Uvedale Tomkins Price (17 September 1685 – 17 March 1764), of Poston Lodge and Foxley, Yazor, Herefordshire, was a British Tory and later Whig 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. ...

between 1713 and 1734.

Early life

Price was the younger son of Robert Price, Baron of the

Exchequer In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty’s Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's ''current account'' (i.e., money held from taxation and other government reven ...

, and his wife Lucy Rodd, daughter and heiress of Robert Rodd of Foxley at

Yazor Yazor is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Herefordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of Yarsop about to the north.at Yazor is some north west of the city of Hereford on the A480 road and about east of Offa's Dyk ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

. He was named after Lucy's uncle Uvedale Tomkins, the son of her grandmother Lucy Uvedale by the latter's second husband Sir Thomas Tomkins, MP. He was educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

and St Paul's by 1703 and was admitted at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

on 12 January 1704 and

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

on October 22, 1706. Between 1709 and 1712 he travelled abroad in France and Italy. He was married in 1714 to Anne Somerset, daughter and coheiress of Lord Arthur Somerset of Poston Court in

Vowchurch Vowchurch is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, situated in the Golden Valley, on the River Dore. The village is about southwest of Hereford. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 163, increasing to 176 ...

, Herefordshire (younger son of

Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, Knight of the Garter, KG, Privy Council of England, PC (162921 January 1700) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1667, when ...

), by his wife Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir William Russell, 1st

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 14th ...

Laugharne Laugharne ( cy, Talacharn) is a town on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Tâf. The ancient borough of Laugharne Township ( cy, Treflan Lacharn) with its Corporation and Charter is a unique survival i ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

. He was Steward of the courts, for Denbigh until 1740.

Career

Price's father had been

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 of ...

for

Weobley Weobley ( ) is an ancient settlement and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. Formerly a market town, the market is long defunct and the settlement is today promoted as one of the county's black and white villages owing to its abundance of ...

until he became Baron of the Exchequer in 1702 when he was succeeded in the seat by his elder son Thomas, who was then only 21 or 22.Hillaby, Joseph (1967). Thomas's career ended prematurely, as he died unmarried at

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in September 1706. Uvedale Price was returned as Tory MP for Weobley at the

1713 British general election The 1713 British general election produced further gains for the governing Tory party. Since 1710 Robert Harley had led a government appointed after the downfall of the Whig Junto, attempting to pursue a moderate and non-controversial policy, b ...

, and, in Parliament, he probably acted in support of Oxford's administration. He did not stand at the

1715 British general election The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the 1707 merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In October 1714, soon afte ...

. After a break, he was returned unopposed as MP for Weobley, as a Whig, at the

1727 British general election The 1727 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was trigg ...

. He voted with the Government at every recorded division, except when he voted with the Opposition on the Hessian troops in 1730. He was unenthusiastic about his career in Parliament and did not stand at the

1734 British general election The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...

. He succeeded his father in 1733 and his wife Anne died in 1741.

Death and legacy

Price died on 17 March 1764 and was buried in

Bath Abbey The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, commonly known as Bath Abbey, is a parish church of the Church of England and former Benedictine monastery in Bath, Somerset, England. Founded in the 7th century, it was reorganised in the 10th ...

. With his wife he had three daughters, who died early; and an only son, Robert Price (1717–1761), who, by a daughter of

John Shute Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington John Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington (1678 – 14 December 1734), known as John Shute until 1710, was an English dissenting theologian and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1723. Background and education Barrin ...

, had seven surviving sons.Griffith, John Edwards (1914). He was succeeded at Foxley by his grandson

Uvedale Price Sir Uvedale Price, 1st Baronet (baptised 14 April 1747 – 14 September 1829), author of the ''Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared with the Sublime and The Beautiful'' (1794), was a Herefordshire landowner who was at the heart of the 'Picturesqu ...

, writer on the

Picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Uvedale Tomkins 1685 births 1764 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School People educated at St Paul's School, London Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People from Herefordshire Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1727–1734