Watkin Williams (Liberal politician)

Sir Charles James Watkin Williams (23 September 1828 – 17 July 1884) was a Welsh judge, doctor and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1880.

[1] After leaving Ruthin grammar school he studied medicine under John Eric Erichsen at University College Hospital, where he won the gold medal for comparative anatomy, and acted for a time as house-surgeon.

When called to the bar three years later, he practised in the same branch of the profession, and in 1857 published An Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Pleading in Civil Actions in the Supreme Courts of Law at Westminster.

[2] As early as 1854 he had published a pamphlet on the Law of Church Rates, and, though himself a churchman, he on 24 May 1870 moved a resolution in the House of Commons in favour of Welsh disestablishment.

In November 1880, on the promotion of Sir Robert Lush to a lord-justiceship, his son-in-law, Williams, was appointed to the vacant puisne judgeship, even though he had recently made a public declaration that he would never accept such an office.

He concurred in the judgment of the crown cases reserved in upholding the conviction of Most in connection with the murder of Alexander II of Russia.

To the council of judges Williams submitted a paper advocating the abolition of distinctions between the common pleas and exchequer divisions, but the retention of the chiefships.

He publicly repudiated their decisions announced in November 1881, declaring that nothing less than an act of parliament should ever induce him to deprive a prisoner of the right of making a statement to a jury of facts not given in evidence.

A contemporary Nottingham memorial card reported that he 'departed this life suddenly at Mrs. Salmands', and noted that 'in eight feet deep of solid earth Sir Watkin Williams lies.