Price Family
The Price and other Quaker families, the Foxes and the Tregelles of Falmouth, were important in developing engineering in Cornwall; they worked in partnership with each other and with the Methodist Williams family.
Henry Price married Margaret Habberley
1739 Their son, Peter Price, was born at Madeley, Shropshire
Apprentice moulder at Coalbrookdale ironworks.
1759 Recruited by Dr John Roebuck for his newly founded Carron Co in Scotland. Peter Price became foreman of the boring mill and worked with James Watt on his early attempts to improve the steam engine.
Watt later described Price as ‘a man of character and a great deal of knowledge in the foundry way’ [1].
1768 Price left the Carron ironworks. He went to America, where he erected blast furnaces in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
c.1774 Returned home as the War of Independence began. He became a Quaker on the journey home.
Agent for the Coalbrookdale Iron Co in London.
1781 married Anna (d. 1846), the sister of Samuel Tregelles. The couple had one son and two daughters.
1784 Son born Joseph Tregelles Price (1784–1854).
1791 the Fox, Price, and Tregelles families were the main investors in the Quaker partnership that founded the Perran Foundry near Falmouth to manufacture engineering parts for the Cornish mines.
1792 the same partners leased land at Neath Abbey where an ironworks was built with two furnaces to supply the Perran foundry with pig iron.
1801 Peter Price became the resident manager at the Neath Abbey ironworks. Soon the making of machine parts and castings was concentrated at Neath Abbey, leading to the manufacture of complete steam engines.
1818 Joseph Tregelles Price became a partner in the Neath Abbey Iron Company with his brother H. H. Price
1821 Peter Price died at Neath Abbey on 13 September.
1820s Built marine steam engine
1829 Railway locomotive built.
1830s Price took out two patents for improvements to boilers and steam engines.
1842 Built iron ship, the first in Wales. Neath Abbey ironworks built some of the world's largest pumping engines for the Cornish mines. The ironworks was the only British works to build marine, stationary, and locomotive engines along with iron ships.
Joseph's sisters Junia (1787–1845) and Christina (1792–1879) were both active members of the Society of Friends; Christina was involved in the industrial life of the area as a partner in the Neath Abbey Coal Co.
Price also took a prominent role in the Society of Friends.
1843 Price was chairman of one of the sessions of the international peace conference in London.
1854 Joseph Price died.
1874 The Fox and Price families withdrew from the engineering business.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ J. Watt to M. Boulton, 4 Aug 1781, Boulton and Watt Collection, Birmingham Reference Library
- Biography of Peter Price, ODNB [1]