Sir William Blackstone

Blackstone, Sir William (1723–80), English jurist, author of Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–69). Educated at Oxford, Blackstone was admitted to the bar in 1746 and in 1758 became the first holder of the new chair in English law at Oxford. The Commentaries, whose influence was considerable in the United States as well as England, forms a compendium of English law up to the 18th century.