WILLARD, John, jurist, born in Guilford, Connecticut, 20 May, 1792; died in Saratoga Springs, New York, 31 August, 1862. He was graduated at Middlebury college in 1813, admitted to the bar in 1817, and he began the practice of law in Salem, Washington County, New York On the elevation in 1836 of Esek Cowen to the bench of the supreme court, he was appointed judge and vice-chancellor of the 4th judicial district of New York, filling that office until the new organization of the judiciary under the constitution of 1846, when he was elected one of the justices of the supreme court. In 1854 he was a member of the court of appeals. In 1856 he was appointed by President Pierce one of the commissioners to examine into the validity of the California land-titles which were claimed under Spanish and Mexican grants. In 1861 he was chosen state senator by the votes of all parties, and, by his el-forts in that body, the confusion in the laws respecting murder and the rights of married women was removed, and simple statutes were substituted in their place. The rapidity and ability with which he discharged his official duties, his uniform courtesy and kindness to the profession, his abhorrence of pettifogging and chicanery, and the purity and integrity of his character as a judge and as a man, commanded universal respect and esteem, and did much to elevate the judiciary of his native state. Dartmouth gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1850. After his retirement from the bench he published "Equity Jurisprudence" (Albany, 1855) ; a "Treatise on Executors, Administrators, and Guardians" (1859); and a "Treatise on Real Estate and Conveyancing" (1861), works of great learning and ability. They are constantly cited with confidence, and received as authority both in the United States and in England.