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Details
BLACKSTONE, Sir William (1723-1780). 2 autograph letters signed, addressed to the Earl of Shelburne, Winchester and Wallingford, 4 August and 9 October 1766, the first congratulating Shelburne on his appointment as Secretary of the Southern Department in the Pitt administration; the second asking for his intercession with the new Lord Chancellor to obtain a judgeship for Blackstone, 5 pages, 4to.
'Your Lordship is no Stranger to the Wishes I had formed, of sometime or other obtaining a Seat on the Bench, a Situation, for which my Friends flatter me that my Talents (if I have any) are better adapted than for the Bar; and to which my Rank in the Profession, and the Character in which I have the Honour to serve the Queen, make it no Presumption to aspire ... Upon the Vacancy made by the Promotion of Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, I have still held the same Conduct; not knowing how far the Engagements & Obligations of Government might be interested in the Chain of Removals which that Event might occasion. But since the Vacancy continues still open, I am now told I should be wanting to myself were I not to make a Tender of my Services on so fair an Occasion'. In the event Blackstone was not appointed a judge in the Court of Common Pleas until 9 February 1770.
Included with the lot are 4 pages, folio, containing a long poem, dated 1756, not autograph, but ascribed to Blackstone in an 18th-century hand. It is headed 'Frienship [sic] an Ode' and comprises 16 stanzas, comparable to a poem 'The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse', known to have been written by him and published by D.A.Lockmiller in Sir William Blackstone, 1938.
APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED. (3)
'Your Lordship is no Stranger to the Wishes I had formed, of sometime or other obtaining a Seat on the Bench, a Situation, for which my Friends flatter me that my Talents (if I have any) are better adapted than for the Bar; and to which my Rank in the Profession, and the Character in which I have the Honour to serve the Queen, make it no Presumption to aspire ... Upon the Vacancy made by the Promotion of Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, I have still held the same Conduct; not knowing how far the Engagements & Obligations of Government might be interested in the Chain of Removals which that Event might occasion. But since the Vacancy continues still open, I am now told I should be wanting to myself were I not to make a Tender of my Services on so fair an Occasion'. In the event Blackstone was not appointed a judge in the Court of Common Pleas until 9 February 1770.
Included with the lot are 4 pages, folio, containing a long poem, dated 1756, not autograph, but ascribed to Blackstone in an 18th-century hand. It is headed 'Frienship [sic] an Ode' and comprises 16 stanzas, comparable to a poem 'The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse', known to have been written by him and published by D.A.Lockmiller in Sir William Blackstone, 1938.
APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED. (3)