Edward Williams

Sir Edward Eyre Williams (1813 – 30 April 1880) was an English-Australian lawyer, politician and judge. He was a nominated member of the Victorian Legislative Council and Solicitor-General of Victoria.

Early life Williams was born in 1813 in England, to Burton Williams, a sugar plantation owner from Trinidad, and his wife Jane; he was the couple's sixth son. In November 1833, after completing his education, Williams was called to the bar of the Inner Temple where he practised as a barrister. His father Burton Williams owned some 450 slaves in Trinidad on three family-owned sugar plantations in the 1820s. Edward was later a trustee to his insane brother Richard Burton Williams who owned 64 slaves. Following the abolition of slavery in 1833 Williams submitted a claim on his brothers behalf and obtained compensation of £3,146 for him in 1836.

Williams married Jessie Gibbon, a minister's daughter, on 13 March 1841 in London. Barry, Stawell, Williams, Pohlman, James Croke and Edward Brewster, all with either Irish or English educational and legal backgrounds, were something of "an informal Senior Common Room" in Melbourne in the 1840s, "dining and socialising together and generally supportive of their own brand of legal manners." Williams later represented Edward Wilson (who had bought The Argus from Kerr) and James Johnston against another libel suit brought by Moor. In both cases, Moor was represented by William Stawell. Williams would become a member of the Legislative Council from 13 April 1852, when he succeeded Redmond Barry as Solicitor-General of Victoria, after Barry was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Williams was Solicitor-General for barely three months, however, since he was himself made a judge of the Supreme Court on 21 July 1852, bringing the Court to its full complement of three judges.

As a judge, Williams was recognised for his diligent and efficient work at the circuit sittings of the Supreme Court in various parts of the colony. Before the penetration of railways into the interior, many of the journeys to the circuit sittings were made on horseback. Only limited amounts of time were available for each of the circuit destinations, and Williams would often hold sittings until the early hours of the morning in order to maintain the busy schedule of cases.

Williams took a two-year leave of absence in England, beginning in April 1859. In 1872, the youngest of Williams' two daughters was killed in a mountaineering accident in Switzerland, when she fell from a cliff. Crushed by this loss, and suffering from poor health, Williams was advised by his doctors to leave the bench, and he resigned from the Court in April 1874. He left Australia with his family on 28 May of that year, returning to England.

Williams retired to the city of Bath; knighted on 28 May 1878; He died on 30 April 1880, survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons, the younger of whom was Hartley Williams.