page_title: William Price (physician)
section_title: Personal beliefs
hierarchical_section_title: William Price (physician) / Personal beliefs
caption_attribution_description: William Price of Llantrisant (1800-1893) MRCS, LSA, medical practitioner, in druidic costume, with goats
context_page_description: William Price was a Welsh doctor known for his support of Welsh nationalism, Chartism and his involvement with the Neo-Druidic religious movement. He has been recognized as one of the most significant figures of 19th-century Wales, and one of the most unusual in Victorian Britain.
  Born to a lower-class household in Glamorganshire, Wales, Price trained as a doctor in London before returning to Wales, becoming interested in the Chartists' ideas regarding equal democratic rights for all men. Following their failed 1839 uprising, he escaped government prosecution by fleeing to France, where he became convinced that an ancient prophecy predicted that he would remove Wales from English rule.
  Returning to Wales, Price tried reviving what he believed to be the religion of the ancient druids, the Celtic Iron Age ritual specialists of western Europe. In doing so, he became one of the most prominent proponents of the Neo-Druidic movement, something that had been developing since the Welsh nationalist Iolo Morganwg's activities in the late 18th century.
context_section_description: Price held several strongly held beliefs that ran counter to the Victorian social norms of the time, and chose to promote them in a "most exhibitory fashion". Biographer Dean Powell considered him "a maverick and a rebel", but was unsure as to whether Price's eccentricity was a result of mental illness or not.
  A nudist, Price refused to wear socks, considering them to be unhygienic, and washed coins, fearing that they were a source of cross-contamination. He opposed vaccination, in part due to his brother's childhood death following an inoculation, and refused to treat patients who were tobacco smokers. He was an advocate of vegetarianism, believing that eating meat "brought out the beast in man", and denounced vivisection. Price opposed marriage, which he saw as the enslavement of women, instead advocating free love. Price also argued many fellow practitioners were nothing but 'poison peddlers', making their money selling drugs and profiting off the sick rather than tackling the cause of the illness.
  Price was also responsible for the building of the famous "Round houses" in Pontypridd. He convinced a local builder that he owned the land and these round houses were to be the gateway to his mansion. He neither owned the land nor a mansion.
  Price believed that religion was often used to enslave people, and despised "sanctimonious preachers".
  His religious beliefs have provided an influence on the modern druidic movement. Michell referred to him as "a natural shaman".
caption: Oil painting of Price by A. C. Hemming, 1918 (on display at the Wellcome Collection in London)
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