A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Proby, Granville Leveson
PROBY. (Rear-Admiral of the White, 1841.)
The Honourable Granville Leveson Proby, born in 1781, is second surviving son of John Joshua, first Earl of Carysfort, K.P., hy his first wife, Elizabeth, only daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Wm. Osborne, Bart., of Newtown, co. Tipperary; and brother of the present Earl. His half-sister Elizabeth (daughter of the first Earl, by his second marriage with the third sister of the first Marquess of Buckingham) was the wife of the late Capt. Wm. Wells, R.N. (1809). His eldest brother, William Allen, Lord Proby, a Captain R.N., was in command of the Danaé 20, when that ship, in March, 1800, was taken possession of by her mutinous crew and carried into Camaret Bay; and died of yellow fever at Surinam in 1804, while commanding the Amelia frigate. The Rear-Admiral is a distant cousin of Retired Commander H. J. P. Proby.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 March, 1798, as Midshipman, on board the Vanguard 74, Capt. Edw. Berry, bearing the flag of Sir Horatio Nelson, under whom he fought at the battle of the Nile, 1 Aug. following. When serving next with the same officer in the Foudroyant 80, he assisted, while at the blockade of Malta, at the capture, 18 Feb. 1800, of Le Généreux 74, and Ville de Marseilles armed store-ship, and, on 31 March, after a desperate conflict, in which the Foudroyant (in company with the Lion 64, and Penelope 36) sustained a loss of 8 men killed and 64, including himself, wounded, of Le Guillaume Tell of 84 guns and 1000 men, flagship of Rear-Admiral Decrès.[1] In 1801 he was present, we believe, in the same ship under Lord Keith during the operations in Egypt. After a further attachment to the Santa Teresa frigate, Capt. Robt. Campbell, Resistance 36, Capt. Hon. Philip Wodehouse (which ship was wrecked, 31 May, 1803, near Cape St. Vincent), and Victory 100, bearing the flag of Lord Nelson, he was made Lieutenant, 24 Oct. 1804, into the Narcissus 32, Capt. Ross Donnelly. Removing, in May, 1805, to the Neptune 98, Capt. Thos. Fras. Fremantle, he was afforded an opportunity, 21 Oct. in the same year, of sharing in the glories of Trafalgar. He obtained command, 15 Aug. 1806, of the Bergère sloop; was Posted, 28 Nov. ensuing, into the Madras 54 and subsequently appointed – 7 Jan. 1807, to the Juno 32, in the Mediterranean – in 1808, for two years, to, we are informed, the Iris 32, employed in the Channel, North Sea, and Baltic – and, 8 June, 1813, and 3 Dec. 1814, to the Laurel and Amelia 38’s, stationed at the Cape of Good Hope and in the Mediterranean. He paid the Amelia off in July, 1816, and has not been since afloat. He attained Flag-rank 23 Nov. 1841.
Rear-Admiral Proby sat in Parliament for co. Wicklow in 1812-18 and 20. He married, 5 May, 1818, Isabella, daughter of Hon. Hugh Howard, and niece of the Earl of Wicklow, by whom, who died 22 Jan. 1836, he has issue four sons and four daughters. His second son, Granville Leveson, is an officer in the Army; and his second daughter, Elizabeth Emma, is the wife of Lord Claude Hamilton, M.P., brother of the Marquess of Abercorn. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1800, p. 576.