William S. James

William S. James (February 14, 1914 – April 17, 1993), called Bill or Billy James by contemporaries, was a politician from the U.S. state of Maryland. James was first elected to office as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing Harford County in 1946, and after serving two terms was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1954. He would serve in the Senate for a further two decades, from 1963 onwards as President of the Maryland Senate. Following his retirement from the state Senate in 1974, James was appointed State Treasurer, a position he would hold from 1975 through 1987. His daughter, Mary-Dulany James, was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 34A in Cecil and Harford Counties from 1999 until 2015.

William S. James was born the son of E. Roy James and Mary S. James in Aberdeen, Maryland on February 14, 1914. His primary education was diverse; he attended public schools in Cecil and Harford Counties before matriculating at the Tome School, a private coeducational college preparatory school in Port Deposit. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware and, in 1937, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, entering the Maryland Bar the same year. James immediately established a law practice in Bel Air, and would continue to practice law there until 1975.

He quickly rose to prominence in the legal community, and served as a trial magistrate in Havre de Grace from 1944 to 1946, a position he left when he won election to the Maryland House of Delegates representing Harford County. Following two terms in the House, he was elected in 1954 to represent Harford County in the Maryland Senate. In January of that same year, he married Margaret Higinbothom with whom he would have a son, Robert Roy, and a daughter, Mary-Dulany.

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