Study , where Blackstone studied There are few surviving records of Blackstone's undergraduate term at Oxford, but the curriculum of Pembroke College had been set out in 1624, and
Wilfrid Prest notes that it was probably still followed in 1738, so Blackstone would have studied
Greek, science, logic, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, geography and poetry. Blackstone was particularly good at Greek, mathematics, and poetry, with his notes on
William Shakespeare being included in
George Steevens' 1781 edition of Shakespeare's plays. The last element is understandable, given his family's theological interests, but the more surprising element is the sheer number of texts he owned, given his relative poverty as a student. On 9 July 1740, after only a year and a half as a Bachelor of Arts student, Blackstone was admitted to study for a
Bachelor of Civil Law degree, civil law being the only legal area recognised by his university. This degree course was seven years long, the first two "supposedly devoted to a broad course of reading in humane studies", which allowed him to study his own interests. On 20 November 1741 he was admitted to the
Middle Temple, the first step on the road to becoming a
barrister, but this imposed no obligations and simply allowed a legal career to be an option. At the time there was no proper legal education system, and Blackstone read (in his own time)
Coke on Littleton, the works of
Henry Finch, and related legal tracts. In addition to his formal studies, Blackstone published a collection of poetry which included the draft version of
The Lawyer to his Muse, his most famous literary work. In 1743, he published Elements of Architecture
and An Abridgement of Architecture, two treatises on the rules governing the art of construction. His next work (1747) was
The Pantheon: A Vision, an anonymously published book of poetry covering the various religions in the world. It depicts a narrator's walking dream through the buildings of various religions, which are all (other than Christianity) depicted in a negative light. This followed his election as a
Fellow of
All Souls College, Oxford on 2 November 1743, and his
call to the Bar by the Middle Temple on 28 November 1746. His call to the Bar saw Blackstone begin to alternate between Oxford and London, occupying chambers in
Pump Court but living at
All Souls College. As the central courts only sat for three months of the year, the rest of his time was spent on
Assize when his work at All Souls permitted. He regularly acted as a law reporter; his personal notes on cases start with
Hankey v Trotman (1746). Blackstone's barrister practice began slowly; his first case in the
Court of King's Bench was in 1748(as approx ), and he had only 6 additional motions there through 1751. Two appearances in the
Court of Chancery are also noted, and he is known to have been consulted in
Roger Newdigate's long-running lawsuit there, but his early court appearances are infrequent. This is considered to have been due to his call to the Bar occurring at the same time as the massive contraction in business by the central courts, along with his singular lack of connections due to his status as an orphan from the middle class; he was described as "unrecognised and unemployed". He filled his time by acting as counsel for Oxford, and from May 1749 with his election as
Recorder of
Wallingford.
University administration '', Blackstone's first legal treatise, published during this period While dividing his time, Blackstone became an administrator at All Souls, securing appointment as accountant, treasurer and
bursar on 28 November 1746. Completion of the Codrington Library and Warton Building, first started in 1710 and 1720 respectively but not built until 1748, is attributed to his work. In 1749 he became Steward of the Manors, and in 1750 was made Senior Bursar. Records show a "perfectionist zeal" in organising the estates and finances of All Souls, and Blackstone was noted for massively simplifying the complex accounting system used by the college. In 1750 Blackstone completed his first legal tract,
An Essay on Collateral Consanguinity, which dealt with those claiming a familial tie to the founder or All Souls in an attempt to gain preeminence in elections. Completion of his
Doctor of Civil Law degree, which he was awarded in April 1750, admitted him to
Convocation, the governing body of Oxford, which elected the two
burgesses who represented it in the House of Commons, along with most of the university officers. With this and with his continuing work at the university, Blackstone announced on 3 July 1753 his intentions to "no longer attend the Courts at Westminster, but to pursue my Profession in a Way more agreeable to me in all respects, by residing at Oxford [and] to engraft upon this Resolution a Scheme which I am told may be beneficial to the University as well as myself", which was to give a set of lectures on the common law – the first lectures of that sort in the world. This was not entirely out of benevolence; according to Prest, Blackstone was likely aware that an Oxford alumnus,
Charles Viner, was planning to endow a professorship of English law. The
Regius Professorship of Civil Law had also become vacant in 1753; despite support from
Lord Mansfield, Blackstone had been rejected in favour of Robert Jenner, widely considered Blackstone's lesser intellectually but a far greater political mind. In addition, a private lecture series would be extremely lucrative. While his All Souls fellowship gave him £70 a year, records show that the lecture series brought him £116, £226 and £111 a year respectively from 1753 to 1755 – a total of £453 (£ in terms). A prospectus was issued on 23 June 1753, and with a class of approximately 20 students, the first set of lectures were completed by July 1754. Despite Blackstone's limited oratory skills and a speaking style described by
