Author of the Commentaries, great expositor of the common law
An eighteenth-century English jurist, remembered for his Commentaries on the Laws of England. Before him the sprawling, scattered English common law was hard to study systematically; he was the first to organize it into four clear, elegant, accessible volumes, so that ordinary people could grasp the principles and spirit of English law. The book was a hit not only in England but across the Atlantic in the American colonies — the founders of the United States nearly all owned a copy, drawing from it ideas of rights, property, and the rule of law. His book was the bridge by which Anglo-American common law spread to the world.
The Commentaries sold even better in America than in England. Around the Revolution, nearly every educated colonial lawyer and founding father is said to have had it on the shelf. Reading Blackstone’s account of the liberties of Englishmen, they used those very ideas to argue the justice of their revolt against England — an English law book became intellectual ammunition for American independence.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.