Background
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.
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.
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 Member of Parliament 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. 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, who appeared in his court.
6th Parliament of Great Britain. 7th Parliament of Great Britain. 8th Parliament of Great Britain]
He was also a Member of Parliament.