Jacob Abraham Jeremy de Villiers PC (14 December 1868 – 16 September 1932)[1] was a judge of the Appellate Division from 1920 to 1932 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 1929 to 1932.

[1] De Villiers was admitted to the Middle Temple in January 1893, thereby qualifying for admission to the Johannesburg Bar, where he began to practise in 1894.

When the Second Boer War broke out in October 1899, De Villiers joined the Free State forces and served as legal adviser to general Marthinus Prinsloo.

He became a permanent Judge of Appeal in 1920 and after the death of Sir William Solomon in 1929, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Union of South Africa and in 1931 he was made a member of the Privy Council.

[3] De Villiers left for Germany in April 1932 for medical treatment but died five months later in London, England.