Keating [q. v.], the third edition in 1849, and the fourth in 1856; and, young as he was, was selected by Lord Truro to be a member of the commission on common-law procedure in 1850, and took a large share in drafting the Common Law Procedure Act of 1854. He was indeed principally entitled to the credit of the thorough reform in procedure which was thus effected. Subsequently he was a member of the Indian law commission in 1861, and of the English and Irish law commission in 1862.
On the resignation of Sir William Henry Maule [q. v.], Willes succeeded him in the common pleas on 3 July 1855, though he had never become a queen's counsel, and was knighted in August. He was one of the first judges appointed to try election petitions, and laid down the rules of practice afterwards generally followed. Few judgments are more philosophic, more clear, or more learned than his, and they are especially authoritative in cases on mercantile law. On 3 Nov. 1871 he was sworn of the privy council, and it was in contemplation to have made him a member of the judicial committee. His health, however, had suffered from a lifetime of overwork, and, though he lived much retired and only mixed in literary society, he was unable to secure the quiet needed to prevent the gradual approach of nervous breakdown. His duties as a criminal judge added to the strain upon a mind naturally emotional and equally anxious to do justice and show mercy. For years he had suffered from heart disease and gout. He returned in August 1872 from an exceedingly heavy assize at Liverpool to his house, Otterspool, Watford, Hertfordshire, visibly depressed and ill, and on 2 Oct. shot himself. He was buried on 7 Oct. at Brompton cemetery.
In manner Willes was somewhat prim and precise, and he always retained an Irish accent; but, although occasionally peculiar in court, he was most courteous, and was esteemed equally by lawyers and by mercantile men. He married, in 1856, Helen, daughter of Thomas Jennings of Cork, but had no children.
[Times, 4 Oct. 1872; Law Journal, 5 Oct. 1872; Solicitors' Journal, 12 Oct. 1872; Law Mag. 1872, p. 889; Ballantyne's Experiences, ii. 81, and Robinson's Bench and Bar; Cat. Dublin Univ. Graduates; Life of Lord Campbell, ii. 333, 337.]
WILLES, Sir JOHN (1685–1761), chief justice of the common pleas, came of an old Warwickshire family, and was the son of John Willes, rector of Bishop's Itchington and canon of Lichfield, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Walker, mayor of Oxford. He was born on 29 Nov. 1685, went to Lichfield free grammar school, and on 28 Nov. 1700 became an undergraduate of Trinity College, Oxford, though only fourteen years old. He graduated B.A. in 1704, M.A. in 1707, B.C.L. in 1710, and D.C.L. in 1715. He was also elected a fellow of All Souls' College.
On 20 Jan. 1708 he entered at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in June 1713 and joined the Oxford circuit. Though a man of ‘splendid abilities’ and grave demeanour, he was loose and indolent, and took more interest in politics than in law. Still he must have soon attained a good position in his profession, for in 1719 he was appointed a king's counsel. On 12 April 1722 he was elected member for Launceston, the return being amended by inserting his name by order of the house on 17 March 1723–4. He held this seat till 1726. He was a staunch supporter of Walpole, and in 1726 claimed as the reward of his services the solicitor-generalship. He had in particular given assistance during the proceedings against Bishop Atterbury and the bill for imposing additional taxation on the Roman catholics. His request was refused, but he received a judgeship on the Chester circuit in May 1726, and thereby lost his seat, but was returned for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis on 9 June, taking the place of the previous member, Ward, who was expelled the house. He spent so large a sum in contesting this seat that he subsequently sat for West Looe from 23 Aug. 1727 till 1737, where elections were less costly. In February 1729 he was appointed chief justice of Chester, and in January 1734 attorney-general. He was then knighted, and on 23 Jan. 1737 succeeded Sir Thomas Reeve [q. v.] in the chief-justiceship of the common pleas. Being disappointed in his hopes of the chancellorship when Lord Hardwicke succeeded Talbot in 1737, he abandoned Walpole and allied himself with Lord Carteret; but still finding his ambition unlikely to be gratified, he courted the Pelhams, and finally attached himself to Pitt. In 1745 he endeavoured to organise a volunteer regiment of lawyers to guard the royal family during the king's absence (H. Walpole, Letters, ed. Cunningham, i. 410); but this service was not acceptable to the crown, and he failed even to get his commission as colonel. On Lord Hardwicke's resignation he again hoped for the chancellorship, though, according to Walpole, 14 Feb. 1746, he had refused it in 1746; but, owing to the king's objections to his private character, the
