Beatrice ap Rice (died 1561) was a servant of
Mary I of England. She was first recorded as a laundress in 1519.[1]
Her name was sometimes written as Beatrix a Pryce, or Beatrice Aprice.[2][3] The household accounts of Lady Mary call her the "launder".[4] She and
Jane Foole were ill in 1543 while the household was at Beddington,[5] and at
Greenwich Palace.[6]
Mary and
Philip II of Spain granted her lands at Boreham in the honour of
Beaulieu alias Newhall, citing her forty years in royal service.[7] This included a holding of 30 acres known as "Bullis" or "Boles", with the "Deyhouse" and "Coggeshallfield". Beatrice was confirmed as the leaseholder on 6 November 1557, after the death of her husband.[8][9]
Beatrice ap Rice was of sufficient status to be involved in the New Year gift exchange at court, perhaps as an assistant to the "
mother of the maids". The surviving 1557 gift roll records a "free gift" of a gilt salt given to "Betterys, laundrys".[10][11]
Beatrice died in December 1561, after making a will on 25 May,[12] and was buried at
Boreham in Essex. The parish register recorded her burial in January, "Betteris Apryse landeris to Queen Marie".[13]
Family
Her husband was David ap Rice, a yeoman of the chamber.[14] He died before November 1557.[15] Their children included Harry, Susan, Winifred, and probably Mary. The accounts of Lady Mary include gifts to the children.[16]
It is not known if she was a relation to Mrs Barbara Ryce, Mary's
chamberer, and her husband William Ryce (died 1588), who was also a royal servant.[17]John Foxe, who wrote a description of
Mary's final days, claimed to have received his information from a Mr Rice.[18]
References
^David Loades, Reign of Mary Tudor (Routledge, 1979), p. 12.
^W. C. Richardson, The Report of the royal commission of 1552 (Morgantown, 1974), p. 133.
^James Gairdner, Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. 10 (London, 1887), pp. 494–95 no. 1187.
^Frederick Madden, Privy Purses Expenses of Princess Mary (London: Pickering, 1831), p. 245.
^Melita Thomas, The King's Pearl (Amberley, 2017), p. 217.
^Frederick Madden, Privy Purses Expenses of Princess Mary (London: Pickering, 1831), p. 207.
^Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1553–1554 (London, 1937), p. 320.
^Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1557–1558 (London, 1939), pp. 117–18.
^Jane Lawson, 'Mary's Participation in the Ritual of the New Year's Gift Exchange', Valerie Schutte & Jessica S. Hower, Mary I in Writing: Letters, Literature, and Representation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 180–181.