Chronicle

Dr. William Price

In appearance and dress, Dr. Price was distinctive. A headdress of a whole fox skin, including the head, surmounted his bearded face. His clothing was a green pixie-like jacket and trousers, worn with a sash and sword. He considered himself a Druid, and held various ceremonies on Llantrisant common.

William Price was born on 4th March 1800 at Rudry, near Caerphilly. The Prices were an old Caerphilly family of minor gentry, going back to at least the early 1600’s.

His father (also William Price) was a clergyman and Oxford scholar and it is likely he contributed to his son’s early education. When he was fourteen, he became apprenticed to Evan Edwards, surgeon-apothecary of Caerphilly, where he learnt the basics of running a medical practice. In 1820, Price moved to London to complete his medical studies at St. Bartholomews and the London Hospital at Whitechapel. He graduated in two professional bodies after a little more than eighteen months of study.

Price returned to Wales and practised for some time at Pontypridd. He initiated the first workers medical scheme in Wales for employees of the Brown Lennox chain works. Later he moved to Llantrisant and set up practice ar Ty’r Clettwr, the site of Zoar chapel. Some of his medical practices were considered unorthodox, but he was held in affectionate regard by local people.

William Price was a lifelong radical, with pronounced anti-establishment views. He became involved with militant Chartism, which sought to improve the lot of the working-classes and to reform Parliament, perceived as the cause of much of their hardship.

Parliaments rejection of the Charter of 1839 led to the Chartist uprising in South Wales and the abortive march. At least 20 protesters were shot dead by the military stationed there. Price did not take part in the march, though he was one of the organizers. When the authorities moved against the local leadership, Price fled to Paris. The city was a ferment of socialist protest against the old order of society, and he became friendly with prominent figures. The year or so he spent there undoubtedly strengthened his radical commitment.

Dr Price rejected the institution of marriage for much of his life. He was 83 before he took Gwenllian Llewellyn of Llanworno as his ‘lawful wedded wife’. She was then in her twenties and bore him three children.

One of his children by Gwenllian Edwards was controversially named Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ). He was born in 1882 and died the following year. Price attempted to cremate his body in a field at Lantrisant, but was arrested and brought to trial. He was aquitted, and this eventually gave rise to the legality of cremation.

Price was an eccentric character whose outspoken views and practices often shocked the society of his day. As he grew older, these became more bizarre, and it has been suggested that he descended into some form of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, he should be seen as a skilled medical practitioner and as a moral, social and political thinker ahead of his time.

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