Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Price, John (1625?-1691)
PRICE, JOHN, D.D. (1625?–1691), royalist, born in the Isle of Wight about 1625, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 10 Jan. 1644–5, commenced M.A. in 1653, and was elected to a fellowship. Having taken holy orders, he attended General Monck as chaplain during his command in Scotland in 1654–9, and was his principal confidant and coadjutor in the enterprise of the Restoration. His loyalty was rewarded with an Eton fellowship (12 July 1660), and the prebend of Yetminster and Grimston in the church of Sarum (28 Nov. following), having a royal dispensation to hold both benefices concurrently. In 1669 he was instituted to the rich rectory of Petworth, Sussex. He received from the university of Cambridge the degree of D.D., pursuant to royal letters, in 1661. On 19 Oct. 1680 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. He died on 17 April 1691. His remains were interred in Petworth church.
Price was author of ‘The Mystery and Method of His Majesty's happy Restauration laid open to Publick View,’ London, 1680, 8vo; reprinted by Maseres in ‘Select Tracts relating to the Civil Wars in England,’ London 1815, 8vo; French translation in ‘Collection des Mémoires relatifs à la Révolution d'Angleterre,’ Paris, 1827, vol. iv.; an historical piece of unique value from the exceptional position occupied by the writer. He also published:
- ‘A Sermon preached before the House of Commons at St. Margaret's in Westminster on Thursday the 10th of May; being a day of solemn thanksgiving … for the mercies God had bestowed on the nation through the successful conduct of the Lord General Monk,’ London, 1660, 4to.
- ‘Sermon at Petworth in Sussex, 9 Sept. 1683, being a day of solemn thanksgiving for the deliverance of the King from the late Barbarous Conspiracy,’ London, 1683, 4to.
He must be distinguished from John Price, M.A., of University College, Oxford, author of ‘Moderation not Sedition,’ London, 1663, 4to.
[Alumni Etonenses; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 376; Cole's MS. Coll. xv. 189; Cooper's Memorials of Cambridge, King's Coll.; Skinner's Life of Monk, pp. 96 et seq.; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 657; Horsfield's Sussex, ii. 179; Dallaway's Western Division of Sussex, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 300; Arnold's Petworth; Sussex Archæolog. Coll. xiv. 24, xxiii. 172; Masson's Life of Milton, v. 476–7, 526, 528; Evelyn's Diary, ed. Bray, 1850, i. 425 n.]