James Wills (1 January 1790 – 23 November 1868) was an Irish writer, poet, and Anglican clergyman.
[3] His father died when he was 2 and was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, William Robert Wills, who married Mary Grey Sanford, the niece and co-heiress of Henry Sandford, 1st Baron Mount Sandford of Castlerea House.
[2] James was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied law in the Middle Temple, London but was forced to abandon his legal career after his mentally unstable brother Thomas (born 1788) squandered his inheritance.
In 1829, Thomas Wills, after being discharged from a mental asylum, sold the remainder of the estate for £30,000 (equivalent to £3,335,000 in 2023).
[1] James' older half-brother, now known as William Robert Wills, offered him the family estate of Willsgrove, but he declined because of the ongoing costs, and instead entered the church.
[1] His largest work was Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, published in six volumes (1840–1847), and his last publication The Idolatress (1868).
In 1860, he gave a series of lectures on Christianity at TCD, where he "delighted the students" with his delivery.