William Blackstone
July 10, 1723 — London, England
Sir William Blackstone was an English jurist, judge, and politician whose four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England became the most comprehensive and widely read description of English law ever written, shaping the legal systems of Britain, the United States, and every other country that inherited the common law tradition.
From Orphan to Oxford
Born on July 10, 1723 in London, Blackstone lost his father before he was born and his mother when he was twelve. A guardian uncle funded his education; Blackstone excelled at Charterhouse School and entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1738. He took his degree and was called to the bar in 1746, but his legal practice struggled and he returned to Oxford as a fellow and bursar of All Souls College. He delivered the first systematic lectures on English law at any English university, beginning in 1753 — prior to which English law had not been treated as a coherent academic subject at Oxford or Cambridge. These lectures drew packed audiences and attracted students from across Britain and, increasingly, from the American colonies.
The Commentaries
Between 1765 and 1769, Blackstone published his lectures as four volumes titled Commentaries on the Laws of England, covering the rights of persons, rights of things, private wrongs, and public wrongs. Written in clear and elegant prose rather than in the dense Latin and Norman French of earlier legal treatises, the Commentaries were designed to be read by educated laypeople as well as lawyers. They immediately became a bestseller. In the American colonies, the Commentaries sold nearly as many copies as in England, making Blackstone the dominant legal authority for a generation of American lawyers and statesmen. Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and James Madison all studied and cited Blackstone extensively.
Did You Know?
More copies of Blackstone's Commentaries were sold in the American colonies before 1776 than in England itself. When the founders debated constitutional principles, they were largely debating ideas they had first encountered in Blackstone — including natural rights, the right to bear arms, and the rights of the accused. The U.S. Supreme Court has cited Blackstone over 400 times.
Judge, MP, and Lasting Influence
Blackstone served as a Member of Parliament for Hindon (1761–1770), and in 1770 was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, a position he held until his death. He became a Knight, taking the title Sir William, upon his judicial appointment. Though he played no part in drafting the U.S. Constitution, Blackstone's framework permeated American legal thinking so thoroughly that Chief Justice John Marshall later called the Commentaries the most valuable gift ever given to the American legal profession. Blackstone died on February 14, 1780, in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, at 56. His influence on Anglo-American law remains undiminished — the Commentaries are still cited in courts today.