Jeremiah Price was a “lively character.” He was born in Llanstephan and moved to Boughrood when he married Jane of Cae Melyn. He farmed 15 acres and augmented his earnings by trading as a pig dealer.
It was by the pig pens in Hay on 10th October 1850 that he was involved in a brawl with the local constabulary. He and another attempted to prevent the local constable from making an arrest. As well as wrestling with the police Jeremiah incited the crowd with cries of “Don’t let him be taken. Don’t kill the man.” The tussle moved to the lock-up and Jeremiah remained much excited throughout urging the mob to resist the constable. He was arrested, charged with rescuing prisoner, and his case was referred to the ensuing Quarter Sessions at Brecon. Unfortunately the record of the case has not survived.
On the death of Jane, Jeremiah married Mary and in 1871 is recorded as living at Pencommon with wife and daughter. At the age of 85, he became so ill that his family appealed for medical help to their Vicar, Henry de Winton. He certified that Jeremiah should be treated as ‘deserving poor’ – meaning that his family maintained him without resource to parish relief -and thus qualified for treatment at the workhouse hospital in Hay. He died there on 25th April 1877.
Had he been an inmate of the Workhouse, he would have been buried at Hay. Because he had not been a recipient of parish relief he was entitled to be brought back to his own parish for burial. He lies in an unmarked grave somewhere near the present Dead House.
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000396/18501123/021/0005
