Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Price, Ellis
PRICE, ELLIS (1505?–1599), Welsh administrator, was second son of Robert ap Rhys ap Maredudd of Foelas and Plas Iolyn, Denbighshire, and Marred (Margaret), daughter of Rhys Llwyd of Gydros. His sister married William Salesbury [q. v.] His father was chaplain and crossbearer to Wolsey, but found favour with Cromwell, and received, when the estates of Strata Marcella (i. e. Ystrad Marchal in Montgomeryshire) were divided, Cwm Tir Mynach, near Bala, where his son Cadwaladr founded the family of Prices of Rhiwlas. Ellis, born about 1505, entered St. Nicholas's Hostel, Cambridge, graduating LL.B. in 1533, and D.C.L. in 1534. From the red gown of the latter degree he was popularly known as ‘Y Doctor Coch’ (The Red Doctor) (cf. Caius, Antiquities of Cambridge). In 1535 he was appointed one of the visitors of monasteries in Wales, but in November Cromwell ordered him to cease visiting, apparently on account of his youth and ‘progeny’ (see Price's letter in Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. ix. No. 843). In 1538 Cromwell made him commissary-general of the diocese of St. Asaph (cf. Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries, Camden Society, 1843, 190–1; Ellis, Original Letters), and he received in the same year the sinecure rectory of Llangwm (from which he was soon ejected), that of Llandrillo yn Rhos, and the rectory of Llanuwchllyn (Strype, Cranmer, edit. 1840, pp. 222, 274).
Under Mary and Elizabeth, Price devoted himself in the main to civil administration. He was three times member of parliament for Merionethshire, in 1555, 1558, and 1563; seven times sheriff of the county, in 1552, 1556, 1564, 1568, 1574, 1579, and 1585; twice sheriff of Anglesey, in 1578 and 1586, and once of Carnarvonshire, in 1559 (Breese, Kalendars of Gwynedd, pp. 37, 51, 71–2, 116). He was also sheriff of Denbighshire in 1550, 1557, 1569, and 1573 (Archæologia Cambrensis, 3rd ser. vol. xv.), and custos rotulorum of Merionethshire for the greater part of Elizabeth's reign (Kalendars of Gwynedd, p. 28). Early in the reign he was appointed a member of the council of Wales and the marches, and in February 1565–6 he was suggested for the bishopric of Bangor, but Archbishop Parker objected on the ground of Price ‘neither being priest nor having any priestly disposition.’ In the royal commission authorising the proclamation of Caerwys Eisteddfod, and dated 23 Oct. 1567, Price's name stands first in the list of esquires to whom the document is addressed, following immediately those of the two knights (Pennant, Tours, ii. 89). He was ordered on 2 March 1578 to examine, with Bishop Robinson, ‘certain persons who had been dealers with Hugh Owen, a rebel’ (Calendar of State Papers, Dom. 1547–80. p. 586).
Meanwhile he did not neglect his own interests. In 1560 he obtained from the crown the manor of Tir Ifan, a portion of the lands of the knights hospitallers at Dolgynwal or Ysbytty Ifan (Archæologia Cambrensis, 3rd ser. vi. 108). He still held the rectories of Llandrillo and Llanuwchllyn, and in addition had by 1561 obtained the chancellorship of Bangor and the rectory of Llaniestyn in that diocese. In 1564, when Elizabeth gave the lordship of Denbigh to the earl of Leicester, he was one of the four chief tenants of the lordship who acted for the whole body in negotiations with the new lord (Records of Denbigh, 1860, p. 110). Tradition asserts that he afterwards became Leicester's willing tool in the favourite's oppressive dealings with the tenantry, and Pennant quotes a story that in addressing Leicester he was accustomed profanely to say, ‘O Lord, in Thee do I put my trust!’ (Tours, edit. 1810, iii. 140).
Price died in July 1599. He married Ellyw, daughter of Owen Pool of Llandecwyn, Merionethshire (who was in orders), by whom he had two sons, Thomas (fl. 1586–1632) [q. v.] and Richard, and four daughters. Pennant speaks of a portrait of Dr. Ellis Price at Bodysgallen, near Llan Dudno, bearing date 1605. It is probably a copy.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 397, 567; Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, ii. 102, 343, 344; Williams's Parl. Hist. of Wales (1895); Archæologia Cambrensis, 3rd ser. ii. 179, vi. 108, 119, 4th ser. v. 153; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vols. ix. and xiii.; Parker Corresp. pp. 257, 258, 261; authorities cited.]