John Williams (barrister)

John Williams (12 September 1757 – 27 September 1810) was a Welsh lawyer and writer on legal topics.

Life

Williams was born near Carmarthen and educated at Carmarthen Grammar School before matriculating at Jesus College, Oxford, in 1773. He moved to Wadham College, Oxford, later the same year, and graduated with degrees of BA (1776) and MA (1781). He became a Fellow of Wadham in 1780, acting as librarian (1781–82) and humanity lecturer (1782), resigning his fellowship in 1792. In the meantime he had joined Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1784. He was appointed a serjeant-at-law in 1794, and a king's serjeant in 1804.He died in London and was buried in the Temple Church.^[1]

Works

His writings included the tenth and eleventh editions (with Richard Burn) of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1787 and 1791) and the third edition of Sir Edmund Saunders's Reports of Cases and Pleadings in the Court of King's Bench in the Reign of Charles II, with additional notes and references. These notes were retained in later editions and were eventually issued on their own in an edition by his son, the judge Sir Edward Vaughan Williams.^[1]

Family

In 1789 he married Mary, eldest daughter of Charles Clarke of Foribridge, near Stafford. By her he had three sons: Charles; Edward Vaughan; and John, a colonel in the Royal Engineers. There were also three daughters, of whom Mary married August Edward Hobart, 6th Earl of Buckinghamshire.^[2]

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Williams, John (1757-1810)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.