John Williams (barrister)

John Williams (12 September 1757 – 27 September 1810) was a Welsh lawyer and writer on legal topics.

Williams was born near Carmarthen and educated at Carmarthen Grammar School before matriculating at Jesus College, Oxford in 1773. He moved to Wadham College, Oxford later the same year, and graduated with degrees of BA (1776) and MA (1781). He became a Fellow of Wadham in 1780, acting as librarian (1781–82) and humanity lecturer (1782), resigning his fellowship in 1792. In the meantime he had joined Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1784. He was appointed a serjeant-at-law in 1794, and a king's serjeant in 1804. His writings included the tenth and eleventh editions (with Richard Burn) of Blackstone's "Commentaries on the Laws of England" (1787 and 1791) and the third edition of Sir Edmund Saunders's "Reports of Cases and Pleadings in the Court of King's Bench in the Reign of Charles II", with additional notes and references. These notes were retained in later editions and were eventually issued on their own in an edition by his son, the judge Sir Edward Vaughan Williams. He died in London and was buried in the Temple Church. [cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29518|title=Williams, John (1757–1810)|last=Carlyle|first=E. I|coauthors=Brown, Robert|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|month=October|accessdate=2008-09-05]

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