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PRICE, John I (by 1523-50 or later), of Whitton, Rad.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. by 1523.2
Offices Held
Escheator, Rad. Jan.-Dec. 1545; commr. relief 1550.3
Biography
John Price claimed gentle birth, but his parentage has not been established. His domicile not far from the borders of Radnorshire with Herefordshire and Shropshire suggests that he was a member of the family settled in the locality which was to share the representation of the county with their kinsfolk the Lewises of Harpton by the end of Mary’s reign. He may have had some grounding in the law as he was styled esquire on being returned to the Parliament of 1542. The death of John Baker IV after the opening of the final session led to the by-election on 19 Feb. 1544 at which Price was elected. Presumably he had the support of James Price of Monaughty near Bleddfa, whose name appears second among the electors on this occasion, but his return seems to have been the work of the sheriff Richard Blike acting on behalf of the council in the marches or of Blike’s kinsmen the Bakers. Although Price was not to be re-elected the experience of sitting in the House may have qualified him for a part in local administration, as in 1545 he was named escheator and five years later a commissioner to collect the relief. In 1549 he leased some property at Knucklas and elsewhere in Radnorshire from the crown, and in December 1550 he bought from Sir John Williams (whose acquaintance he had perhaps made while a Member) the grange of Monaughty Poeth near Knucklas, where one of his tenants was his presumed kinsman James Price of Monaughty. No trace of him after 1550 has been found.4