Speech of Eli K. Price, on the Bill, Entitled "an Act Relating to Corporations, and to Estates Held for Corporate, Religious and Charitable Uses," in ... March 21, 1855 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Speech of Eli K. Price, on the Bill, Entitle...)
Excerpt from Speech of Eli K. Price, on the Bill, Entitled "an Act Relating to Corporations, and to Estates Held for Corporate, Religious and Charitable Uses," in the Senate of Pennsylvania, March 21, 1855
It becomes necessary to recur to the legislation upon the subject of religious societies, anterior to our Revolution and the Constitution of 1790, to be assured that no right or privilege previously enjoyed, will now be invaded.
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Eli Kirk Price was an American lawyer and law reformer.
Background
He was born on July 20, 1797 at East Bradford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Philip and Rachel (Kirk) Price. He was a descendant of Philip Price, a Welsh coreligionist of William Penn, who came to the new colony on the Delaware in 1682, and finally settled at Haverford, Montgomery County. His maternal ancestors were from northern Ireland, and all were Friends.
Education
Eli attended the Friends' boarding school at Westtown.
Career
He served as clerk in a store at West Chester, and, at the age of eighteen, joined the staff of Thomas P. Cope, leading Philadelphia shipping merchant. After about four years of business experience, during which he used his leisure time for the study of law, especially that relating to commerce and shipping, he entered the law office of John Sergeant, and in 1822 was admitted to the bar.
Specializing in equity and real property law, he became, ultimately, the leading Philadelphia exponent of these branches. While he sometimes diverted his activities from strictly professional channels, he did so usually in the line of public benefaction. In 1833 he published his Digest of the Acts of Assembly and of the Ordinances of the Inhabitants and Commissioners of the District of Spring Garden and in 1838, his Institutes of Morality for the Instruction of Youth.
In 1845, and again in 1848, he was a member of the newly created board of Revenue Commissioners and contributed materially to the performance of its duties and the preparation of its report. He soon became conscious of the evils resulting from the municipal situation in which the de jure City of Philadelphia proper, comprising about 1200 acres, was surrounded by a group of districts, legally distinct but actually a part of it. As a representative of the inhabitants, he urged reform upon the legislature at Harrisburg.
He stood for election to the state Senate and served there from 1854 to 1856 inclusive. His interest in municipal improvement never flagged and his efforts led to the establishment in 1867 of Fairmount Park, on the governing commission of which he served as chairman from the first. In 1873 he published The History of the Consolidation of the City of Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, he had undertaken reform in another field - the antiquated and complicated law of real property. He entitled, Of the Limitation of Actions, and of Liens, against Real Estate, in Pennsylvania, which appeared in 1857. A commentary on the "Price Act" of 1853, The Act for the Sale of Real Estate in Philadelphia, was published in 1874.
(Excerpt from Speech of Eli K. Price, on the Bill, Entitle...)
Membership
He was an active member of the American Philosophical Society. For a time he was an active member of the Pennsylvania Colonization Society.
Personality
His fees were moderate, but his professional career of sixty years enabled him to accumulate a large fortune; yet he never lost his simple tastes nor his interest in the faith of his fathers.
Connections
In 1828 he married Anna Embree, also a Friend. They had three children, of whom the eldest, Rebecca, predeceased her father and was the subject of his Memorial of Our Daughter, for Her Child (1862).