Background
He was the son of Edward Willes and was born on the family estate at Newbold Comyn, near Leamington.
He was the son of Edward Willes and was born on the family estate at Newbold Comyn, near Leamington.
Sir John Willes was the father of that Sir Edward Willes who was Solicitor-General and judge of the Court of King"s Bench. He was called to the Bar in 1727, became a serjeant-at-law in 1740 and King"s Serjeant in 1747. Subsequently he became Attorney-General for the Duchy of Lancaster and Recorder of Coventry.
He acquired a reputation as an exceptionally hard-working and conscientious judge, who damaged his health by overwork.
He was also an acute and intelligent observer of Irish life, recording his impressions of social and economic conditions and of Irish the legal system in a series of unpublished maunscripts, and also in his letters to Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick, which have been published. He was particularly concerned by the perennial difficulty of finding enough judges to go on assize, and was unhappy at the usual remedy of appointing serjeants and Law Officers as temporary judges.
In his view temporary judges lacked independence and did not have the authority to challenge powerful local interests. Willes"s health began to fail, probably due largely to overwork.
In 1766 he retired to England and died at Newbold Comyn in 1768.
Elrington Ball praises Willes as a good lawyer, and as a man who was honest, highly intelligent, a natural scholar and a much-loved figure in private life. Hart gives a similar verdict that Willes was an intelligent and sensitive man and an acute observer of Irish society and politics. Against his many good qualities must be set his notable intolerance of Roman Catholics and his determination to resist any reform of the Penal laws.
An attitude which was fully shared by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John, Lord Bowes, who made the notorious remark that "the law did not admit that a single Roman Catholic existed in Ireland".
Willes wrote to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 4th Duke of Bedford, that he was opposed to any "toleration of that religion which it has been the general policy of England and of Ireland to persecute and depress. "
He became Solicitor-General in 1766.
Two years later he was appointed a judge of the Court of King"s Bench and held that office until his death in January 1787.
The younger Edward was a member of the House of Commons successively for Old Salisbury, Aylesbury and Leominster from 1747 to 1768.