William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century

374 Pages·2008·2.07 MB·English

by  Wilfrid Prest

William Blackstone
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William
Blackstone
law and letters in
the eighteenth century
WILFRID PREST
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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© W. Prest, 2008
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First published 2008
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ISBN 978–0–19–955029–6
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To Sabina, with all my love
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Contents
acknowledgements ix
list of illustrations xi
abbreviations xv
1. Introduction 1
2. ‘A Young Man of Brilliant Parts’ (1723–38) 13
3. ‘Removed to the University’ (1738–43) 28
4. ‘Between the University and the Temple’ (1744–53) 52
5. ‘Advancing the Interests of the College’ (1744–53) 75
6. ‘Th e General Benefi t of the University at Large’ (1750–53) 96
7. ‘An Active, Enterprising Genius’ (1753–58) 119
8. ‘A More Public Scene’ (1758–61) 151
9. ‘Hopes of Advancement’ (1761–66) 183
10. ‘A Great and Able Lawyer’ (1761–69) 207
11. ‘Th is Temper of the Times’ (1768–70) 236
12. ‘At the Point He Always Wished For’ (1770–80) 259
13. ‘Useful and Agreeable’ (1770–80) 276
14. Conclusion 303
appendices 313
bibliography 317
index 339
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Acknowledgements
Th is book was written on the other side of the world from its archival and
manuscript sources. So I am more than usually indebted to those staff
of the various institutions listed in the Bibliography who not only made
my physical visits more productive than they could otherwise have been,
but also answered multiple emailed questions and supplied images of the
uniquely valuable material in their care. Closer to home, I gladly acknow-
ledge a continuing obligation to the dedicated and friendly personnel of the
University of Adelaide’s Barr Smith Library and Sir John Salmond Law
Library, the State Library of South Australia, and the National Library
of Australia, especially the Petherick Room. Funding as an Australian
Research Council Discovery Project, with additional support from the Law
School and the School of History and Politics of the University of Adelaide,
has among other things enabled me to benefi t from the research assistance
of Mark Bode, Irene Cassidy, Alasdair Hawkyard, Maaike Knottenbelt,
Matthew Kilburn, Martin McElroy, Vida Russell, and William Woods.
For all this I am exceedingly grateful, as I am for the support and encour-
agement of colleagues and friends over the years. It also seems proper to
acknowledge the enormous benefi ts conferred by the new digital tech-
nology, including the online scholarly databases which have revolution-
ized research in the humanities and social sciences, especially so far as this
book is concerned A2A (Access to Archives), ECCO (Eighteenth Century
Collections Online), the English Short Title Catalogue, and the Royal
Historical Society’s Bibliography of British History.
When I fi rst worked on Blackstone’s life at the National Humanities
Center some ten years ago, Eliza Robertson and Alan Tuttle helped me
accumulate an invaluable collection of references and photocopies. In
Oxford I have benefi ted immeasurably from bibliographical assistance
supplied by Penelope Bulloch and Alan Tadiello of the Balliol College
Library, Mary Clappinson and Mike Webb at the Bodleian Library, and
Norma Aubertin-Potter and Gaye Morgan of the Codrington Library. I
thank them most sincerely, as also those many other kind persons who
have helped me sort out various puzzles, or confi rmed that they are likely
to remain such: among them John Baker (University of Cambridge); Simon
Bailey and Alice Millea (Oxford University Archives); Paul Brand (All
Souls College, Oxford); Celia Charlton (Inner Temple); Sarah Charlton
(Buckinghamshire Record Offi ce); Morris Cohen, John Langbein, Simon