James Wigram

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Sir James Wigram (1793–1866) was an English barrister, politician and judge who served as a Vice-Chancellor of England from 1841 to 1850.

He was born at Walthamstow House in Essex on 5 November 1793, the third son of Sir Robert Wigram, 1st Baronet, and Eleanor Watts. His brothers included Sir Robert FitzWygram, 2nd Baronet, Joseph Wigram, Octavius Wigram, Loftus Wigram and George Wigram. Wigram was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a B.A. in 1815, became a fellow in 1817, and received an M.A. in 1818. He joined Lincoln’s Inn in 1813 and was called to the bar in 1819. He built a career in the Court of Chancery, became a King's Counsel in 1834, a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 1835, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society that same year.

In politics, Wigram unsuccessfully stood for Leominster in 1837 but was elected Member of Parliament for Leominster in 1841. A few months later, in October 1841, he was appointed as a second Vice-Chancellor of England, and left Parliament. He was sworn into the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 15 January 1842 and was knighted that month.

Wigram’s health declined, and he had to retire from the bench in 1850, after losing his sight. He received a pension of £3,500 a year and died on 29 July 1866.

Among his notable cases was Foley v Hill (1848), where he served as the judge at first instance. He also wrote two legal works: Examination of the Rules of Law respecting the Admission of Extrinsic Evidence in aid of the Interpretation of Wills (1831) and Points in the Law of Discovery (1836), which brought him into correspondence with the American judge Joseph Story.

In 1818 he married Anne Arkwright, daughter of Richard Arkwright and granddaughter of Sir Richard Arkwright; she died in 1844. Anne’s family owned property near Leominster in Herefordshire. James and Anne had four sons and five daughters.