PRICE, Leisian (by 1527-88), of Neath and Briton Ferry, Glam. and London.

Leisian Price had begun to practise law before his admission to the Inner Temple, for in the previous autumn he had appeared as an attorney at the great sessions at Cardigan. He continued to do so at both Cardigan and Pembroke while a student at the Temple and about 1550 he leased a house at Baglan near Neath. He twice gave offence at the Temple, being fined in 1555 for defying the ban on beards and a year later being expelled for a time following a misdemeanour during the Autumn reading; both incidents were closed by his humble submission and he lived them down. In 1562 he served as steward at the Lent reader’s dinner, but when six years later he was called to the bench his repeated refusal led to his discharge in 1571 at the cost of a £10 fine.3NLW ms 18/8-10; 27/7; Augmentations (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 413; E159/334, Mich. recognizances 7; Cal. I.T. Recs. i. 179, 188, 220, 224, 249-50, 259.

Price’s return to Mary’s last Parliament was a step in his local progress. He held property in Cardiff from the crown but he probably owed his election to his neighbour David Evans, one of whose daughters he was to marry. The Journal throws no light on his part in the Commons, but as a justice of the peace under Elizabeth he was to sue for assault and wounding in the head while making an arrest at Bridgend in 1563 and was himself later to be charged by the customer of Cardiff with corruption and abuse of authority. In 1586 he laid an information in the Exchequer against the heirs of (Sir) Edward Mansell for challenging his lease of coal mines on the manor of Millwood. He died on 1 Jan. 1588 possessed of lands in Glamorganshire worth £7 a year, in which he was succeeded by his son William, a minor.4St.Ch.5/P66/34; Exchequer (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies Hist. and Law ser. iv), 299; Flenley, 231; C142/216/81.