BLACKSTONE, Sir William, an eminent English lawyer, was born at London in July 1723. His father, Mr Charles Blackstone, a silk-man, citizen, andbowyer of London, died some months before the birth of our author, who was the youngest of four children; and his mother also died before he was twelve years old. Even from his birth, the care both of his education and fortune was kindly undertaken by his maternal uncle Mr Thomas Bigg, an eminent surgeon in London, and afterwards, on the death of his elder brothers, owner of the Chilton estate, which is still enjoyed by his family. In 1730, being then about seven years old, he was put to school at the Charter-house; and in 1735 he was admitted upon the foundation there by the nomination of Sir Robert Walpole, on the recommendation of Charles Wither, of Hall in Hampshire, Esq. his cousin by the mother’s side. In this excellent seminary he applied himself to every branch of youthful education, with the same assiduity which distinguished him throughout life. His talents and industry rendered him the favourite of his masters, who encouraged and assisted him to the utmost of their power; so that at the age of fifteen he was at the head of the school, and, although very young, was thought well qualified to be removed to the university. He was accordingly entered a commoner at Pembroke College, Oxford, on the 30th of November 1738, and matriculated the next day. At this time he was elected to one of the Charter-house exhibitions by the governors of that foundation, to commence from the Michaelmas preceding, but was permitted to continue a scholar there till after the 12th of December, being the anniversary commemoration of the founder, to give him an opportunity of speaking the customary oration, which he had prepared, and which did him much credit. About this time also he obtained Mr Benson’s gold prize-medal of Milton, for verses on that poet. In the February following, the society of Pembroke College unanimously elected him to one of Lady Holford’s exhibitions for Charter-house scholars in that house. Here he prosecuted his studies with unremitting ardour; and although the classics, and particularly the Greek and Roman poets, w <,i∙e his favourites, they did not entirely engross his attention; for logic, mathematics, and the other sciences, were not neglected. At the early age of twenty, he compiled a treatise entitled Elements of Architecture, intended for his own use only, and not for publication, but esteemed by those who have perused it as in no respect unworthy of his maturer judgment and more practised pen.
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Having determined on his future plan of life, and made choice of the law for his profession, he was entered in the Middle Temple on the 20th of November 1741. He now found it necessary to quit the more amusing pursuits of his youth for the severer studies to which he had dedicated himself, and betook himself seriously to reading law. He expressed his disagreeable sensations on this occasion in a copy of verses, since published by Dodsley in the fourth volume of his miscellanies, entitled The Lawyers Farewell to his Muse; in which the struggle of his mind is expressed so strongly, so naturally, and with such elegance of language and harmony of versification, as must convince every reader that his passion for the muses was too deeply rooted to be laid aside without much reluctance, and that, if he had pursued that flowery path, he might perhaps have proved inferior to but few of our English poets. Besides this, several fugitive pieces were at times communicated by him to his friends; and he left, but not with a view of publication, a small collection of juvenile pieces, consisting of both originals and translations. Some notes on Shakspeare, which just before his death he communicated to Mr Steevens, and which were inserted by him in his last edition of that author, show how well he understood the meaning as well as relished the beauties of his favourite among the English poets.

In November 1743 he was elected into the society of All-Souls College; while in the November following he spoke the anniversary speech in commemoration of Archbishop Chichelay, the founder, and the other benefactors to that house of learning, and was at the same time admitted actual fellow. From this period he divided his time between the university and the Temple, where he took chambers in order to attend the courts. In the former he pursued his academical studies, and on the 12th of June 1745 commenced bachelor of civil law; in the latter he applied himself closely to his profession, both in the hall and in his private studies, and on the 28th of November 1746 he was called to the bar. Though but little known or distinguished in Westminster Hall, he was actively employed, during his occasional residences at the university, in attending to its interests, and in mingling with and improving its interior concerns. In May 1749, as a small reward for his services, and to give him further opportunities of advancing the interests of the college, Mr Blackstone was appointed steward of its manors. And in the same year, on the resignation of his uncle Seymour Richmond, Esq., he was elected recorder of the borough of Wallingford in Berkshire, and received the king’s approbation on the 30th of May. On the 26th of April 1750 he commenced doctor of civil law, and thereby became a member of the convocation, which enabled him to extend his views beyond the narrow circle of his own society, to the benefit of the university at large. In the summer of 1753 he took the resolution of wholly retiring to his fellowship and an academical life, still continuing the practice of his profession as a provincial counsel.

His lectures on the laws of England appear to have been an early and favourite idea; for in the Michaelmas term, immediately after he quitted Westminster Hall, he entered on the province of reading them at Oxford; and we are told by the author of his life, that even at their commencement, such were the expectations formed from the acknowledged abilities of the lecturer, that they were attended by a very crowded class of young men of the first families, characters, and hopes. But it was not till the year 1758 that the lectures, in the form they now bear, were read in the university. Mr Viner having by his will left not only the copyright of his abridgment, but other property to a considerable amount, to the university of Oxford, in order to found a professorship, fellowships, and scholarships of common law, he was on the 20th of October 1758 unanimously elected Vinerian professor; and on the 25th of the same month he read his first introductory lecture which he published at the request of the vice-chancellor and heads of houses, and afterwards prefixed to the first volume of his Commentaries. His lectures had now gained such universal applause, that he was requested by a noble personage who superintended the education of George HL, then prince of Wales, to read them to his royal highness; but as he was at that time engaged with a numerous class of pupils in the university, he thought he could not, consistently with that engagement, comply with this request, and therefore declined it. But he transmitted copies of many of them for the perusal of his royal highness; who, far from being offended at an excuse grounded on so honourable a motive, was pleased to order a handsome gratuity to be presented to him. It is doubtful whether the Commentaries were originally intended for the press; but many imperfect and incorrect copies having got abroad, and a pirated edition of them being either published or preparing for publication in Ireland, the learned lecturer thought proper to print a correct edition himself, and in November 1765 published the first volume, under the title of Commentaries on the Laws of England The remaining parts of this admirable work were given to the world in the course of the four succeeding years, lt ought to be remarked, that before this period the reputation which his lectures had deservedly acquired for him had induced him to resume his practice in Westminster Hall; and, contrary to the general order of the profession, he who had quitted the bar for an academic life, was sent back from the college to the bar with a considerable increase of business. He was likewise elected into parliament, first for Hindon, and afterwards for Westbury in Wilts; but in neither of these departments did he equal the expectations which his writings had raised. The part he took in the Middlesex election drew upon him the attacks of some persons of ability in the senate, and likewise a severe animadversion by one of the keenest polemical writers of that day, we mean Junius. This circumstance probably strengthened the aversion he professed to parliamentary attendance; “where,” he said, “amidst the rage of contending parties, a man of moderation must expect to meet with no quarter from any side.” When, on the resignation of Mr Dunning in 1770, he was offered the place of solicitor-general, he refused that office; but shortly afterwards, on the promotion of Sir Joseph Yates to a seat in the court of Common Pleas, he accepted a seat on the bench, and by the death of Sir Joseph succeeded him there also. This eminent and valuable man died on the 14th of February 1780, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.