James Williams

Born in Liverpool in 1851, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, winning a classical scholarship and later earning distinction in Literae Humaniores. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1875, first practised on the Northern Circuit, and went on to become a Fellow of Lincoln College and All Souls' Reader in Roman Law.

Much of his reputation rests on learned writing. He contributed legal articles to the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Dictionary of National Biography, and published work on legal and educational subjects, including an edition of Justinian's Institutes with commentary. Contemporary accounts also note his extensive travel in Europe and the Americas, as well as his service to Oxford as a teacher, bursar, curator, and examiner.

He also wrote poetry and lighter literary pieces. Works linked with him include A Story of Three Years and A Lawyer's Leisure, and an obituary in The Times remembered him as the author of several volumes of verse, including devotional poems praised for their tenderness. He died in Oxford in November 1911.