Price, Eli K. (Eli Kirk), 1797-1884

Eli Kirk Price, Esq. was assignee of Joseph Reed, Esq., and trustee of the George J. Ewing estate.

Eli K. Price was a Philadelphia lawyer and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1854.

Eli Kirk Price was a Philadelphia lawyer.

Eli Kirk Price (1797–1884) was a noted Philadelphia lawyer and legal reformer. He was born in East Bradford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, to a Quaker family descended from Philip Price, an early Pennsylvania settler.

Eli K. Price attended Westtown, a Quaker boarding school. He then worked for Thomas P. Cope, a Philadelphia merchant, and studied law in his leisure time. After four years with Cope, Price entered the law offices of John Sergeant. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1822. Price became one of the leading Philadelphia experts on equity and real property law.

In 1845 and 1848, Price was a member of the new Board of Revenue Commissioners and wrote the 1848 report. Price was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1854 to shepherd a bill consolidating various separate political entities into the city of Philadelphia. The "Consolidation Act" of 1854 became the new city charter and transformed the city from 1200 acres to 122 square miles.

Price was also instrumental in the passage of other important legislation reforming real property law and domestic relations law, before and after his senatorial career. He wrote "An Act Relating to the Sale and Conveyance of Real Estate" (1853), an act broadening the law of descent (1855), "An Act for the Greater Security of Title" (1856), and an act supplementary to the statute of limitations (1859). He also played an important role in the passage of an 1855 act protecting a wife’s property from her husband’s creditors and an 1856 act aiding deserted wives. He served in the State Senate through 1856.

In 1867, Price helped found the Fairmount Park Commission and served as chairman of the organization until 1884. He examined the titles of land purchased for the park and was the force behind the park’s acquisition of a variety of tree species.

Price authored a variety of publications: Digest of the Acts of Assembly and of the Ordinances of the Inhabitants and Commissioners of the District of Spring Garden (1833), Institutes of Morality for the Instruction of Youth (1838), Memoir of Philip and Rachael Price (1852), Our Unknown City Laws (1855), Of the Limitations of Actions, and of Liens, Against Real Estate, in Pennsylvania (1857), Memorial of Our Daughter, for her Child (1862), Centennial Meeting of the Descendants of Philip and Rachael Price (1864), The Proprietary Title of the Penns (1871), The History of the Consolidation of the city of Philadelphia (1874), and The Act for the Sale of Real Estate in Philadelphia (1874).

In 1828, Price married Anna Embree. They had three children, Rebecca Embree, John Sergeant, and Sibyl Embree. Rebecca was the subject of Memorial of Our Daughter .

During his lifetime, Price was active in many Philadelphia institutions. He served as president of the University Hospital, Preston Retreat, the Pennsylvania Colonization Society, and the Numismatical and Antiquarian Society. He was a trustee at the University of Pennsylvania, vice president of the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Price died in Philadelphia in 1884.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888. Vol. V. 117. Biographical Sketches of James Embree, Philip Price and Eli K. Price. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881. 57-67. Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963. Vol. VIII. 211-212. National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White & Co., 1990. Vol. X. 412-413. Who Was Who in America. Historical Volume 1607-1896. Revised Edition. Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1967. 495.

Eli Kirk Price (1797–1884, APS 1854) was a lawyer. Price was particularly well-known for his expertise in real estate law. He played a leading role in many civic and learned organizations and commissions in Philadelphia, including the group that established Fairmount Park. He served as Vice President of the American Philosophical Society from 1877 to 1884.

Price was born in 1797 in East Bradford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, one of eleven children of Rachel and Philip Price, members of the Society of Friends. Young Eli received a classical education at Westtown School, a private Quaker school near his home. In 1814 he was apprenticed to the shopkeeper John W. Townshend of West Chester, and a year later he entered the well-known shipping-house of Thomas P. Cope (1768-1854, APS 1843) in Philadelphia. Price then spent a year with J. C. Jones, Oakford & Co. to further his mercantile training. Presumably due to poor prospects in a profession that was increasingly depressed, Price decided to study the law. He became a student of the Philadelphia lawyer and politician John Sergeant (1779-1852, APS 1813) and in 1822 was admitted to the bar.

