Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Probyn, Edmund
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.]