John Blair Jr.

John Blair Jr.
College of William and Mary, Colony of Virginia
In office 1766-1770
Preceded by	Mann Page
Succeeded by	John Page
Personal details
Born	(1732-04-17)April 17, 1732 Williamsburg, Virginia, British America
Died	August 31, 1800(1800-08-31) (aged 68) Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Federalist
Parent	John Blair Sr. (father)
Education	College of William & Mary (BA) Middle Temple
Signature

John Blair Jr. (April 17, 1732 – August 31, 1800) was an American

Early life and education

John Blair was born in

As had his father, Blair attended William & Mary, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1754. In 1755, he went to London to study law at the Middle Temple.

Career

Returning home to practice law, Blair was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1757 and quickly thrust into public life. He began his public career shortly after the close of the French and Indian War with his election to the seat reserved for the College of William and Mary in the House of Burgesses (1766–1799). He went on to become clerk of the Governor's Council, the upper house of the colonial legislature (1770–1780).

Blair originally joined the moderate wing of the Patriot cause. He opposed Patrick Henry's extremist resolutions in protest of the Stamp Act, but the dissolution of the House of Burgesses by Parliament profoundly altered his views. In response to a series of taxes on the colonies passed by Parliament, Blair joined George Washington and others in 1770 and again in 1774 to draft nonimportation agreements which pledged their supporters to cease importing British goods until the taxes were repealed. In 1775, he reacted to the British Parliament's passage of the Intolerable Acts by joining those calling for a Continental Congress and pledging support for the people of Boston who were suffering economic hardship because of Parliament's actions.

When the

In 1786, the legislature, recognizing Blair's prestige as a jurist, appointed him Thomas Jefferson's successor on a committee revising the laws of Virginia. The following year, he was appointed as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.^[4]

On September 24, 1789, President George Washington nominated Blair for one of the five

Blair was a very active Freemason, and a Past Master of Williamsburg Lodge, involved in the formation of the first Grand Lodge of Virginia. The convention which was called to form the Grand Lodge was petitioned for by Williamsburg Lodge, and following their first meeting in 1777, Blair was elected the very first Grand Master of Freemasons in Virginia on October 13, 1778, in Williamsburg.^[7]

Personal life

He married his cousin, Jean Balfour Blair.^[4]

Death and legacy

Blair died in Williamsburg on August 31, 1800. He was buried at the Bruton Parish Churchyard in Williamsburg.^[4]

Blair Street in Madison, Wisconsin is named in his honor.^[8]

See also

• List of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• Jay Court

References

Further reading

• ISBN 0-19-506557-3
  .
• Cushman, Clare (2001). The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–1995 (2nd ed.). (
  ISBN 1-56802-126-7
  .
• Flanders, Henry. The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874 at Google Books.
• Frank, John P. (1995). Friedman, Leon; Israel, Fred L. (eds.). The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Chelsea House Publishers.
  ISBN 0-7910-1377-4
  .
• ISBN 0-19-505835-6
  .
• Martin, Fenton S.; Goehlert, Robert U. (1990). The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Books.
  ISBN 0-87187-554-3
  .
• Urofsky, Melvin I. (1994). The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 590.
  ISBN 0-8153-1176-1
  .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Blair, Jr..

• John Blair Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.