Not an easy thing to confirm, as Richard Parry Price would not have wanted to publicise the liaison!
However I have traced oral tradition handed down, all slightly different but independent, from four of William Wilson's children
1. from Margaret Wilson's (b.1812) descendants, that Ann Wilson was housekeeper and mistress of Richard Parry Price
2. from George Wilson's (b. 1815) descendants; a descendant by marriage of his daughter Phillis sent a document typed by her father-in-law which says "the family attended the funeral of Squire Price and at that time were told that he was their grandfather" [George Wilson is my ancestor but I am descended from one of his sons, not from Phillis] - but the dates don't fit this claim as Richard Parry Price died in 1782 when William was only a year old, let alone grandchildren not then born!
3. from Richard Wilson's (b.1817) descendants; a document on familysearch.org which is a transcription of an account of Richard's son David with his grandmother Catherine (William Wilson's wife), and says that Ann Wilson was set up in a villa at Lightwood Green (part of Overton) where William Wilson's children were born (and Lightwood Green is where the local brickpits are; William Wilson became a master(?) bricklayer)
4. from Robert Wilson (b.1819) more directly; his burial record from Cassia cemetery, Idaho, gives his father's name as William Price Wilson
Richard Parry Price married Anne Puleston in 1764; William was born in 1781 when she was still alive (in fact she outlived Richard) and the Puleston family have rejected with disdain any suggestion that Richard had a mistress. But it is curious that Richard Parry Price and Anne Puleston produced a child within a year of marriage but none thereafter. Were marital relations all they should be? despite a touching memorial to Richard erected by Anne in St Mary's, Birkenhead.
And finally, analysis of the document from familysearch.org (above)suggests that the Ann Wilson who was the mistress may not have been, as some internet trees have it, the daughter of William Wilson but instead the daughter of his cousin Charles. This William and Charles were both butchers in Overton, so probably in partnership; the birth of daughters called Ann, one in 1741 (to Charles) and one in 1743 (to William) is recorded in the parish registers; but one of them died in 1768, and the registers don't say which!
I reckon that the balance of probability is that William Wilson was Richard Parry Price's son, but it is still probability! Are you also a descendant of William Wilson, and if so on what branch? Let me know if you need any of this as documentation.
David Wilson
