Sir Johannes John Wilhelmus Wessels (1862–1936) was an Afrikaner judge of the Appellate Division from 1923 to 1936 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 1932 to 1936.
(Joostenberg, Stellenbosch, 26 September 1814 - Green Point, Cape Town, 22 October 1889) and Anna Marthina Neethling (Cape Town, 30 October 1822 - Green Point, Capetown, 28 April 1897)[4][5] and attended the South African College.
[4] He made his name as the lawyer for the Witwatersrand gold mine owners challenge of the patents for John Stewart MacArthur's MacArthur-Forrest cyanidation process.
[4] He defended the Lionel Phillips, Frank Rhodes, Sir George Farrar and John Hays Hammond at their treason trial in Pretoria in 1896 after the Jameson Raid failed.
[4] The governor, Lord Milner, appointed Wessels as one of three puisne judges, with Sir James Rose Innes as Chief Justice.