Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Proby, John (1720-1772)
PROBY, JOHN, first Baron Carysfort (1720–1772), born on 25 Nov. 1720, eldest son of John Proby of Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, M.P., by his wife, the Hon. Jane Leveson-Gower, younger daughter of John, first baron Gower, was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1741, and M.A. in 1742. At the general election in June 1747 Proby was returned to the House of Commons for Stamford, and on 23 Jan. 1752 was created Baron Carysfort of Carysfort in the county of Wicklow, in the peerage of Ireland. In May 1754 he was elected for Huntingdonshire, and he continued to represent that county until the dissolution in March 1768. He took his sent in the Irish House of Lords on 7 Oct. 1755 (Journals of the Irish House of Lords, iv. 18), and was subsequently admitted to the Irish privy council. He was one of the lords of the admiralty from April to July 1757. In 1758 he was chosen chairman of the two select committees appointed to inquire into 'the original standards of weights and measures in this kingdom, and to consider the laws relating thereto' (Journals of the House of Commons, xxviii. 107, 255, 327, 544 ; see Reports from Committees of the House of Commons, ii. 411-63), He was invested a knight of the Bath on 23 March 1761, and was installed on 26 May following. He moved the address in the House of Commons at the opening of the session in November 1762 (Grenville Papers, 1852-3, ii. 5, and Parl. Hist. xv. 1238), and on 1 Jan. 1703 was reappointed a lord of the admiralty, a post which he resigned in August 1765.
He died at Lille on 18 Oct. 1772, aged 62, and was buried at Elton. He married, on 27 Aug. 1760, the Hon. Elizabeth Allen, elder daughter of John, second viscount Allen, by whom he had one son, John Joshua Proby, first earl of Carysfort [q. v.], and one daughter, Elizabeth, born on 14 Nov. 1752, who married Thomas James Storer, and died at Hampton Court on 19 March 1808. Lady Carysfort died in March 1783. A portrait of Carysfort was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
[Collins's Peerage of England, 1812, ix. 139-140; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage, ii. 171; Foster's Peerage, 1883, pp. 132-3; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, 1789, vii. 69-70; Grad. Cantabr 1823, p. 382; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; Gent. Mag. 1750. p. 380, 1808, pt. i. p. 368; Official Return of Lists of Members of Parl. pt. ii. pp. 101, 113. 127.]