ANSON, SIR WILLIAM REYNELL, BART. (1843 1914), English jurist, was born in Walberton, Sussex, son of the second baronet. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford he became in 1874 Vinerian reader in English law at Oxford, a post which he held until he became in 1881 warden of All Souls College. He identified himself both with local and university interests, becoming an alderman of the city of Oxford (1892), chairman of quarter sessions for the county (1894), vice-chan cellor of the university (1898-99), and chancellor of the diocese of Oxford (1899). In that year he was returned, without oppo sition, as M.P. for the university in the Liberal Unionist inter ests, and consequently resigned the vice-chancellorship.
In Parliament he preserved an active interest in education, being a member of the newly created consultative committee of the board of education in 1900, and in 1902 he became parlia mentary secretary. He took an active part in the foundation of a school of law at Oxford, and his volumes on The Principles of the English Law of Contract (1884), and on the Law and Custom of the Constitution in two parts, "The Parliament" and "The Crown" (1886—g2, pt. i. vol. ii.) are standard works.