 Price became a leading figure in liberal intellectual groups, especially the “Bowood Circle”, which was named after the house of its leader, Lord Shelburne, and included Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Vaughan. He also belonged to the group that Benjamin Franklin dubbed the “Club of Honest Whigs”: a dining group revolving round John Canton, which included some other members of the Bowood Circle. Other prominent visitors or acquaintances included the eminent politicians, Lord Stanhope, William Pitt the Elder, and the prison reformer John Howard, as well as David Hume, and Adam Smith.