1776 and all that

Huw Webber

When Americans of Welsh descent reflect on the American Revolution, many point to the large number of Welsh signatories to the Declaration of Independence.

Regardless of the exact figure, Welsh influence in North America was disproportionate to Wales’s size.

Yet one influential Welsh figure is often overlooked: the philosopher Dr Richard Price.

Some writers on Welsh intellectual history have described Price as “the greatest Welsh thinker of all time”. Yet despite his influence across political philosophy, nonconformist religion, statistics, probability theory and public finance, he remains relatively obscure.

In America’s case, Price played a significant role in shaping support for the revolutionary cause.

During the revolutionary period he published Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty.

Later, before the establishment of the new Constitution in 1787, he followed this with Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution in 1784.

It takes little digging to find discussions of Price’s influence on American thought, politics and constitutional development, from Carl B. Cone’s Richard Price and the Constitution of the United States to J.D. Holland’s biographical study An Eighteenth-Century Pioneer Richard Price, D.D., F.R.S. (1723–1791).

Americans of the time recognised Price’s support for their cause. In 1781, Yale awarded him an honorary doctorate in the same ceremony that honoured George Washington, a striking indication of the esteem in which the revolutionary generation held him.

The Continental Congress also invited him to America to advise on financial matters for the new nation, although he ultimately declined.

For a man who championed the American cause at considerable personal risk, associated with Franklin and Jefferson, and exchanged ideas with Paine, Washington, Rush, Adams and Jay, Price remains underappreciated in the distinctive relationship Wales has with America and its founding ideas.

Perhaps, as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of independence, both countries might begin to give him a more prominent place in their histories.

For readers interested in exploring these themes further, the Great Plains Welsh Heritage Centre offers courses on Welsh-American history and culture.

Registration information for the Ysgol Haf/Summer School, which begins on June 6 and focuses on Welsh emigration to America and its wider historical context, can be found on the Centre’s events page.

Further reading

[1] Jude Rodgers, “Crossing the Atlantic: the links between America and Wales,” wales.com, May 25^th 2026. Accessed May 25^th 2026, https://www.wales.com/about/welcome-wales/wales-and-world/wales-and-america

[1] Richard Price, “Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America,” OLL, 1776. Accessed May 25^th 2026, https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/ricard-observations-on-the-importance-of-the-american-revolution

[1] Carl B. Cone, “Richard Price and the Constitution of the United States,” The American Historical Review, Jul., 1948, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 726-747. Accessed May 25^th, 2026, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1843834

[1]  J. D. Holland, “An Eighteenth-Century Pioneer Richard Price, D.D., F.R.S. (1723-1791),” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Jun., 1968, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 43-64. Accessed May 25^th, 2026, https://www.jstor.org/stable/530851