James Plaisted Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance, PC (12 July 1816 – 9 December 1899) was a noted British judge and rose breeder who was also a proponent of the Baconian theory that the works usually attributed to William Shakespeare were in fact written by Francis Bacon.

Born in London, he was the son of Edward Archer Wilde, a solicitor, and Marianne (née Norris).

[1] His younger brother Sir Alfred Thomas Wilde was a Lieutenant-General in the Madras Army, while Sir John Wylde (Chief Justice of the Cape Colony) and Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro (Lord Chancellor) were his uncles.

[6] In 1875, he accepted the post as Dean of Arches and presided over a number of notorious trials; Bell Cox, Dale, Enraght, Green and Tooth, under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874 arising out of the Ritualist controversy in the Church of England.

In his ruling, Lord Penzance stated: What, then, is the nature of this institution as understood in Christendom?...If it be of common acceptance and existence, it must have some pervading identity and universal basis.

Wilde argued, following Lord Campbell and others, that the works of Shakespeare are extremely accurate in matters of law.

[8] Several other authors followed Wilde's arguments about the legal expertise used in Shakespeare, including Sir George Greenwood.

Kinnear (1992) Lord Penzance's Trial of Shakespeare: Verdict for Bacon ISBN 1-85571-308-X Rigg, James McMullen (1901).