Sir John Williams (died 1846) was an English
judge, known for overseeing the 1830s trials of the
Tolpuddle Martyrs
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were six agricultural labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, who, in 1834, were convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. They were arrested on ...
(''
R v Lovelass and Others''), and the
Flash Female Button Makers Union.
He was made a
King's Counsel in Easter Term 1827. On 28 February 1834 he was made a
serjeant-at-law
A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are wri ...
and raised to the bench as one of the
puisne barons of the
Court of Exchequer, succeeding
Sir John Bayley; he was
knighted on 16 April 1834. On 29 April 1834 he transferred to the
Court of King's Bench
The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions.
* Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of common ...
as
puisne justice
A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use
The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...
, exchanging places with
Sir James Parke. He died on 14 September 1846 and was succeeded by
Sir William Erle.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
*
1846 deaths
19th-century English judges
Date of birth missing
Serjeants-at-law (England)
Barons of the Exchequer
Knights Bachelor
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