Family and Education

b. 6 Aug. 1535, 1st s. of Sir John Price^† of Hereford by Joan, da. of John Williams alias Cromwell of Southwark, Surr.; bro. of Richard Price I. m. (1) by Nov. 1559, Mary, da. of Humphrey Coningsby of Hampton Court, Herefs., 1s.; (2) by 1598, Grissel, da. of Walter Roberts of Glassenbury, Kent, wid. of Gervase Gebons, 1da.; 2s. 1da. illegit. suc. fa. 1555.

Offices Held

J.p. Herefs. from 1564, Brec, from c.1591; sheriff, Herefs. 1566-7, 1575-6, 1595-6, Brec. Feb.-Dec. 1587, 1594-5; commr. musters, Herefs. 1570, tanneries, Hereford 1574, subsidy, Herefs. 1580, 1591-2; mayor, Hereford 1573-4, 1576-7, 1597-8; dep. lt. Brec. by 1587.

Biography

From his father, a noted public servant and antiquary, Price inherited considerable estates in Herefordshire and Wales. He was frequently employed by the Privy Council in Herefordshire. In 1574, for instance, he was instructed to survey and report on tanneries in Hereford, and in 1590 the complaint of a ‘poor widow’ was referred to him. In the same year, he wrote to tell the Council that Anthony Pembridge was not a recusant. He was himself accused, at various times, of enclosing common land, diverting a water course, withholding rent, and permitting play in a bowling alley in his garden. Perhaps he had enemies who took advantage of his doubtful religious views. He was classed as neutral in religion in 1564 and his name was on a list drawn up in 1574 in the interests of Mary Queen of Scots. In 1590 his house in Hereford was described as ‘a receptacle of all murderers and ill-disposed persons, that do commit any offence in the city’. All the same, Hereford returned him to every Parliament between 1572 and his death. He is unlikely to be the Mr. Price referred to in the journals of the 1572 Parliament, but he may have been on a committee for Newport bridge, 29 Nov. 1597.

Price died 19 Mar. 1600. He had made his will on the 13th, ‘remembering that death is a thing most certain and common to every living creature’. He directed that his body should be buried in Hereford cathedral, and divided his property between his brother John and his two bastard sons, while his wife and daughter each received certain lands. Beatrice Evesham, the mother of his illegitimate children, was to have £20, and ‘Master Thompson, reader of the divinity lecture in Hereford’, to have ‘two books of divinity, in written hand’. Small legacies were left to his servants, and to the parish church of St. Peter, Hereford. Price’s wife, his brother, his nephew Thomas Wallwyne, and his cousin John Commond, were appointed executors of the will, which was proved on 9 Apr. 1600. His widow married Sir John Poyntz.

DWB; W. R. Williams, Parl. Hist. Herefs.39, 84; Vis. Herefs. ed. Weaver, 58; CPR, 1560-3, p. 133; J. Maclean, Hist. Fam. Poyntz, 88; PCC 28 Wallop, 39 More; Duncumb, Herefs. i. 367; J. Price, Hereford, 258; Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 69, 125; APC, xx. 23, 67, 116, 132; DNB (Price, Sir John); Cath. Rec. Soc. Misc. viii. 113; D’Ewes, 565; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 328; C142/261/24.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.J.C.

Notes