After three and a half years, he accepted a call to the Aberdare Welsh Baptist chapel at Carmel, Monk Street, better known as Capel Pen-pound.

Through Price's skill as an organiser, he was able to further the Baptist cause, not only within his own church, but throughout the Aberdare valley, by opening Sunday schools and later erecting chapels to cater for the rapidly increasing population.

[5] In 1913, a local resident recalled: I remember that once a month on Sunday afternoons, Dr Price, the Baptist minister, used to baptise his recent converts in the Cynon River, alongside the iron bridge at the bottom of Commercial Street.

Dewi Elfed was accused of supporting the beliefs of the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, and the congregation at Gwawr were expelled from the Glamorgan Baptist Association.

[10] As a writer he published many books, addresses and pamphlets, but was better known as the co-editor of the newspapers Y Gwron (1855–60), Y Gweithiwr (1859–60), and Seren Cymru (1860–76); he served as finance secretary to (1853–59), and edited Y Medelwr Ieuanc and Y Gwyliedydd.

[12] Griffith had made allegations about what he considered to be the degraded character of the women of Aberdare relative to the men, the fact that sexual promiscuity was an accepted social convention, the drunkenness and improvidence of the miners, and the exaggerated emotion involved in the religious practices of the Nonconformists.

[10] Price took advantage of the opportunity to respond and a public meeting was arranged at Siloa Chapel, which was reported to have been attended by two thousand people.

[13] Price gave a speech at this meeting, which served to establish himself as a public speaker who could give expression to the aspirations of the substantial nonconformist community at Aberdare.

[15] The reaction to the 1847 Reports and the subsequent efforts to establish a British School at Aberdare had a wider social and political significance since it created an alliance between nonconformists ministers and the emerging middle-class of tradesmen and professional men, who were in the main Welsh by birth, on contrast to the ironmasters.

[17] In later years the proliferation of nonconformist ministers on public bodies would become a feature of the local politics of the Aberdare Valley and the election of Price in 1853 was therefore an important starting point.

[19] On this Board, Price become closely allied with Richard Fothergill despite their having come into conflict over the truck shop issue (see Trade Unionism and Industrial Relations, below).

[20] Price resumed his membership of the Board of Health in 1866 when he was elected at the head of the poll, and it was stated in the local press that "most people will rejoice very much to see the Rev.

[22] Price also gained a reputation as a campaigner and, in 1851, he played a prominent role in the successful attempt to prevent the Aberdare Iron Company of Richard Fothergill from running a truck system at their Abernant works.

The campaign against the truck system did not, however, receive full support from the working classes and an attempt by Price to repeat his success at Aberdare amongst Fothergill's workers at Treforest, Pontypridd was a failure.

There is even some ambivalence over whether the truck system was abolished completely at Aberdare as the company shop itself continued to function until 1868 when Fothergill, enthusiastically supported by Price, was a candidate at the General Election.

This was seen most notably the Aberdare Strike (1857–58), which was staged in opposition to the imposition of a 20 per cent reduction in the wages of miners across much of the South Wales coalfield.

[27] Price began to gain prominence beyond his own locality in the early 1860s when he became involved with the Liberation Society, which sought as a long-term aim the disestablishment of the Church of England.

[29] Price had connections with Brecon since his younger days and his candidature was first mooted in December, for example at a meeting of the Gwron Lodge of the Alfredian Order at Aberdare.

He issued an address in early January: "I have waited with considerable interest, but hitherto in vain, hoping that a gentleman of local influence and of advanced liberal principles would come forward to seek your suffrages; neither of the candidates now before the electors is prepared to advocate measures that would have had the hearty support of your late respected Member; and, firmlv believing that neither of the addresses already issued contains & programme suitable to the wishes of the great majority of the Independent Electors of the Borough of Brecon, or the wants of the period in which we live, I beg most respectfully to offer myself as a candidate for the honour of representing my native town in Parliament.

[34] At the 1868 General Election, Merthyr Boroughs became a two-member constituency, and Price played a prominent role in the selection of a Liberal candidate to contest the second seat.

[36] Price's role during the campaign contributed to the defeat of the sitting Liberal member, Henry Austen Bruce, who later became Home Secretary.

[37] Price's actions at the 1868 General Election and his failure to support Henry Richard made him unpopular in some quarters but he remained a prominent figure in the public life of the Aberdare Valley.