John Willes (judge)

Sir John Willes (29 November 1685 – 15 December 1761) was an English lawyer and judge who was the longest-serving Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas since the 15th century. He was also a Member of Parliament.

He was born at Bishop's Itchington in Warwickshire; his father, the vicar of the parish, was a younger son of the long-established Willes family of Newbold Comyn. Dr. Edward Willes, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was his brother.

Willes was educated at Lichfield Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford, and was also elected a fellow of All Souls. He joined Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1713; in 1719 he became a King's Counsel, and in 1726 he was appointed a judge on the Chester circuit.

He had meanwhile entered Parliament as MP for Launceston in 1722, and subsequently also represented Weymouth and Melcombe Regis and West Looe. In 1734 he was appointed Attorney General, and knighted. In 1735 he purchased the manor of Astrop, Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire where he built a new mansion Astrop House, (now a Grade II* listed building). In 1737 he was elevated to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, the third most senior judge in the English legal system as it then existed, and held this post until his death in 1761; at the same time he was appointed to the Privy Council.

Of his children John (1721–1784) was a Member of Parliament; Edward (1723–1787) followed his father to the Bar and in due course became Attorney General and a judge of the Court of King's Bench. Sir John also encouraged his younger cousin Edward of Newbold Comyn to become a barrister and he went on to have a distinguished career, ending as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.

In character he was described by Horace Walpole as a man of open character, sharp intelligence and "strong passions which could not be concealed" : he was notorious for gambling and womanising. He was notably severe towards legal practitioners, especially attorneys, appearing in his court.