The Price family were major farmers in Quenington for the first eight decades of the nineteenth century and possibly earlier. Three generations worked at Manor and Court Farms, both owned by the Hicks Beach family, and later also at Tombs Farm when it came into the possession of Hicks Beach. They were perhaps of some social standing in the village, being variously listed among the village gentry in commercial directories, being suffixed as 'Esq' and Gentleman. The remaining family left Quenington in the 1870s at the time of the reorganisation of farming in the village and probably emigrated to Canada. He died in Toronto in 1883.

The family lived in Quenington Court as the farmhouse for Court Farm, see 1869, 1870, 1871 in the Charles jnr table below. Probably the same house was referred to as the 'Manor House with large barn [and] sheds' (Robert 1847).

Charles Price

Charles Price was the first of the line of the Price family at Manor Farm in Quenington. But before that, from at least 1787 to 1802 he was the tenant of, and perhaps living at Sir John Webb's South Farm in Hatherop, where children were born in the 1780s. The tenancy ended following the death of Sir John and in 1803 Charles took the tenancy of Manor Farm in Quenington, which he held until his death two years later. He had been earlier associated with Quenington when, in 1776, he was occupying, presumably as a farmer, the village glebe land and also land belonging to a Charles Stephens of Coln St Aldwyns. This must be the Charles Stevens associated with and probably the owner of the land that would become Mawleys's farm (qv). Charles was not there in 1787 and beyond, when Stevens had died and the farm was owned by his widow with John Wakefield as tenant, see under Wakefield. According to his probate documents he was living in Quenington when he died in 1805. He was buried in Fairford and was succeeded as tenant at Manor Farm Quenington by son Robert.

1781-1790	par	Hatherop			children of Charles and Elizabeth Price baptised
1776	er	Quenington			occupying houses and lands belonging to Charles Stephens of Coln St Aldwyns, also village glebe land
1787-1802	tax	Hatherop		(farmer)	tenant at South Farm, owner Sir John Webb, bart
1803-1805	tax	Quenington			tenant at Manor farm
1805	par	Fairford			14 Aug, Henry Price buried at Fairford
1806	prob	Gloucester			2nd May, probate Charles Price late of Quenington, executors sons Thomas and John, legacies to widow Elizabeth and sons, estate less than 3500 pounds

Robert Price

Robert Price, who took the tenancy of Manor farm following his father's death in 1805, was baptised in Hatherop on 18th March 1781, son of Charles and Elizabeth. In 1809 he married Elizabeth Brown in her home village of Coln St Aldwyns. Seven children would be born in Quenington, four sons and three daughters, one of each dying in infancy. Robert would remain at Manor farm until about 1843, described in parish records as a renter.

Robert was also occupying, with the rector the Rev Lawrence Latham, and presumably farming, the church's glebe land in 1836. He may have been there for much longer. Electoral registers in the 1830s to the end of the 1850s show that the glebe lands were occupied by the rector "and another". Only in 1836 is this other named.

Robert moved to Court Farm in about 1843, replacing William Stephens who was leaving Quenington. He died in 1847 and his widow Elizabeth ran the farm for a while with the children. She was there in 1851 and had retired ten years later, when she was living in Bisley with son Robert. By this time another son, Thomas was working Court Farm. She died in 1867.

Thomas Price

Thomas, son of Robert, born in or just before 1813 was at home until 1851. In 1853 he was farming at Court Farm which had previously been occupied by his late father and then his mother. He married in 1856 at the age of 43 and continued at Court Farmm, 675 acres in 1861. With him were unmarried sister Emma and married sister Mary Anne Thomas with her two children who had been born in Middlesex.

In 1863 he was to occupy Manor Farm on a one-year rolling tenancy, though whether this was together with, or instead of Court Farm is not known. In 1866 he left an unspecified address in Quenington and in 1871 at the age of 58 was living in retirement with his wife in Bisley, where his mother had retired. He died there in 1875 at the age of 62, described as 'gentleman'. His body was returned to Quenington for burial.

Charles Price jnr

During his career at Quenington Charles, brother of Thomas, followed family tradition by holding the lease of Hicks Beach's Manor and Court Farms at various times. He also farmed Tombs Farm when it came into the possession of Hicks Beach. He is probably the Charles Price whose marriage to Jane Davis was registered in Stroud in 1856; his wife Jane was born in Minchinhampton, which was within the Stroud registration district. In 1861 he was farming an unidentified 700 acres in Quenington, perhaps Manor Farm and during the next decade children were born there. He was certainly at Manor Farm in 1866 and in 1867 took charge of Tombs Farm which had been leased to Michael Hicks Beach on the departure of James Tombs from Quenington. By 1871 he had moved to the farmhouse near the church, the accommodation for Court Farm, where he was farming in 1876. His holding in 1871 of 1000 acres suggests that he had retained his lease of Tombs Farm while taking over Court Farm.

In 1876 he auctioned first the animals and farm equipment of Manor Farm, then the household goods, no location given, presumably Quenington Court. The reason given was that Charles Price leaving. This is perhaps part of the farming reorganisation of the mid-1870s which also saw the departure of the Wakefields. He emigrated to Canada, where he died in 1882.

21st July 2021