Apologies this is so long: I'm trying to establish John's parents.
This is John in 1861, living in Barnstaple:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...65/edit/record
He is a railway guard, aged 44, with wife Eliza (nee Geen) and numerous children, whose births confirm the mother's maiden name.
The eldest daughter is called Jane, and is still at home, aged 19 on that census.
John's marriage to Eliza Geen took place in Exeter, 29 October 1839, when he gave his father's name as John, and both their occupations as Carrier:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...844318%2f00038
In 1851, John's occupation is given as coachman - so of course he isn't at home!
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...1892_1892-0084
Once he joins the railway, John's career blossoms and he starts to move around. In 1881, he has taken a widowed aunt under his wing, Ann
Dallyn:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...60/edit/record
This is the marriage of William Rawlins
Dallyn to Ann Baker in 1847:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...MAR%2F4132%2F1
William's father was another William
Dallyn, a malster and William originated in Barnstaple, though he was John's age, rather than an earlier generation.
(pauses for breath...)
Now the only baptism of a John Rice, son of John, that I can find at the right time is this:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...F501266923%2F1
Christmas Day 1816, John son of John and Johanna Rice, father a joiner.
Johanna appears to have been buried as Jane, aged 30, in 1825:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...F518163840%2F1
John senior married for the first time in Burrington in 1814 a Joanna
Dallyn: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...AR%2F89780%2F1
So, although it seems unlikely that Ann Dallyn was John junior's aunt (it sounds like a courtesy title for a looser relationship) am I reasonable in suggesting Joanna Dallyn as John junior's mother?