the following year. He signed a protest against the bombardment of Copenhagen on 3 March 1808 (Rogers, Complete Collection of the Protests of the House of Lords, 1875, ii. 389–92). On 31 Jan. 1812 he spoke in favour of Lord Fitzwilliam's motion for the consideration of the state of Irish affairs (Parl. Debates, 1st ser. xxi. 454–6). Though he supported the second reading of the Preservation of the Peace in Ireland Bill, he spoke at some length against the Irish Seditious Meetings Bill in July 1814 (ib. 1st ser. xxviii. 822, 856–7). He spoke for the last time in the House of Lords on 23 Nov. 1819 (ib. 1st ser. xli. 33–5). He died at his house in Grosvenor Street, London, on 7 April 1828, aged 76. A tablet was erected to his memory in Elton Church, Huntingdonshire.
Carysfort married first, on 18 March 1774, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Rt. Hon. Sir William Osborne, bart., of Newtown, co. Tipperary, by whom he had three sons—viz. (1) William Allen, viscount Proby, a captain in the navy, who died unmarried off Barbados on 6 Aug. 1804, while commanding the frigate Amelia; (2) John, a general in the army, who succeeded as second Earl of Carysfort, and died unmarried on 11 June 1855; and (3) Granville Leveson [q. v.]. who succeeded as third earl—and two daughters. His wife died in November 1783, and on 12 April 1787 he married, secondly, Elizabeth, second daughter of the Rt. Hon. George Grenville [q. v.], and sister of George, first marquis of Buckingham, by whom he had one son—George, who died on 19 April 1791—and three daughters. Lady Carysfort survived her husband several years, and died at Huntercombe, near Maidenhead, on 21 Dec. 1842, aged 86.
Carysfort was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1779. He was created a D.C.L. of Oxford University on 3 July 1810, and an LL.D. of Cambridge University on 1 July 1811. Portraits of Carysfort and of his first wife were painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. A portrait of his second wife was painted by Hoppner.
He was author of:
- 'Thoughts on the Constitution, with a view to the proposed Reform in the Representation of the People and Duration of Parliaments,' London, 1783, 8vo.
- 'The Revenge of Guendolen' [a poem], anon., privately printed [1780?], 8vo.
- 'Polyxena' [a tragedy in five acts and in verse], anon., privately printed [London, 1798], 8vo.
- 'Dramatic and Narrative Poems,' London, 1810, 8vo, 2 vols.
- 'An Essay on the proper Temper of the Mind towards God: addressed by the Earl of Carysfort to his Children. To which is added a Dissertation on the Example of Christ,' privately printed, London, 1817, 12mo.
[Annual Register, 1828, App. to Chron. pp. 229–30; G. K. C.'s Complete Peerage, ii. 171–2; Foster's Peerage, 1883, p. 133; Collins's Peerage of England, 1812, ix. 140–2; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, 1789, vii. 70–1; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, iii. 1155; Grad. Cantabr. (1823), p. 382; Alumni Westmon, (1852), p. 547; Gent. Mag. 1791 pt. i. p. 586, 1805 pt. i. p. 84; 1843 pt. i. p. 218, 1855 pt. ii. pp. 313–14; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. v. 247, 335; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. ii. pp. 176, 191, 204; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; Baker's Biogr. Dramatica, 1812, vol. i. pt. ii. p.584; Biogr. Dictionary of Living Authors, 1816, p. 58; Martin's Catalogue of privately printed Books, 1854; Watt's Bibl. Brit. 1821; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
PROBYN, Sir EDMUND (1678–1742), judge, eldest son of William Probyn of Newland in the Forest of Dean, by Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edmund Bond of Walford, Herefordshire, and widow of William Hopton of Huntley, Gloucestershire, was baptised at Newland on 16 July 1678. Having matriculated at Oxford, from Christ Church, on 23 April 1695, he was admitted the same year a student at the Middle Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1702. He was made a Welsh judge in 1721, serjeant-at-law on 27 Jan. 1723–4, and, upon the impeachment of the Earl of Macclesfield in May 1725, conducted his defence with signal ability [see Parker, Thomas, first Earl of Macclesfield]. He succeeded Sir Littleton Powys [q. v.] as puisne judge of the king's bench on 3 Nov. 1726, and was knighted (8 Nov.) He succeeded Sir John Comyns [q. v.] as lord chief baron of the exchequer on 24 Nov. 1740, and died on 17 May 1742. His remains were interred in Newland church. His portrait was engraved ad vivum by Faber.
By his wife Elizabeth (d. 1749), daughter of Sir John Blencowe [q. v.], he had no issue. Under his will his estates passed to his nephew, John Hopkins, who assumed the name Probyn, and was grandfather of John Probyn, archdeacon of Llandaff (1796–1843).
[Misc. Gen. et Herald. 2nd ser. iii. 260, 304–306; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Wynne's Serjeant-at-Law, p. 320; Nicholl's Personalities of the Forest of Dean, p. 93; Bigland's Coll. Glouc. ii. 111, 262; Noble's Continuation of Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, iii. 197; Howell's State Trials, xvi. 767 et seq.; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. x. 443; Gent. Mag. 1740 p. 571, 1742 p. 275; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 261; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
