Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

SIR RICHARD GREEN PRICE OF NORTON MANOR 1803-1887 R. W. D. FENN Richard Green Price was bom in 1803 at Canon Bridge in the Herefordshire parish of Madley. He was the second son of George Green, gentleman. The Greens first come to notice in the early eighteenth century in the person of Jonathan Green, gentleman, of Leominster. His son, the Reverend Dr Jonathan Green, read law at Wadham College, Oxford and by subsequently taking holy orders established the family's traditional connections with the law and the church. Dr Green settled at Ashford Hall, Ashford Bowdler, near Ludlow and married Elizabeth Hall, daughter of Richard Hall, gentleman, a local landowner of substance. Thus, the Green family prospered and Dr Green and his son Edward served as incumbents of nearby parishes. In 1799, at the mature age of thirty, George Green, Dr Green's fourth son, exhibited once again the ramily's facility for marrying into land. His new wife was Margaret Price, whose family was one of the oldest members of the Radnorshire gentry. Only two years earlier she had inherited five estates from her father, as well as £ 400 in bank stock. By 1808 George and Margaret Green with their growing family had left Canon Bridge and were living in Knighton. George Green, however, died in 1819, leaving his widow with a now substantial but still young family to bring up on her own. The traditional connection with the law and the church was maintained: two of the boys, George, junior, and Richard, the subject of this paper, became solicitors, and Edward entered the church. Richard Green, having served his articles in Worcester 'commenced his career under very ordinary circumstances. He relied on his knowlege of the law and his ability to apply that knowledge to the every day life of the people.'1 He joined another young Knighton solicitor, Thomas Peters, to form the successful legal partnership of Green and Peters. 'His fame as a pleader in Court became such that his services were anxiously sought by litigants, and fortunate indeed those who secured his assistance considered themselves to be.'3 He also prospered by winning the goodwill and confidence of the local gentry, by concerning himself with local government, and by using an innate instinct for recognizing the potential of commercial ventures wich would be useful for the local community as well as being profitable for himself. So, in 1831 he attempted to win the parliamentary influence of Edward Rogers, MP in getting the services of a regular mail coach for Knighton. The local gentry used him as their lawyer and their sons borrowed money from him, trusting in his discretion with their fathers.4 The firm of Green and Peters continued to flourish until 1890, though from 1872 it appears to have been solely in the hands of Charles Penhallow Peters who was admitted as a solicitor in 1872 and was the son of Thomas Peters. Knighton at this time was ripe for development 'the water supply was irregular, the sanitory arrangements absolutely neglected, and the streets unlighted and unpaved,'5 and Richard Green identified himself