Tucker, St. George | A key resource for understanding how Americans viewed English common law

Tucker, St. George

Blackstone's Commentaries: With Notes of Reference to the Constitutionvand Laws, of the Federal Government of the United States, And of the Commonwealth of Virginia... Philadelphia: Published by William Young Birch, and Abraham Small: Robert Carr, Printer, 1803

4 parts in 5 vols., 8vo (220 x 135 mm). Title-page to each volume, 4 tables, three of which folding; browning, foxing, scattered stains, some offsetting, marginalia in a contemporary hand to a few leaves. Bound to style in full brown calf, smooth spines with red and dark brown morocco lettering-pieces to each volume.

First edition. Tucker's Blackstone is a key resource for understanding how Americans viewed English common law in the years following the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Based on his lectures at the College of William and Mary, Tucker adapted Blackstone's often anti-democratic work to American practice. "Tucker's Blackstone became a standard reference work for many American lawyers unable to consult a law library, especially those on the frontier. It is impossible to measure its impact on American law, but it is clear that sales were strongest in Virginia, as could be expected; it was also widely used in Pennsylvania and South Carolina" (Bryson). More recently, Tucker's Blackstone has been cited in numerous constitutional cases by the United States Supreme Court relating to "original intent." 

REFERENCE:

Sabin 5696; Bryson, Legal Education in Virginia, 1779-1979: A Biographical Approach 102; Eller, The William Blackstone Collection in the Yale Law Library 87; Laeuchli, A Bibliographical Catalog of William Blackstone 137