Sir Herbert Price, 1st Baronet (1605 – 14 January 1678) was a Welsh politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

at various times between 1640 and 1678. He fought on the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

side in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Price was the second son of Thomas Price of The Priory, Brecon and his wife Anne Rudhall and was educated in law at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

(1622).W R Williams ''The Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales''
/ref> In April 1640, Price was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Brecon Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the coun ...

in the Short Parliament and re-elected for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

the following November. As an ardent Royalist he was disabled from sitting in Parliament on 8 May 1643. He fought as a Colonel at the

Battle of Naseby The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main ...

and accompanied King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

in his retreat through Glamorgan and Brecon, entertaining him at the Priory on 6 August 1645. He may have been honoured by the King, but no records survive. He was governor of Brecon Castle and held Hereford until it was captured on 18 December 1645 and he was taken prisoner. His estates were sequestered on 13 May 1651 and his name was excepted out of the general pardon for South Wales. He went into exile, returning, having been created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

, in 1658. In 1661 Price stood for Parliament again in disputed elections for both Brecon and

Breconshire , image_flag= , HQ= Brecon , Government= Brecknockshire County Council (1889-1974) , Origin= Brycheiniog , Status= , Start= 1535 , End= ...

, but was allowed to sit for Brecon in what is known as the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

, holding the seat until his death. He became

Master of the Household The Master of the Household is the operational head (see Chief operating officer) of the "below stairs" elements of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. The role has charge of the domestic staff, from the Royal Kitchens, the pages and foot ...

for King Charles II in 1661 and a Justice of the Peace for Breconshire in 1666. He died at the age of 73 and was buried in

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. He had married Goditha Arden, daughter of Sir Henry Arden of Park Hall Warwickshire and Dorothy Feilding and was succeeded by their eldest son Thomas Arden Price, 2nd Baronet. There were no grandsons and the title became extinct on Thomas' death in 1689. Their daughter, the younger Goditha, was the mistress of the future King James II in the 1660s. According to Samuel Pepys, the affair was conducted with great discretion: a later mistress of James, Lady Denham, said scornfully that she would not "go up and down the back stairs like Mistress Price".

Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no marit ...

10 June 1666 Goditha is thought to have had a daughter, Mary, by James. The Priory passed to Herbert's cousin Colonel John Jeffreys of Abercynrig, whose mother was a Price.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Herbert 1605 births 1678 deaths People from Brecon Members of the Middle Temple Cavaliers 17th-century Welsh politicians Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for constituencies in Wales English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1661–1679 Masters of the Household Burials at Westminster Abbey Baronets in the Baronetage of England