Page:Obituary, Dr. James Williams (1911).djvu/1



Dr. James Williams, D.C.L., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and All Souls Reader in Roman Law, died in his rooms at Lincoln, yesterday, after several years of declining health.

Dr. Williams was born in Liverpool in 1851, and gained an open classical scholarship at Lincoln from Liverpool College in 1869. He was placed in the first class in Moderations in 1871 and in the school of Lit. Hum. in 1873. As a young man he was a great athlete, and rowed in the University Eight in 1874.

Called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1875, Dr. Williams first practised on the Northern Circuit; but his natural tastes led him more and more to the literary side of legal studies; and he very soon became a constant contributor to the "Encyclopædia Britannica" and to the Law Magazine and Review. He also published several works on legal and education subjects, notably an edition of the "Institutes" of Justinian with a commentary. His election to the All Souls Readership in Roman Law showed how greatly his special knowledge was appreciated. Dr. William was elected to an official Fellowship in Lincoln College in 1890, and took up the law-teaching of the undergraduates. In 1891 he was appointed to the Bursarship, which office he held till 1904. He was also a Curator of the Taylor Institution in Oxford, and was frequently an examiner in the School of Jurisprudence and of Modern Languages.

Dr. Williams had largely enriched his mind by extensive travel in Europe and in North and South America. He represented the University of Oxford at the tercentenary of the University of Oviedo, and at Yale University, where he received the honorary degree of LL.D. He was also a Justice of the Peace for Flintshire, of which county he served the office of High Sheriff in 1906-7.

Besides his books on legal subjects, Dr. Williams was the author of several volumes of verse, grave and gay; and his latest published work contained poems adapted from St. Thomas à Kempis, which achieved immediate popularity by its singular tenderness and devotional spirit.