William Price
There have been several well-known men of this name in the history of Wales. These include:
William Price (1619 - 1691) was MP for Merioneth 1640-44 and 1673-9 and a Royalist colonel in the English Civil War. A member of the Price family of Rhiwlas, he retained the family estate under Oliver Cromwell's protectorate.
Dr William Price (1800-1893) of Pontypridd, South Wales, was a physician and a famous eccentric. He refused to treat smokers, and was a vegetarian. He was a prominent Welsh Chartist and was forced to flee the country after his part in the Rising of 1839. He was an equally prominent Druid and exponent of 19th century druidic traditions, though he is remembered chiefly as the performer of the first legal cremation in the United Kingdom in 1884, when he burned the body of his illegitimate son Iesu Grist Price on a pyre of coal. (The son was born of a liaison between the elderly Price and his housekeeper). He was prosecuted, but successfully defended the case, setting an important legal precedent.
Sir William Price (~1860-1938) was a farmer and industrialist, Director of United Dairies Ltd. He was knighted in 1922.
