Gwillim, Henry (1760 -1837)

Sir Henry Gwillim (1760?-1837), of Westbury and Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, was a British Judge who served as a puisne judge in the Supreme Court at Madras. He was the eldest son of John Gwillim of Hereford. After studying law he was called to the Middle Temple on 9 February 1787. In 1801 he was knighted, and moved to India along with his wife Elizabeth, the ornithological artist. He was dismissed from his post in 1808 following the Vellore Mutiny, for his outspoken criticism of the Governor of Madras, Lord William Bentinck, whose harsh treatment of the mutineers came under fire.

Gwillim published a few books and compilations on laws including contributions to Mathew Bacon’s A New Abridgment of the Law (1809), which ran into several editons, and a four-volume A Collection of Acts and Records of Parliament, with Reports of Cases argued and determined in the courts of Law and Equity respecting Tithes (1801).