PRICE, William (1619-91), of Rhiwlas, Merion.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Nov. 1640 - 5 Feb. 1644
25 Mar. 1673

Family and Education

b. 13 Apr. 1619, 1st s. of John Price of Rhiwlas by Eleanor, da. of Sir William Jones of Castellmarch, Caern. educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1636. m. 1641, Mary, da. and coh. of David Holland of Kinmel, Denb., 8s. (at least 2 d.v.p.) 7da. suc. fa 1629.1

Offices Held

Commr. of array, Merion. 1643-4, assessment, Merion. Aug. 1660-80, Denb. and Flints. Aug. 1660-1, 1673-80, Denb. 1663-73, Caern., Denb., Flints. and Merion. 1689-90; j.p. Denb., Flints. and Merion. July 1660-Apr. 1688, Oct. 1688-d.; dep. lt. Merion. c. Aug. 1660-Feb. 1688, 1689-d.; commr. of oyer and terminer, Wales 1661; col. of militia, Merion. c.1663-at least 1684.2

Col. of ft. (royalist) 1643-6.3

Biography

Price’s ancestors acquired much land at the dissolution of the monasteries, and first sat in Parliament in 1555. A staunch Royalist, Price raised a regiment for Charles I in 1643 and attended the Oxford Parliament in 1644. He compounded in 1649, listing properties worth only £200 p.a., but when he was nominated to the proposed order of the Royal Oak at the Restoration his estate was valued at £1,500 p.a.4

There is no evidence that Price sought to enter Parliament in 1660 or 1661, but he was selected by the gentry to succeed Henry Wynn in the Cavalier Parliament in 1673, and duly returned. His name appears in the working lists in 1675-8, and he was reckoned among the government supporters by Sir Richard Wiseman in 1676. He was marked ‘doubly vile’ by Shaftesbury in 1677. As an excise pensioner he received £100 on 14 Jan. 1678, but his name appears only in the court list of government supporters. His only committee was on the bill for the maintenance of St. Asaph cathedral. He is not known to have stood in either election of 1679, but he was mentioned as a candidate in 1681. He did not reply to the questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, being noted in the Denbighshire and Merioneth lists as living with the bishop of St. Asaph, one of the seven bishops who petitioned against the Declaration of Indulgence. He was also marked ‘absent’ in the Flintshire list and removed from local office. He died on 31 Oct. 1691 and was buried in St. Asaph cathedral. The next member of the the family to sit in Parliament was Richard Price, who was returned for Beaumaris as a Tory in 1754.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. J. E. Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 247; Jnl. Merion. Hist. Soc. v. 7.
  • 2. NLW, Clenennau mss 726; J. Dingley, Beaufort’s Progress, 148.
  • 3. N. Tucker, Royalist Officers of N. Wales, 15, 51.
  • 4. Jnl. Merion. Hist. Soc. v. 3-6; Keeler, Long Parl. 315; Cal. Comm. Comp. 2090.
  • 5. NLW, Brogyntyn mss 1649.