice, Hezekiah (1796) > image 19 of 19; State Archives, Raleigh.

To start at the beginning of his file: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V121-71T

Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

About half way down, Image 13 names three heirs (Ibzan Rice, Jephthah Rice, and Edmund Rice) as heirs and defendants of the suit by James Williamson. Mary Rice (widow and relic) also claimed her dower.

Comments

Thanks so much! I had sort of picked out a few of those names, but that doesn't seem to be a complete list of their children (that DAR shows, anyway).

Here's the surviving wife's probate record(s) according to two web links that a user added without any abstraction from Ancestry to FamilySearch. I haven't found the documents on FamilySearch and these are both behind the paywall.

Web Page (Link to the Record)

https://search.ancestry.com/collections/9061/records/486121

Wills and Estate Papers (Caswell County), 1663-1978; Author: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History (Raleigh, North Carolina); Probate Place: Caswell, North Carolina

Web Page (Link to the Record)

https://search.ancestry.com/collections/9061/records/486123

Where The Record Is Found (Citation)

Wills and Estate Papers (Caswell County), 1663-1978; Author: North Carolina. Division of Archives and History (Raleigh, North Carolina); Probate Place: Caswell, North Carolina

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Those are both links to the same documents you found on FamilySearch. They are about Hezekia’s (intestate) estate, and include Mary’s claim of the 500 acres as her dower right. There is no reference as to where the land came from, but Hezekiah had evidently purchased it. (And yes, she was still living as of the latest date on the documents.)

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Thanks, that helps to know. Now maybe I'll have to broaden the scope to find her estate settlement, assuming there was one.

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Perhaps brothers Ibzan Rice, Jephthah Rice, and Edmund Rice appear to be the only children, possibly along with Williamson (representing the other, younger children), who were seeking the land (image 13), in which case it is unclear who James might be, however. See also DAR: RICE, HEZEKIAH Ancestor record #: A094919)/and Aker, which say that they had a son named William (DAR) or Williamson (Aker).

Ibzan, Jeptha and Edmund is an odd, truncated assortment of mostly rare names and does not appear to represent all of the heirs. So I am wondering if Williamson was the son bringing the suit and James was someone else involved in the suit?

Aker, Mary Bullock. Bullocks of Virginia and Kentucky and Their Descendants. 1952, p. 2. Parkville, Missouri: Author.