Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Probert, William
PROBERT, WILLIAM (1790–1870), unitarian minister, was born at Painscastle, Radnorshire, on 11 Aug. 1790. His parents farmed a small freehold. William intended to take orders in the church of England, but became in early life a Wesleyan methodist, and was appointed a local preacher of that denomination, ministering in Bolton, Leeds, Liverpool and in Staffordshire. In 1815, while stationed at Alnwick in Northumberland, he adopted unitarian views. He was appointed in 1821 to the unitarian chapel at Walmsley, near Bolton, Lancashire. Probert found the place encumbered with debt and the people disheartened and scattered. He succeeded in gathering round him an attached congregation, to which he ministered for upwards of forty-eight years. Walmsley chapel is commonly called in the district 'Old Probert's Chapel.' He was a man of much humour and of eccentric habits, interested in antiquarian and oriental scholarship, and an authority on Welsh laws and customs. He was a master of the Welsh language, and he obtained several medals from learned societies for accounts on Welsh castles and for translations from Welsh into English. He died at Dimple, Turton, on 1 April 1870, and was buried in the graveyard attached to his chapel. In 1814 he married Margaret Carr of Broxton, Cheshire, by whom he had six children.
Probert was the author of:
- 'Calvinism and Arminianism,' 1815.
- 'The Godolin, being Translations from the Welsh,' 1820.
- 'Ancient Laws of Cambria,' 1823.
- 'The Elements of Hebrew and Chaldee Grammar,' 1832.
- 'Hebrew and English Concordance, 1838.
- 'Hebrew and English Lexicon Grammar,' 1850.
- 'Laws of Hebrew Poetry,' 1860.
The manuscripts of the four last-mentioned works are preserved in the Bolton Public library. Probert also wrote a 'History of Walmsley Chapel,' which appeared in the 'Christian Reformer' for 1834.
[Local newspapers; Unitarian Herald for 1870; Scholes's Bolton Bibliography.]