| Description | Judge and politician, born on 28 November 1685 at Bishop's Itchington, Warwickshire, the son of John Willes (1647/8–1700), rector of Bishop's Itchington and canon of Lichfield. On 28 January 1737 he succeeded Sir Thomas Reeve as chief justice of the common pleas, having been knighted five days earlier. Died December 1761. |