William Blackstone

Sir William Blackstone, an English jurist, justice, and Tory politician, is best remembered for his *Commentaries on the Laws of England*, the most famous overview of English common law doctrines. He was born in London on 10 July 1723 to a middle-class family. After attending Charterhouse School, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1738. He earned a Bachelor of Civil Law degree, then became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, on 2 November 1743. He was admitted to Middle Temple and called to the Bar there in 1746.

Blackstone’s early legal career was slow, so he turned to university administration. On 28 November 1746, he took on roles as accountant, treasurer, and bursar, becoming Senior Bursar in 1750. He is credited with finishing the Codrington Library and the Warton Building, and with streamlining the college’s complex accounting system. On 3 July 1753, he formally quit his barrister practice to give the first-ever lectures on English law. These talks were a huge success, earning him £453 (about £94,000 in 2025). They led to his 1756 book *An Analysis of the Laws of England*, which sold out repeatedly and later prefaced his major works.

On 20 October 1759, Blackstone was confirmed as the first Vinerian Professor of English Law. He began a new lecture series and published another successful treatise, *A Discourse on the Study of the Law*. As his fame grew, he returned to the bar with a thriving practice and was elected Tory MP for the rotten borough of Hindon on 30 March 1761. In November 1765, he released the first of four volumes of his *Commentaries on the Laws of England*, his magnum opus. The complete work earned him £14,000 (roughly £2,106,000 in 2025). After several failed attempts, he became a justice of the Court of King’s Bench on 16 February 1770, then moved to the Common Pleas on 25 June, replacing Edward Clive. He held that post until his death on 14 February 1780.

The four-volume *Commentaries* aimed to give a full picture of English law. New editions came out in 1770, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1778, and a posthumous one in 1783. Reprints of the first edition, for practical use rather than collectors, appeared until the 1870s in England and Wales. A working version by Henry John Stephen, first printed in 1841, was reprinted until after World War II. Legal education in England had stagnated; Blackstone’s work gave the law “at least a veneer of scholarly respectability.” William Searle Holdsworth, a later Vinerian Professor, argued that without the *Commentaries*, the United States and other English-speaking countries might not have so widely adopted the common law. In America, the work influenced figures like Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, James Wilson, John Jay, John Adams, James Kent, and Abraham Lincoln, and it is still often cited in Supreme Court decisions.

Blackstone was the fourth and posthumous son of Charles Blackstone, a silk mercer from Cheapside and son of a wealthy apothecary. Charles became close friends with Thomas Bigg, a surgeon and son of a Wiltshire gentleman. When Bigg’s sister Mary came to London, Charles persuaded her to marry him in 1718. Though seen as a poor match, the couple lived happily and had four sons, three of whom survived to adulthood. Charles (born August 1719) and Henry (May 1722) became fellows of New College, Oxford, and took holy orders. William was born on 10 July 1723, five months after Charles’ death in February.

Though middle-class, the Blackstones were quite prosperous. Tax records show Charles was the second wealthiest man in his parish in 1722, and death registers note the family had several servants. This, plus Thomas Bigg’s help after Charles died, explains the children’s education. William entered Charterhouse School in 1730, nominated by Charles Wither, a relative of Mary Blackstone. He excelled there, becoming head of the school by age 15. After Charles’ death, the family’s finances declined, and when Mary died on 5 January 1736, most resources went to unpaid bills. William stayed at Charterhouse as a “poor scholar,” a position he got in June 1735 after being nominated by Sir Robert Walpole.

At Charterhouse, Blackstone thrived on the academic curriculum, especially the Latin poetry of Ovid and Virgil. He gained notice as a poet, writing a 30-line set of rhyming couplets for the wedding of headmaster James Hotchkis. He won a silver medal for Latin verses on John Milton, gave the annual Latin oration in 1738, and was noted as his masters’ favorite student. On 1 October 1738, using a new scholarship for Charterhouse students, he matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford.

Few records survive of Blackstone’s undergraduate years at Oxford. Pembroke’s curriculum had been set in 1624, and historian Wilfrid Prest suggests it was still followed in 1738, so Blackstone likely studied Greek, science, logic, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, geography, and poetry. He excelled in Greek, mathematics, and poetry, and his notes on William Shakespeare were included in later works.