great seal was put into commission and he was only named senior commissioner. This arrangement lasted from 19 Nov. 1756 to 30 June 1757. He was then offered the chancellorship in the administration of Pitt and Newcastle, but, indiscreetly demanding a peerage as a condition of his acceptance, which the king was unwilling to grant, he was passed over and Robert Henley (afterwards first Earl of Northington) [q. v.] was appointed. His mortification shortened his life, and for some time before his death he was unable to go into court. He died on 15 Dec. 1761 at his house in Bloomsbury Square, London, and was buried at Bishop's Ickington. Though politically an unscrupulous intriguer, he was a lawyer of great learning and a judge of ability. His severity to attorneys led to his court being short of business, and his decisions of importance are few, having regard to the length of time during which he was on the bench. He presided at the trial of Elizabeth Canning [q. v.] for perjury (State Trials, xix. 262), and preserved a long series of reports of cases decided before the common pleas during his chief-justiceship, which he intended to publish. A selection from them, with other cases, was published by Charles Durnford in 1799.
He married Margaret Brewster, a lady of a Worcestershire family, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. His second son, Edward, became a judge of the king's bench in 1768. His portrait, by Thomas Hudson, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and has been engraved by Faber and Johnson; another portrait by Van Loo was engraved by Vertue in 1744 (Bromley, p. 374).
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Walpole's Memoirs, i. 77; Harris's Lord Hardwicke, iii. 139; Correspondence of the Earl of Chatham, i. 235; Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, ii. 266 (which contains several inaccuracies); Clowes's Royal Navy, vol. iii.; Parl. Returns of Members of Parliament, 1878; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Register of Lincoln's Inn.]
WILLES or WILLEY, RICHARD (fl. 1558–1573), poetical writer, a native of Pulham in Dorset, entered Winchester College in 1558, and in 1564 proceeded to New College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1566 to 1568. After quitting the university he travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. At the university of Mainz he graduated M.A., and on 3 June 1565 was admitted into the Society of Jesus. He was afterwards incorporated at Perugia, where he was professor of rhetoric, and in 1569 he taught Greek at Trier. Returning to England, he seems to have renounced Roman catholicism, for on supplicating for incorporation at Oxford on 24 April 1574 his request was granted on condition that he made a profession of conformity and acknowledged the queen as supreme governor of the English church. On 16 Dec. 1578 he was incorporated M.A. at Cambridge.
Willes was the author of: 1. ‘Ricardi Willei Poematum Liber ad Gulielmum Bar. Burleighum auratum nobiliss. ordinis equitem, Londini ex bibliotheca Tottellina,’ 1573, 8vo. 2. ‘In svorvm poematum librum Ricardi Willei scholia ad custodem, socios atq. pueros collegij Wiccammici apud Wintoniam, Londini ex bibliotheca Tottellina,’ 1573, 8vo. The poems of Christopher Johnson or Jonson [q. v.] on the college and its founder were printed at the end of the book.
Willes has been identified with Richard Willes, the editor of ‘The history of trauayle in the VVest and East Indies and other covntreys lying eyther way towardes the fruitfull and ryche Moluccaes. As Muscouia, Persia … with a discourse of the north-west passage. … Gathered in parte and done into Englyshe by Richarde Eden. Newly set in order, augmented, and finished by Richarde VVilles. Imprinted at London by Richard Iugge,’ 1577, 4to. Dedicated to Bridget, countess of Bedford. There are also three articles bearing Willes's name in Hakluyt's ‘Collection of Voyages’: 1. ‘Certaine Reports of the prouince of China learned through the Portugals there imprisoned, and cheefly by the relation of Galeotto Perera. Done out of Italian into English by Richard Willes,’ 1599, vol. ii. 2. ‘Of the Iland Iapan and other litle Iles in the East Ocean. By R. Willes,’ vol. ii. 3. ‘Certaine other reasons or arguments to prooue a passage by the Northwest, learnedly written by Mr. Richard Willes Gentleman,’ 1600, vol. iii.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 398; Boase and Courtney's Biblioth. Cornub. ii. 889; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 415; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 198; Reg. of Univ. of Oxford (Oxford Hist. Soc.), II. i. 152, 378; Tanner's Biblioth. Brit.-Hib. 1748, p. 775; Vivian's Visitations of Cornwall, 1887, p. 557; Kirby's Winchester Scholars; Foley's Records of the Society of Jesus, vol. vii.]
WILLET, ANDREW (1562–1621), controversial divine, born at Ely in 1562, was son of Thomas Willet (1511?–1598), who began his career as a public notary, and officiated as such at the consecration of Archbishop Parker. Late in life he took holy orders, becoming rector of Barley, Hertfordshire, fourteen miles from Cambridge. He
