Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Williams, Thomas Walter

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1016953Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 61 — Williams, Thomas Walter1900Edward Irving Carlyle

WILLIAMS, THOMAS WALTER (1763–1833), barrister, born in 1763, was the son of Walter Williams, a London attorney, residing in Lamb's Conduit Street. He entered St. Paul's school on 6 Nov. 1772, and afterwards studied law and was called to the bar, but was not much known as a pleader, his repute chiefly resting on his writings. He died in 1833.

Besides numerous abstracts of acts of parliament, Williams was the author of: 1. ‘A Compendious Digest of the Statute Law from Magna Charta to 27 George III,’ London, 1787, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1809, 2 vols. 8vo; supplements in 1809 and 1812. 2. ‘Original Precedents in Conveyances,’ London, 1788–1792, 4 vols. 8vo; new edit. 1808. 3. ‘The whole Law relative to the Duty and Office of a Justice of the Peace,’ London, 1793–5, 4 vols. 8vo; 3rd edit., by Harold Nuttall Tomlins, 1812, 4 vols. 8vo. 4. ‘An Abridgment of Cases argued and determined in the Courts of Law during the Reign of George III,’ London, 1798–1803, 5 vols. 8vo. 5. ‘The Practice of the Commissioners, Assessors, and other Officers under the Acts relating to the Assessed Taxes,’ London, 1804, 8vo. 6. ‘A General Dictionary of the Law,’ London, 1812, 8vo; new edit. 1816. 7. ‘The Jurisdiction and the Duties of Justices of the Peace, and Authority of Parish Officers in all matters relating to Parochial Law,’ London, 1812, 2 vols. 8vo; new edit. 1817. 8. ‘The Farmer's Lawyer,’ London, 1819, 8vo. He also edited the ‘Law Journal’ between 1804 and 1806 with J. Morgan, and in 1825 brought out a new edition of ‘The Precedent of Precedents’ by William Sheppard (d. 1675?) [q. v.]

[Pantheon of the Age, 1825; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Gardiner's Reg. of St. Paul's School, 1884, p. 153; Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816.]

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