Price’s mercantile training turned out to be an asset for his legal work since it facilitated a better understanding of shipping and commercial law, an area in which he initially specialized. Eventually he turned his attention to real estate law. It was in this field that he distinguished himself as a particularly skilled expert.

Price maintained a private practice but his legal services were also frequently solicited on behalf of public causes. In 1843 Price was selected a member of a revenue commission charged with revising the property tax assessments in Pennsylvania. The result of the revaluation was a significant increase in the state’s tax revenue. In 1851 Price wrote an essay in which he argued against a proposal to lift the tax exempt status of churches, colleges, asylums and other charitable institutions. Two years later, Pennsylvania Governor William Bigler (1814-1880) requested that Price draft an act that was “designed to promote the alienability of real property and vest in the courts the jurisdiction to determine the propriety of the disposition of a title in a case provided for in the statute.” The so-called Price Act was signed into law in April 1853.

Price was the author of several additional acts, most notably the Act of May 4th, 1855, which, among other points relating to the rights and duties of husbands and wives, and parents and children, enabled the wife to become a femme sole trader, to own her own earnings, and to dispose of her property. In addition, in 1854 he was a sponsor of the consolidation bill that combined the governments in the County of Philadelphia into one entity.

In 1853 Price, who was an active supporter of municipal reform, was nominated by like-minded citizens for the State Senate. Despite his lack of confidence in the integrity of the “elective franchise,” which he deemed “almost valueless,” he accepted the nomination. He was elected later that year. As a state senator he opposed the Prohibitory Liquor Bill on the grounds that the proposed prohibition of the “manufacture and sale of alcohol and ardent spirits” violated the rights and liberties of the people. Not surprisingly, this action earned him much criticism from members of the temperance movement. His supporters, on the other hand, applauded what they saw as an unwavering loyalty to his convictions and to the Constitution.

Price published numerous essays on a broad range of legal topics, but his interests extended beyond the study and practice of law. In 1852 he published a biographical memoir of his parents Rachel and Philip Price; ten years later he wrote a memorial of his daughter Rebecca for her child. In 1872 he completed a history of Philadelphia that had been solicited by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. That same year he also published a critical essay about the relatively new theory of evolution. While Price eventually accepted the abstract idea of evolution, he questioned to what extent it could be considered operative.

Price was involved in many civic and learned organizations and projects. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1854 and served as its Vice President from 1877 to 1884. In the 1870s he was chairman of the committee in charge of executing the trust of François André Michaux (1770-1855, APS 1809), a French botanist and fellow member of the American Philosophical Society. Price shared with Michaux a particular interest in trees; in fact, Price was an ardent advocate of the protection of American forests. He was also one of the original members of the city’s Park Commission, founded in 1867. As its chairman he was responsible for acquiring for the city the land tracts that later comprised Fairmount Park.

In 1872, Price helped coordinate efforts to celebrate the Centennial in Philadelphia. One outcome of his involvement was the decision to refurbish Independence Hall in time for the festivities. In 1879 he received the Silver Medal of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, of which he was the president. He also served on the Board of the University of Pennsylvania and as President of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society. In addition, he was President of the University Hospital and the Preston Retreat, a maternity hospital in Philadelphia.

Price was married to Anna Embree. They had three children, including John Sergeant, who was named after his father’s mentor.

Eli Kirk Price (1797-1884) was a prominent Philadelphia Quaker. A real estate lawyer, he was an active member of the American Philosophical Society. He served in the Philadelphia State Senate for a partial term in order to pass a bill uniting the city and county governments of Philadelphia.

Edward Shippen Burd (1779-1848) was a Philadelphia lawyer.