[1][2] Rice returned to England in 1726 to marry Anne Gibbs, sister-in-law of politician Martin Bladen, a senior figure at the Board of Trade.
[3] In 1730 Nathaniel Rice was appointed Secretary[4] of the North Carolina Council, a posting he assumed in April 1731 at the beginning of George Burrington's[5] second term as governor.
[6] Burrington's first term as governor in 1724-25 had been marked by aggressive behaviour and quarrelling with his senior councillor who, along with other assembly members had complained to London and got him removed from post.
Burrington aside, Rice prospered in America where he probably had land acquisitions prior to his arriving in 1731 from his 1725 visit to South Carolina and he had a plantation on the south side of Old Town Creek in New Hanover County (most of the land owned by Nathaniel Rice later fell into newly formed Brunswick County, North Carolina), called 'Rice's Plantation'.
He had one surviving son, John Rice,[18] who was appointed Deputy Secretary of the province and also served as Clerk of Craven County, North Carolina.