PRICE, Richard II (c.1562-1623), of Gogerddan, Llanbadarnfawr, Card.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Family and Education

b. c.1562, 1st s. of John Price I by his 1st w., and bro. of Thomas. educ. I. Temple 1582. m. Gwen (or Gwenllian), da. and h. of Thomas ap Rhys ap Morus of Aberbechan, Newtown, Mont., 2s. 5da. suc. fa. 1584. Kntd. 1602.1

Offices Held

J.p. Card. from c.1583, sheriff 1585-6, 1603-4, custos rot. from c.1592, dep. lt. from 1597; sheriff, Mont. 1590-1, j.p. 1596; member, council in the marches of Wales 1601; Exchequer commr. Card. 1611.2

Biography

George Owen in his Description of Wales places Gogerddan first among the mansions of Cardiganshire. Price’s father had left him an ample estate, to which he added by lease or purchase until almost the end of Elizabeth’s reign. His acquisitions included crown lands and rectories around Aberystwyth (some of them from the escheated estate of Sir Rhys ap Thomas) and the tolls and fisheries of Aberystwyth itself. His Montgomeryshire marriage extended his interests into that shire, and he added to his estate lands and mills near his wife’s home at Newtown. In Merioneth, just north of the Montgomeryshire border, he acquired lands and fishing rights in the Dovey valley. Some of the purchases were made in association with his wife and his son John; some were subsequently disposed of; many involved him in litigation, including nearly a score of Exchequer actions.3

The mill at Aberystwyth, of which the town had disputed ownership with his father, was wrecked by a mob after the son had procured a favourable verdict in the courts, and had to be rebuilt. His purchases in the township of Pennal, in the Dovey valley, were a source of even more prolonged trouble, for here he was up against powerful Montgomeryshire neighbours like Matthew Herbert II and Rowland Pugh, and he had the case removed to the court of Exchequer on the ground that their local influence precluded an impartial verdict at common law; even so, it cost him at least eight Exchequer suits and his wife yet another. He was himself arraigned before the same court with 25 other freeholders of the townships of Talerddig and Carno, Montgomeryshire, for refusing the customary dues to Sir Roger Owen, who had a life grant of the lordships of Arwystli and Cyfelliog and claimed (what the defendants denied) that the townships lay within his jurisdiction.4

As knight of the shire for Cardiganshire Price could, in this period, have attended the following committees: in 1584-5, on the subsidy (24 Feb.); in 1589, on the subsidy (11 Feb.); in 1593, on the subsidy (26 Feb.) and a legal matter (9 Mar.); in 1601, the main business committee (3 Nov.) and the committee on monopolies (23 Nov.). Like so many of the Welsh gentry of his age, Price had widespread industrial interests. Apart from mills, water rights and fisheries, he appears to have had dealings in the local cloth trade: among the debts left to his widow to collect was one of £20 from a Machynlleth gentleman for five pieces of Welsh cloth sold him by Price. He died 7 Feb. 1623.5

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: A.H.D.

Notes

  • 1. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 44; C142/208/242; Star Chamber, ed. Edwards (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. i), 40; Exchequer, ed. E. G. Jones (same ser. iv), 96; G. Owen, ‘Desc. Wales’ 1602 in Desc. Pemb. ed. H. Owen, ii. 461; Mort thesis.
  • 2. G. Owen, Taylor’s Cussion, ff. 36-7; CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 536; Star Chamber, 40; APC, xxx. 775; P. H. Williams, Council in the Marches of Wales, 354-5; Exchequer, ed. T. I. J. Jones (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xv), 99-100.
  • 3. Exchequer, ed. E. G. Jones, 90, 96; ed. T. I. J. Jones, 76, 90, 93-4, 97, 102, 104, 239, 263, 280, 281; Augmentations (same ser. xiii), 129, 433-4.
  • 4. Augmentations, 231; Exchequer, ed. E. G. Jones, 96; ed. T. I. J. Jones, 104, 113, 225-6, 228, 237, 272, 280-1, 286; Mont. Coll. Supp. 1896-1928, p. 137.
  • 5. Lansd. 43, anon. jnl. f. 171; D’Ewes, 431, 474, 496, 624, 649; Exchequer Jas. I, ed. T. I. J. Jones, 112; PCC 28 Swann.