of salary and costs, amounting to near 6,000l., were awarded to Willis, but he did not return to the colony, neither did he receive any other office in the gift of the colonial department. He died in September 1877.
On 8 Aug. 1824 he married Mary Isabella, elder daughter of Thomas Lyon-Bowes, eleventh earl Strathmore. By her he had one son, Robert Bruce Willis (1826–1897). The union was an unhappy one, and was dissolved by act of parliament in 1833. Willis married, secondly, on 15 Sept. 1836, Ann Susanna Kent (d. 1891), eldest daughter of Colonel Thomas Henry Bund of Wick Episcopi in Worcestershire. By her he had a son, Mr. John William Willis-Bund, and two daughters.
Willis is sometimes said to have had an imperious temper. There can be little question as to his ability, industry, or the energy with which he carried his ideas into practice. The true reason for his unfortunate experience ‘over sea’ may be found in his conception of what an English colony is or should be. His latest work, ‘On the Government of the British Colonies’ (1850), gives his idea. A colony is to be dealt with as an English county, presided over by a lord lieutenant; on the one side possessing certain powers of internal taxation, on the other being represented in the imperial parliament—a conception of self-government that no colonial party could adopt, and one which, if carried out in days when the judge's sphere was not confined strictly to matters legal, could scarcely fail to bring him into conflict with the local authorities for the time being.
[Foster's Reg. of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1889, p. 414; Burke's Landed Gentry, s.v. ‘Bund;’ Read's Lives of the Judges of Upper Canada, pp. 107–20; Dent's Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, pp. 162–94; Mirror of Parliament (House of Lords), 14 May 1829, pp. 1610–11; Hansard, new ser. xxiv. 551–5; Accounts and Papers relating to the Colonies (5), xxxii. 51; Blue Book, Papers relating to the Amoval of the Hon. J. W. Willis, 1829; Blackwood's Mag. (‘Cabot’), 1829, pp. 334–7; App. to Journals of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, 1st sess., 10th parl.; Therry's Reminiscences of New South Wales 1863, pp. 341–5; 5 Moore's Reports (Privy Council), p. 379; Kingsford's Hist. of Canada, x. 258–79.]
WILLIS, RICHARD (1664–1734), bishop of Winchester, the son of William Willis, a journeyman tanner, and his wife Susanna, was baptised at Ribbesford in Worcestershire on 16 Feb. 1663–4. He was educated at Bewdley free grammar school, matriculated from Wadham College, Oxford, on 5 Dec. 1684, graduated B.A. in 1688, in which year he became a fellow of All Souls', and was granted the degree of D.D. at Lambeth on 27 March 1695 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714). After leaving Oxford he became curate to ‘Mr. Chapman at Cheshunt,’ and was in 1692 chosen lecturer of St. Clement's, Strand, where he became well known as a preacher. Nash speaks of his famous ‘extemporaneous preaching;’ but Richardson, with greater probability, of his ‘conciones memoriter recitandi.’ He accompanied William III to Holland in 1694 in the capacity of chaplain, and on his return on 12 April 1695 (Hennessy, Novum Repert. p. 448) was installed a prebendary of Westminster. He was one of the original promoters of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1699, subscribing 5l., and in December 1700 he received the thanks of the society for a charity sermon preached at St. Ann's, Westminster (Maclure, Journals, pp. 5, 103). On 26 Dec. 1701 he was promoted to the deanery of Lincoln. Four years later was printed one of his most elaborate sermons ‘preached before the queen on 23 Aug. 1705, being the thanksgiving day for the late glorious success in forcing the enemy's lines in the Spanish Netherlands, by the Duke of Marlborough.’ A good preacher and a good whig, having opposed the schism bill of 1714, Willis was made bishop of Gloucester by George I upon the death of Edward Fowler [q. v.] He was elected on 10 Dec. 1714, confirmed on the 15th, and consecrated on 16 Jan. following in Lambeth chapel. He was put upon the commission for building fifty new churches in and around London, was made a clerk of the royal closet, and allowed to hold his deanery in commendam. The king was gratified by his sermon, ‘The Way to Stable and Quiet Times,’ preached before the court on 20 Jan. 1714–15, ‘being the day of thanksgiving for bringing his majesty to a peaceable and quiet possession of the throne,’ which was translated into French for George's benefit. In 1717, when William Nicolson [q. v.] was translated from Carlisle to Derry, and had in consequence to resign the office of lord almoner, Willis was appointed to the post. After seven years at Gloucester, upon the translation of Talbot to Durham, Willis was on 21 Nov. 1721 translated to Salisbury, and thence he was on 21 Nov. 1723 promoted to the see of Winchester. His advancement was due, according to Bishop Newton, to the long and laboured oration which he made against Atterbury upon the occasion of the third reading of the bill to inflict pains and penalties. This speech was published in 1723. Willis, who was a martyr to the
