​Sir John Barnard Byles, grand-nephew of John Curtis Byles and connected to the Beuzeville–Hewlett family through marriage, was a distinguished English judge and legal author.

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Born at Stowmarket, Suffolk, on 11 January 1801, the eldest son of Jeremiah Byles, a timber merchant, he entered the Inner Temple after an early period in business. Having read in the chambers of the celebrated pleader Joseph Chitty, he was called to the bar in 1831 and joined the Norfolk circuit. He rapidly built a strong mercantile practice.

In 1840 he was appointed recorder of Buckingham; in 1843 he became a Serjeant-at-Law, and in 1857 one of the last Queen’s Serjeants. In 1858 he was elevated to the Court of Common Pleas, receiving the customary knighthood. A learned and courteous judge, his wit occasionally enlivened proceedings. When counsel once cited “Byles on Bills,” he is said to have asked whether the learned author gave authority for the proposition; on hearing he did not, Byles replied, “Then do not trust him. I know him well.”

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He was especially renowned in commercial law. His Practical Compendium of the Law of Bills of Exchange (1829) was the first systematic treatment of that subject and became foundational to the Bills of Exchange Act 1882. The work went through numerous editions in Britain and America, reaching its twenty-sixth edition in 1988.

Beyond strictly legal writing, he published Observations on the Usury Laws (1845) and the widely read Sophisms of Free Trade (1849), a critique of laissez-faire political economy and abstract economic theory. Though politically a Conservative protectionist and religiously a strict Unitarian, his judicial opinions remained balanced and professional.

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He resigned from the bench in 1873, having qualified for pension, and was sworn of the Privy Council. A familiar and popular figure at Westminster Hall, he was remembered for riding daily to court on his cob, affectionately nicknamed “Bills.”

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Twice married, he died at Harefield House near Uxbridge on 3 February 1884. His estate was valued at £201,446.

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Sources and Further Reading

• Wikipedia, “Sir John Barnard Byles.”

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, “Byles, Sir John Barnard (1801–1884).”

• Legal histories relating to the Bills of Exchange Act 1882.