he was buried in the parish churchyard. His wife, Louisa Kezia McRae (d. 1899), whom he married on 22 Oct. 1857, his son Ellis (d. 1905), and his daughter Marian predeceased him. With the exception of some netsuké, which he bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and some silver badges of the Ligue des Gueux, which he left to the British Museum, most of his curios, together with some of his drawings, were sold by auction by Messrs. Haslam & Son at Reading on 30 and 31 Oct. 1907; some of his pipes were subsequently dispersed by sale in London. The Victoria and Albert Museum has magazine illustrations, landscapes, and other drawings by him. His portrait by Daniel Albert Wehrschmidt was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1899.
[Preface by H. G. W. to catalogue of sale at Reading; M. H. Spielmann's History of Punch, 423, 520 (portrait), 521; Graves, Dict. of Artists and Roy. Acad. Exhibitors; Brit. Mus. Cat.; The Times, 20 June 1907; Encycl. Brit. 11th edit. (s. v. Rifle); E. H. Knight, Dict. of Mechanics, i. 401-2; Engl. Cycl. iv. 91; private information.]
PROBERT, LEWIS (1841–1908), Welsh divine, third son of Evan and Mary Probert, was born at Llanelly, Breconshire, on 22 Sept. 1841. He became a congregational church member in 1860, at a time of revival, began to preach in 1862, and, after a short preparatory course under Henry Oliver at Pontypridd, entered Brecon College in 1863. In July 1867 he was ordained to the congregational ministry at Bodringallt, in the Rhondda valley, where he was active in establishing new churches among a rapidly growing colliery population. From 1872 to 1874 he was pastor of Pentre Ystrad, in this district; in Oct. 1874 he moved to Portmadoc, Carnarvonshire, where he spent twelve years. In 1886 he returned to Pentre; he soon gained considerable repute through his theological writings, and upon the death in 1896 of Evan Herber Evans [q. v. Suppl. I] was chosen to succeed him as principal of the congregational college at Bangor. That position he held until his death on 29 Dec. 1908. In 1891 he received the degree of D.D. from Ohio University and was chairman of the Welsh Congregational Union for 1901. He was twice married: (1) in 1870 to Annie, daughter of Edward Watkins, of Blaina, Monmouthshire, who died in 1874; and (2) in 1886 to Martha, only daughter of Benjamin Probert of Builth.
In theology Probert had conservative views, but was highly esteemed for the breadth and solidity of his learning. He published the following:
- A prize essay on the nonconformist ministry in Wales (Blaenau Festiniog, 1882).
- A Welsh commentary upon Romans (Wrexham, 1890).
- A companion volume upon Ephesians (Wrexham, 1892).
- 'Crist a'r Saith Eglwys' (Rev. i.-iii.) (Merthyr, 1894).
- 'Nerth y Groruchaf,' a treatise on the work of the Spirit (Wrexham, 1906).
[Album Aberhonddu (1898); Congregational Year Book for 1910, pp. 185-6; Rees and Thomas, Hanes yr Eglwysi Annibynol, ii. 351, iv. 285, 467, 477.]
PROCTER, FRANCIS (1812–1905), divine, born at Hackney on 21 June 1812, was only son of Francis Procter, a warehouseman in Gracechurch St., Manchester, by Mary his wife. The son was of delicate health, and spent the early years of his life at Newland vicarage, Gloucestershire, under the care of an uncle, Payler Procter, who was vicar there. In 1825 he was sent to Shrewsbury school under Dr. Samuel Butler [q. v.], and thence passed in 1831 to St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, where another uncle. Dr. Joseph Procter, was Master. In 1835 he graduated B.A. as thirtieth wangler and eleventh in the second class of the classical tripos. In the following year he was ordained deacon in the diocese of Lincoln, and in 1838 priest in the diocese of Ely. He served curacies at Streatley, Bedfordshire, from 1836 to 1840, and at Romsey from 1840 to 1842, when he gave up for the time parochial work in order to become fellow and assistant tutor of his college. In 1847 he left the university for the vicarage of Witton, Norfolk. There the rest of his long life was spent. After serving the cure for nearly sixty years, he died at Witton on 24 Aug. 1905, and was buried in the churchyard there. In 1848 he married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Meryon of Rye, Sussex, and had issue five sons and three daughters.
Procter was author of 'A History of the Book of Common Prayer, with a Rationale of its Offices,' which was originally published in 1855. In many fresh editions Procter kept the work abreast of the liturgical studies of the day. Further revised with Procter's concurrence in 1901, it still remains in use. Later he projected an edition of the 'Sarum Breviary,' for which he transcribed the text of the 'Great Breviary' printed at Paris in 1531. Procter published the first volume at Cambridge in 1879 with Christopher Wordsworth as joint-editor and with the co-operation of Henry Bradshaw, W. Chatter-
