Henry Edward Price was born illegitimate in Warminster in 1824. Abandoned by his family, he spent much of his youth in the workhouse. In 1842, aged 17, he emigrated to America, where he spent some time learning aspects of the furniture-making trade, both in New York and in Oswego on Lake Ontario. He returned to England in 1849, although he was in poor health and suffered poverty for the next few years while he travelled the country looking for work. He became skilled as a cabinet maker and has been identified as one of the craftsmen who made furniture for William Morris based on some of his earliest designs. From 1877 onwards, he mainly lived in Islington, north London.
From the guide to the Memoir of Henry Price: "The diary of a working man long resident in Islington", c1824-c1908, (Islington Local History Centre)
