William Blackstone

Lore & Background

Sir William Blackstone was an English jurist and Tory politician, best known for his *Commentaries on the Laws of England*, a comprehensive overview of English common law. Born in London to a middle-class silk mercer, he was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Oxford. After earning a Bachelor of Civil Law degree, he became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar at Middle Temple. His early legal career was slow, leading him to focus on university administration, where he oversaw the completion of the Codrington Library and Warton Building and simplified the college’s accounting system. In 1753, he abandoned his barrister practice to deliver the first-ever lectures on English law, which were highly successful and led to the publication of *An Analysis of the Laws of England*. He later became the first Vinerian Professor of English Law and published *A Discourse on the Study of the Law*. His fame revived his legal practice, and he was elected as a Tory Member of Parliament for the rotten borough of Hindon. The first volume of his *Commentaries* appeared in 1765; the complete work earned him substantial income and was republished multiple times, remaining in practical use in England and Wales until the 1870s. He eventually became a justice of the Court of King’s Bench and later of the Common Pleas, serving until his death. The *Commentaries* gave English law scholarly respectability and profoundly influenced American legal figures such as Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, and Abraham Lincoln, and are still cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Reader's Guide

Sir William Blackstone’s most significant contribution was his four-volume *Commentaries on the Laws of England*, which provided a complete overview of English common law. This work emerged from a series of lectures he began in 1753, the first of their kind, which were so successful that they earned him a substantial sum and led to the publication of an earlier treatise. The *Commentaries* were repeatedly reprinted during his lifetime and for decades after, with practical editions used in England and Wales until the 1870s, and a working version remaining in print until after the Second World War. Legal education in England had stalled, and Blackstone’s work gave the law a veneer of scholarly respectability. One of his successors as Vinerian Professor argued that without the *Commentaries*, it is doubtful that the United States and other English-speaking countries would have so universally adopted the common law. In America, the work influenced key figures such as Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, James Wilson, John Jay, John Adams, James Kent, and Abraham Lincoln, and it continues to be cited in Supreme Court decisions. Blackstone also reformed university administration, simplifying accounting systems and completing building projects at his college.

Did You Know?

• William Blackstone is one of the few exceptions noted in the source to the general decline of natural law philosophy during the Age of Enlightenment.
• He is most noted for his *Commentaries on the Laws of England*, which became the best-known description of the doctrines of the English common law.
• The source mentions Blackstone alongside Edmund Burke as a rare proponent of natural law philosophy in the Enlightenment era.