Dr Richard Price

Richard Price was born in the farmhouse of Tyn Ton in the village of Llangeinor, just to the north of Bridgend in south Wales on the 23rd February 1723. During his lifetime he would become one of the most celebrated men of the eighteenth century and was a celebrity for all of the right reasons.
Whilst he was loved and admired by many, there were others who hated his views and villified him. To some he was the torchbearer of freedom while to others he was a dangerous radical who challenged the foundations of constitutional monarchy.
“First, That by our country is meant, in this case, not the soil, or the spot of earth on which we happen to have been born; not the forests and fields, but that community of which we are members; or that body of companions and friends and kindred who are associated with us under the same constitution of government, protected by the same laws, and bound together by the same civil polity.”
‘A discourse on the love of our country’ (1789)
His Works
Ethics and Morality

The Mathematical Genius

Political Theory

Smelling out a Rat, a caricature of Price with Edmund Burke’s vision looking over his shoulder, by James Gillray, 1790
“We can do little for the interest of mankind at large. To this interest, however, all other interests are subordinate. The noblest principle in our nature is the regard to general justice, and that good-will which embraces all the world. I have already observed this, but it cannot be too often repeated. Though our immediate attention must be employed in promoting our own interest and that of our nearest connexions, yet we must remember, that a narrower interest ought always to give way to a more extensive interest. In pursuing particularly the interest of our country, we ought to carry our views beyond it. We should love it ardently but not exclusively. We ought to seek its good, by all the means that our different circumstances and abilities will allow, but, at the same time, we ought to consider ourselves as citizens of the world, and take care to maintain a just regard to the rights of other countries ”
‘A discourse on the love of our country’ (1789)
The Society
Our Aims
  • To promote and inform the general public of the contribution of Dr Richard Price to the Enlightenment in general, and to the development and establishment of Representative Democracies in particular.
  • To promote and preserve the legacy of Dr Richard Price’s contribution to the field of Moral Philosophy and Ethics.
  • To promote and preserve the legacy of Dr Richard Price’s contribution to the field of Mathematics and Actuarial Science.
  • To educate the wider public through exhibitions and lectures of the contribution of Dr Richard Price to the 18th Century intellectual life and how his ideas and beliefs are of relevance today.
  • To preserve all aspects of the heritage of Dr Richard Price for the good of society and the general public.
Joseph Priestley, Richard Price and Theophilus Lindsay in the pulpit, in a 1790 engraving satirising the campaign to have the Test Act repealed
News
A virtuous king versus a pious scallywag

A virtuous king versus a pious scallywag

A Virtuous King versus a Pious Scallywag King George of Hanover III versus Richard Price of Bridgend A Talk & Discussion by Martyn Hooper MBE Saturday 28th October 11am Carnegie House Arts Centre (1st floor with lift access) (The Old Library Building)...

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