Jury, William (1805–1872), hotelier, was christened on 24 February 1805 in Milverton, Somerset, England, one of at least four children of John Jury and his wife Susannah (née Thomas). In 1827 he married Mary Ann Jagelman, and they would have three sons. Moving to Ireland, he worked at the Imperial Hotel, Belfast, before coming to Dublin around 1830. He is listed as the proprietor of a boarding house at 7 College Green in the Dublin Directory for 1837. His business catered to a new breed of commercial traveler. By 1847 it extended to no. 8 and in 1853 he was described as the proprietor of Jury's Family Hotel at 6, 7, and 8 College Green. After his wife's death in 1853, he married Mary Cotton from Cork, and they would have two sons and a daughter.
In 1866 Jury's Commercial Boarding House took up 6–8 College Green and 1–2 Anglesea St. In that same year William Jury formed a partnership, C. Goodman & Co., with Charles Cotton, brother of his second wife and proprietor of the Imperial Hotel, Cork, and Christian Goodman. The purpose of the partnership was to purchase the leasehold on the Shelbourne Hotel, owned by the widow of Martin Burke (qv), for £13,000. Jury later made over Jury's Commercial Boarding House on College Green to a son of his first marriage, who later sold it on.
In addition to purchasing the hotel at 27, 28, and 29 St Stephen's Green, the partnership purchased 30 and 31 independently. The original hotel had maintained the three façades, and the new proprietors demolished all five houses to create a hotel with a single façade intended to rival the great hotels of London and Paris. By January 1867 the new hotel was finished at a cost of £13,000 and the façade then unveiled to the public currently (2006) remains the same. The partnership did not last long, as Goodman left in 1871 and Jury died in 1872. After he died his interest passed to his two sons by his second wife, Charles Cotton Jury and Edward Scott Jury, and to his second wife, who was very involved in the day-to-day running of the establishment.
As well as his involvement with Jury's and the Shelbourne, Jury was the proprietor of the Imperial Hotel, Belfast. At one time he was also owner of a distillery at Chichester St., Belfast, which produced the ‘Special Jury’ and ‘Grand Jury’ whiskeys. He lived at Airfield House, Dundrum, Dublin, and died 16 August 1872 in Bristol, England, apparently after falling from a window. He is buried at Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin.
His portrait was painted (1866) by J. A. Clarke and given to his wife by the Commercial Travellers Association.