Jeremy Bentham as "formal, precise and affected", Blackstone's lectures were warmly appreciated. The second and third series were far more popular, partly due to the then unusual use of printed handouts and lists of suggested reading. No copies of these handouts exist, but
Alexander Popham, later a close friend of Blackstone, attended the lectures and made notes, which survive. These show Blackstone's attempts to reduce English law to a logical system, with the division of subjects later being the basis for his
Commentaries. Following his lecture series, Blackstone became more prominent in convocation and other university activities. Oxford and Cambridge at the time had a strange system of law; due to their unique natures, they had exclusive jurisdiction over both academics and students in a fashion which followed either the common law or their own customs, based on the civil law. With his appointment as assessor (or chief legal officer) of the Chancellor's Court, Blackstone became far more involved in the university's peculiar legal system, and records show him sitting between eight and ten times a year from 1753 to 1759, mainly dealing with small claims of debt. He also wrote a manual on the Court's practice, and through his position gained a large number of contacts and connections, as well as visibility, which aided his legal career significantly. This period also saw Blackstone write his last known piece of poetry,
Friendship: An Ode, in 1756. In 1756 Blackstone published the first of his full legal texts, the 200 page
An Analysis of the Laws of England. Published by the
Clarendon Press, the treatise was intended to demonstrate the "Order, and principal Divisions" of his lecture series, and a structured introduction to English law. Prest calls this "a marked advance on any previous introduction to English law ... including constitutional, civil and criminal law, public and private law, substantive law and procedure, as well as some introductory jurisprudential content". The initial print run of 1,000 copies almost immediately sold out, leading to the printing of three more 1,000-book lots over the next three years, which all sold out. A fifth edition was published in 1762, and a sixth, edited to take into account Blackstone's
Commentaries on the Laws of England, in 1771. Because of the success of the
Commentaries, Prest remarks that "relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to this work"; On 24 October he gave his first lecture, to "a crowded audience"; the text was soon printed and published as
A Discourse on the Study of the Law. The lecture was tremendously popular, being described as a "sensible, spirited and manly exhortation to the study of the law"; the initial print run sold out, necessitating the publication of another 1,000 copies, and it was used to preface later versions of the
Analysis and the first volume of the
Commentaries. Within the university, however, Blackstone was not as popular. As soon as the lecture series opened, an anonymously written open letter was published charging that Blackstone had "violated the Statutes of the University, by arbitrarily changing the Day appointed for reading his solemn Lectures". Blackstone suffered a
nervous breakdown soon after the first lecture, and on 24 November he launched a suit in the Chancellor's Court against "William Jackson of the City of Oxford Printer" for £500 damages, justified by Jackson "printing and publishing a scandalous Libel notoriously reflecting on the Character of him the said William Blackstone". Jackson had refused to reveal who ordered the anonymous pamphlet, leading to the suit, but it evidently did not proceed further. (1782–1837), an English
Whig politician, appears at the top of the page in this copy of the book. This suit, along with the struggle over the Vinerian Professorship and other controversies, damaged his reputation within the university, as evidenced by his failure to win election as
Vice Warden in April 1759, losing to John White. Prest attributes Blackstone's unpopularity to specific personality traits, saying his "determination...in pursuit of causes to which he committed himself could irritate as well as intimidate those of a more relaxed disposition. While quick to take offence at perceived slights on his own character and motives, he could also show surprising indifference to the effect his words and actions might have on others". This marked the beginning of his break with Oxford, which coincided with his growing influence outside the university. In 1759
Lord Bute,
Prince George's official tutor, requested copies of Blackstone's lectures, which he forwarded. Later that year Blackstone was paid £200 by the Prince, who became an "appreciative, loyal, and soon to be incomparably influential patron". This patronage, and Blackstone's purchase of a set of chambers in the
Inner Temple, also transferring to that Inn, were significant steps in his departure from Oxford. In 1759 Blackstone published another two works,
The Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest, with other authentic Instruments, described as a "major piece of pioneering scholarship" leading to Blackstone's election to the
Society of Antiquaries in February 1761, and
A Treatise on the Law of Descents in Fee Simple, which was later used, almost verbatim, as chapters 14 and 15 of the
Commentaries. ==London==