Called Howe in the muster, the name also appears as HOE and HOW. The surname Rice was originally spelled Rhys.

Though Rice Hooe is not listed in the census of 1623/4, he was then in Virginia for he was one of four men who testified, 4 April 1625 that a certain settler, Andrew Dudley, was slain by Indians on 18 March 1623/4, they being witness to the act.

A patent of 2 May 1636 was issued to Rice Hooe for 1200 acres in Charles City County near Martin’s Brandon. An Act of Assembly, 6 January 1639 named him as a tobacco viewer for Merchant’s Hope in Charles City.

The following analysis of the settlement of Surry county adjacent to Charles City County (where Rice Hooe I settled) sheds light on the economic and social forces of the time:
"The successful development and effective marketing of tobacco in Virginia by 1617 produced a boom during the 1620's that brought immigrants to the colony scrambling after quick riches. Although this boom soon collapsed and the easy times were gone by 1630, their effects remained. People still flocked to Virginia, settling along its navigable waterways....The price of tobacco continues to fall during the 1640's and 1650's, and soon population growth south of the James slowed....The curtailment of Surry's expansion during these years was the predictable result of low tobacco prices coupled with the generally poor quality of tobacco grown in the county. Surry, which had to compete for settlers with the richer lands still available in the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck, was placed at a severe disadvantage. Few planters attracted to Surry could afford to suffer the higher transportation costs of a move inland across the county's watershed....

Moreover, the real threat of Indian attack provided added incentive to the planters to huddle near the James. All of Virginia was severely hurt by the attack of 1622 in which some 350 people were killed, 64 of whom were "Surry side" inhabitants. The memory of this event was not quickly forgotten. In 1644 Virginia was again subjected to an all-out Indian attack, with the settlers living at the fall line of the main Virginia rivers and in the the south side of the Upper James bearing the brunt of it."

Excerpted from The Chesapeake in the 17th Century. Thad W. Talte, David L Ammerman. pp192-3.