Samuel Jones of Brynllywarch died in 1697, and on 28 February 1698 the Congregational Fund Board agreed that 'the case of Mr Price of Wales be considered next Munday', that is, Rice Price, a former Brynllywarch student (DWL MS OD401, CFB, I, 67). It seems, therefore, that Rice Price did not immediately follow Samuel Jones as tutor. The location of the academy was probably at Tyn-ton, Llangeinor, near Bridgend. Between 1699 and 1702, four students received grants from the Congregational Board, varying from £4 to £10, two of them being paid twice. A fifth person was promised £4 if he presented a satisfactory account of his abilities. The name of 'Mr Rice' was opposite five of the entries. There is no record that Price was paid as a tutor. One of his students, William John, went on to Attercliffe to study with Timothy Jollie.
The Presbyterian Fund Board did not support the academy. Different reasons have been suggested for the refusal. Rice Price's strict Calvinism would not have appealed to the Board, and his dogmatic spirit could have been another reason.
There is very little information available for the period from 1703 until Price's death in 1739. He had inherited a small family estate, married well, and had family links with the wealthy Powells of Coytrahen, in the parish of Bettws. He also ministered to two small congregations, one in Bettws, the other in Bridgend. It was possible for him, therefore, to support himself as tutor. He continued to educate students, one of whom was Lewis Rees, who received part of his education at the academy. Rees was born in 1710, and must have been with Price in the late 1720s. Rees played an important part in the spread of Independency in north Wales. He was also minister of Maes-yronnen, Radnorshire, for two periods, and later at Mynydd-bach, Swansea.
Price married first Miss Gibbon, and secondly Catherine Richards. Two of his grandchildren, of the second marriage, were the prominent London dissenters, William Morgan and George Cadogan Morgan. Rice Price's brother, Samuel, was partly educated at Brynllywarch. He was Isaac Watts's assistant and then co-pastor, and at his death followed him as minister. His son Richard Price was the eminent philosopher.
Noel Gibbard
Archives
Information about the academy at Tyn-ton can be found in the minutes of the Congregational Fund Board (DWL, MS OD401-2) and in 'A list of Tutors and Students at Nonconformist Academies in Wales from 1696 to 1800' (NLW, ADD MS 373C).
Published sources
Jones, Lynn, 'Coytrahen: The Families, Estate and Houses', Morgannwg, 34 (1990). Llyfryn Coffa [Cyfundeb Eglwysi Annibynnol De Morgannwg, 1939] (Maesteg, 1939). [Booklet published on the occasion of a pilgrimage to Brynllywarch, 14 June 1939.]
Thomas, Isaac, 'Y Gronfa Gynulleidfaol ac Annibynwyr Cymru', Y Cofiadur, 28 (1958).
Thomas, Roland, 'Rees Price (1673-1739)', under the entry for Richard Price, Welsh Biography Online.
Williams, Caroline E., A Welsh Family from the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century (1893), especially 5-7.
Noel Gibbard, 'Rice Price's Academy, Tyn-ton (c.1698-c.1720)', Dissenting Academies Online: Database and Encyclopedia, Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies, November 2011.