Richard Price

(b. Feb. 23, 1723, Llangeinor, Bridgend, West Glamorgan, Wales – d. April 19, 1791, Newington Green Unitarian Church )

Gender: M

Richard Price (1723-1791) was minister of the Unitarian church at Newington Green near London; one member of its congregation was Mary Wollstonecraft. He gathered around him a group of liberal reformers such as John Horne Tooke, and supported the American colonies in their bid for independence; he was visited by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and John and Abigail Adams. In 1783, Price published a Letter to the Volunteers of Ireland on the subject of parliamentary reform, which roused Elizabeth Carter’s indignation (Letter to Montagu 26th November 1783). Price and his fellow-Dissenters suffered from the legal restrictions contained in the Test and Corporation Acts, preventing them from attending university or holding public office, and they welcomed the French Revolution in the hope that it would lead to greater liberties. It was the sermon that Dr Price preached on 4th November 1789 at an event organised by the London Revolution Society, and his suggestion that the Society should send a congratulatory address to the National Assembly in Paris, that goaded an indignant Edmund Burke into publishing his Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Also known as:

Richard Price

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