The New Student's Reference Work/Blackstone, Sir William

Blackstone, Sir William, an English commentator on law, was born in London in 1723, and after his college and law studies he began the practice of law. He was not at first successful, but, after delivering a course of lectures at Oxford on the law of England, was made professor of English law there Later he was made a king’s counsel, entered parliament, was appointed solicitor-general to the queen, was knighted, and finally appointed a justice of the court of common pleas. He published in four volumes his Oxford lectures, which form his celebrated Commentaries on the Law of England. He died in 1780.