[2] Rice was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1885.

After a failed re-election bid in 1886, he returned to Worcester and resumed the practice of law.

He died there on March 1, 1896, at age 69, and was interred at Worcester Rural Cemetery.

William was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.

[6] This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress