John Henry de Villiers, 1st Baron de Villiers (15 June 1842 – 2 September 1914) was a

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

lawyer and judge. He was

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

in the Molteno Government, Chief Justice for the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, and later the first Chief Justice for the Union of South Africa. As the country's most senior judge for 40 of its formative years, De Villiers is often considered the most influential judge in South African history.

Early life and legal career

John de Villiers was the son of Charles Christian de Villiers, of

Paarl Paarl (; Afrikaans: ; derived from ''Parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a town with 112,045 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the third-oldest city and European settlement in the Republic of South Africa (after ...

, Cape of Good Hope, and his wife Dorothea Retief. His family was of French Huguenot descent and had arrived in the Cape four generations before in 1689. His father's dying wish had been that he become a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, however after 18 months study he found that he had no true calling to the church, and switched to studying law. He studied in Berlin and London (where he read law at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

), was called to the English bar in 1865 and the Cape bar the next year. William Porter, the Attorney General at the time, became his legal mentor and soon afterwards he entered

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

representing

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

. In parliament, he and Porter supported John Molteno's movement for responsible government in 1872, even helping to draft the bill that secured it.

Attorney-General of the Cape Colony (1872–1874)

In November 1872, after the Cape successfully attained self-government, the country's unpopular Attorney General William Griffith was retired. John de Villiers was called upon to replace him as Attorney-General of the Cape Colony in Molteno's cabinet. He served for only two years, from 1872 to 1874. He was thus the first Attorney-General of the Cape under responsible government. At the time it was still legal to have a private practice, and de Villiers did so. However this work in addition to his work as legal adviser to the government and drafting parliamentary bills put severe strain on his health.

Chief Justice (1874–1914)

In 1874, on Molteno's insistence, he agreed to take the office of

Chief Justice of the Cape Colony The Chief Justice of the Cape Colony was the most senior judge in the British Cape colony and the head of its Supreme Court. The office was created by the 1827 Charter of Justice, by which the colonial government overhauled the administration of ju ...

- a job he performed with great dedication and skill until the Act of Union in 1910. After the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Tran ...

was created, he went on to serve as

Chief Justice of South Africa The Chief Justice of South Africa is the most senior judge of the Constitutional Court and head of the judiciary of South Africa, who exercises final authority over the functioning and management of all the courts. The position of Chief Justice ...

from 1910 to 1914. Altogether, he served as Chief Justice for 40 years, with "an ever-growing reputation of the highest character for independence, legal ability, and irreproachable impartiality." Although he had represented Worcester in Parliament and was very much interested in politics, John de Villiers chose not to pursue political power any further. His reserved and sensitive personality, together with a weak physical constitution and his lack of outward charisma, made him ill-suited to the rough world of politics. However his academic ability, progressive thinking, huge range of intellectual interests and driving work ethic served to make him peerless in the judiciary.

Titles and later life

In 1877, he was knighted, and in 1882, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). He was admitted to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1897, and in 1910 he was raised to the peerage as Baron de Villiers, of Wynberg in the

Province of the Cape of Good Hope A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

and the

. Lord de Villiers married Aletta Johanna, daughter of Jan Pieter Jordaan, in 1871. He died in September 1914, aged 72, and was succeeded in the barony by his son Charles Percy de Villiers. Lady de Villiers died in 1922.

Notes

References

*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, Henry De Villiers, 1st Baron 1842 births 1914 deaths 19th-century South African judges 19th-century South African lawyers 20th-century South African judges Afrikaner people Attorneys General of the Cape Colony Barons created by George V Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Cape Colony judges Chief justices of South Africa Huguenots Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council South African Freemasons South African Knights Bachelor South African Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George South African members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom South African people of French descent