Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Price, Francis

1196962Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 46 — Price, Francis1896Albert Frederick Pollard

PRICE, FRANCIS (d. 1753), architect, published in 1733 ‘The British Carpenter, or a Treatise on Carpentry,’ 4to, dedicated to Algernon Seymour, earl of Hertford, and afterwards seventh duke of Somerset; a second edition was published in 1735 with a supplement containing ‘Palladio's Orders of Architecture … described … by Francis Price.’ ‘The British Carpenter’ was long the best textbook on the subject; subsequent editions appeared in 1753, 1759, and 1765, the best being the fourth or 1759 edition, which contains sixty-two plates; in 1859 there was published in Weale's educational series ‘A Rudimentary Treatise on the Principles of Construction in the Carpentry and Joinery of Roofs deduced from the works of Robison, Price, and Tredgold.’ In 1734 Price was appointed surveyor to Salisbury Cathedral, and clerk of the works to the dean and chapter, and from that date till his death he was engaged in superintending important repairs in the structure of the cathedral. He died on 19 March 1753; and in the same year appeared his ‘Series of .... Observations .... on Salisbury Cathedral,’ 4to; another edition in 1787. It also contains a description of Old Sarum, and is the result of a survey made by direction of Thomas Sherlock [q. v.] (successively bishop of Salisbury and London), to whom it is dedicated. This work forms the basis of many subsequent descriptions of the architecture of the cathedral; it is embodied almost entire in ‘A Description of Salisbury Cathedral,’ 1774, and is largely quoted in Dodsworth's ‘Salisbury Cathedral,’ 1796.

[Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Dodsworth's Salisbury Cathedral, pp. 16–17, 29, 30, &c.; Gent. Mag. 1753, p. 148; Dictionary of Architecture; Builder, 1873, p. 765.]

A. F. P.