Person Price; James (1752 - 1783) Price James Higginbottom 1752 - 1783 British Male London, England 1752 03 or 08 August 1783

Education: MA (1777) Magdalen College, Oxford; MD (1782) Oxford Career: Apparently transmuted mercury into gold in his private laboratory at Stoke near Guildford (6-25 May 1782); witnesses included Lord Onslow and Lord Palmerston; some of the gold was presented to King George III; published 'Account of some experiments....' (1782); asked to repeat the experiment in front of Royal Society and hesitated to do so; he committed suicide by poisoning himself with laurel-water, he had invited the Royal Society to see his experiments, some accounts state that he died in the presence of three Fellows who had come to his laboratory while others say that none came and he died alone. Changed his name from Higginbottom to Price in accordance with the will of a relative who had bequeathed him a fortune Fellow 10/05/1781 Sources: Bulloch's Roll; DNB Notes: Election certificate has surname "Higginbottom" crossed out, and "Price" inserted DNB gives date of birth as 1757/8 and date as death as 31 July 1783. International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) - Ottawa 1996 ISBN 0-9696035-3-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 1752 - 3 or 8 Aug 1783 NA7253 21/11/2001 Andyg Pmab 28/03/2023 RS_NET\JonathanB Yes b4f2fb31-0f4f-4691-b5ec-2c6a1f6f6838