Monument to Richard Price, East Enclosure

Monument to Richard Price, East Enclosure

This is a chest tomb dating to the late 18th century, constructed in Portland stone. The monument consists of a stone chest with a moulded top and base, decorated with fluted and gadrooned corner balusters. Between these balusters are fielded inscription panels. The renewed inscription on the south side records the burials of Richard Price and his wife Sarah, and remains legible; an inscription on the top commemorates Price's uncle, the Reverend Samuel Price. Other inscription panels have become illegible over time.

Richard Price (1723–91) was a Presbyterian minister and an intellectual polymath whose writings on moral and political philosophy, theology, mathematics, demography, finance and economics established him as one of the key intellectual figures of his age. Born near Llangeinor in Glamorgan, he was educated at home and at various Dissenting schools and academies. He began his ministerial career as family chaplain to George Streatfield of Stoke Newington, and later officiated at several chapels in Newington, Hackney and London.

In his philosophical work, Price defended moral objectivism and the freedom of the will against the subjectivism and determinism of David Hume. His belief in political liberty and full representation made him a lifelong radical and reformer. His support for the American and French revolutions brought him the friendship of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, but the bitter enmity of Edmund Burke. His work "Observations on Reversionary Payments" (1771) identified systemic flaws in contemporary actuarial practice and led to important financial reforms. He also edited and provided influential commentary on Thomas Bayes' groundbreaking work on probability theory, published posthumously. During the 1770s and 80s, his reputation was such that Prime Minister William Pitt consulted him on economic policy. His wide circle of friends and correspondents included Mary Wollstonecraft, Joseph Priestley and John Howard.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, made it London's principal Nonconformist cemetery. It became the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. The burial ground was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964–5. The monument is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground and has group value with other listed tombs in the east enclosure.