Benjamin Price (1804-1896) was the first bishop of theFree Church of England.
Born in 1804 at Llanllywenfel (Llanlleon-vel), in theBuellt district ofBrecon, the son of Isaac Price, a shopkeeper and prominentCalvinistic Methodist elder. He was a great nephew of David Price, vicar ofLlanbadarn Fawr, Ceredigion, and a cousin of theOrientalist David Price.[1]
It appears that Price began to preach among theCalvinistic Methodists. There is a report of him preaching with John Elias, at Newtown in 1830. It seems that he was not fluent in the Welsh language, which may be the reason for him transferring toLady Huntingdon’s Connexion.In 1844, some Anglican clergyman in the south-west of England, reacting against the Tractarian movement, founded theFree Church of England. Soon afterwards, in 1845, Price became the Free Church of England’s minister atIlfracombe. The Connexion and the FCE assembled in united conference under one president. Price was the President for a number of years. Although he had not been consecrated at that time, in 1868 Price was awarded the title ofBishop. He was electedPresident of Convocation in 1866. In 1876, BishopEdward Cridge[2] ofBritish Columbia in theReformed Episcopal Church came over, and formallyconsecrated Price.[3]
Price died atIlfracombe, 6 January 1896, aged 91.[4]