80 B L A 
lie carrieth in his hand. He is called in the Black Book, 
fol. 255, Later virgce nigra;, & hojliarius ; and in other 
places, virgce bajulus. His duty is ad portanduin virgam 
coram domino regc ad'fcjlum fandi Georgii infra cajlrum de 
Windfore : and he hath the keeping of the chapter-houfe 
door, when a chapter of the order of the garter is fitting; 
and, in the time of parliament, he attends on the houfeof 
peers. His habit is like that of the regifter of the order, 
and garter king at arms ; but this he wears only at the 
folemn times of the feftival of St. George, and on the 
holding of chapters. The black rod he bears is inltead 
of a mace, and hath the fame authority ; and this officer 
hath anciently been made by letters patent under the great 
fea!, he having great power; for to his cuftody all peers, 
called in queftion for any crime, are firft committed. 
BLACK SEA, or Euxine Sea, an inland fea, or large 
lake, partly in Europe, and partly in Alia ; bounded on 
the north by the Ruffian governments of Ekaterinollav and 
Caucafus, on the ealt by Mingrelia and Georgia ; on the 
fout'h by Natolia, and on the weft by European Turkey. 
The Turks would not fufier any Europeans to navigate 
this fea ; but, by a treaty with Ruffia in 1774, they were 
obliged to permit a free paft'age for veflels of that nation 
to pafs by the ftraits into the Mediterranean, and return 
by the fame route. The navigation is faid to be dangerous ; 
perhaps Ikilful mariners would not think fo. There are 
but few good harbours. Lat. 40. 30. to 46. 20. N. Ion. 
45. 30. to 59. E. Ferro. 
BLACK-SHEEP,yi in the Oriental hiftory, the enfign 
or ftandard of a race of Turkmans fettled in Armenia and 
Mefopotamia-, hence called the dynajly of the black Jhecp. 
BLACK'SMITH, f. [from black and fmitk.~\ A fmith 
that works in iron ; fo called from being very black and 
I’m u tty. 
BLACK'SOD BAY, a bay of the Atlantic, on the weft 
coaft of Ireland, between the Muller and the main land 
of the county of Galway. Lat. 54. 7. N. Ion. 9. 48. W. 
Greenwich. 
BLACK'SOD POINT, a cape of Ireland, at the fouth- 
erh extremity of the Mullet, in the county of Mayo, at 
the entrance into Blackfod Bay. Lat. 54. 6. N. Ion. 9. 
£2. W. Greenwich. 
BLACK-STAIRS, a mountain of Ireland, in the 
-county of Carlow : nine miles weft of Ennilcorthy. 
BI.ACK'STONE (Sir William), an iliuftrious Englifh 
lawyer, born in Cheaplide, London, July 10, 1723. His 
father was a (ilkman ; his mother the daughter of Love- 
■lacp Bigg, Efq. of Chilton-Foliot, in Wiltlhire ; and he 
was the youngeft of four children. His father dying be¬ 
fore he was born, and his mother before he was twelve 
years old, the care of his education and fortune fell to his 
uncle, Mr. Thomas Bigg, a furgeon, in London. In 
173p, he was put to the Charter-hotife fchool ; and in No¬ 
vember, 1738, he was entered a commoner of Pembroke- 
college, Oxford, and elected by the governors to one of 
the Charter-houfe exhibitions. December 12, he (poke 
the annual oration at the fchool ; and, about the fame 
time, obtained Mr. Benlon’s gold prize-medal of Milton, 
for verfes on that poet. Purfuing his ftudies with unre¬ 
mitting ardour, and attending not only to his favourite 
dallies, but alfo to logic, mathematics, &c. at the age of 
twenty he compiled a treatife, intituled, Elements of Ar¬ 
chitecture; intended only for his own ufe, but much ap¬ 
proved by thofe who have pent fed it. Quitting, how¬ 
ever, with regret, thefe amuling purfuits, he engaged in 
the feverer ftudies of the law ; which regret he elegantly 
exprelfed in a copy of verfes, called The Lawyer’s Fare¬ 
well to his Mule ; lince printed in vol. iv. of Dodiley’s. 
Mifcellanies. Several little poetical pieces he has alfo 
left unpublilhed ; and his notes on Shakefpeare, inferted 
in Mr. Malone’s fupplement to the lalt edition, (hew how 
■well he underftood, as well as reliffied, that author. 
November, 1740, he was entered of the Middle Tem¬ 
ple; November, 1743, eledted into All Souls college ; No¬ 
vember, 1744, 1'poke the annual commemoration-fpeech, 
3 
B L A 
and was admitted aCtual fellow. Henceforward he divided 
his time between the Uriiverfity and the Temple. June, 
1745, he commenced bachelor of law; and, November, 
1746, was called to the bar. . As a counfel, he made his 
way but flowly, not having a flow of elocution, or a 
graceful delivery ; but at Oxford, as aburfar, he arranged 
their muniments, and improved their eftates ; haftened 
the completion of the Codrington library, and greatly dil- 
tinguifhed himfelf as a man of bufinefs, as well as a man 
of letters. In 1749, he was eleCted recorder of the bo¬ 
rough of Wallingford, in Berklhire. April, 1750, he 
became LL.D. and publilhed An Eflay on collateral Con- 
fanguinity, relative to the exclulive claim to fellowfliips, 
made by the founder’s kin at All Souls. The profits of 
his proteflion being inadequate to the expence, lie deter¬ 
mined, in 1753, to retire to his fellowfhip ; ftill continuing 
to pradlife as a provincial counfel. Soon after, he began to 
read his leCtnres on the laws of England ; publifhing, in 
1755, his Analyfis of thefe laws, as a guide to his audi¬ 
tors, on their firft introduction to this ftudy. His Con- 
fiderations on Copyholders was publilhed in March, 1758; 
’and a bill, to decide the controverted point of their voting, 
foon after pafted into a law. October 20, 1758, he was 
unanimoufly elected Vinerian profelfor of the common 
law ; and, on the 25th, read his introductory lecture, fince 
prefixed to his Commentaries. In 1759, he publifhed Re¬ 
flections on the Opinions of Melfrs. Pratt, Moreton, and 
Wilbraham, relating to Lord Litchfield’s Difqualification, 
who was then a candidate for the chancellorlhip; and a 
Cafe for the Opinion of Counfel, on the Right of the Uni- 
verfity to make new Statutes. Michaelmas term, 1759, 
having previoufly bought chambers in the Temple, he re¬ 
fumed ilis attendance at Weltminfter ; ftill continuing to 
read his lectures at Oxford. November following, he 
publilhed a new edition of the Great Charter, and Char¬ 
ter of the Forelt, wherein he proved himfelf an antiquary 
and hiftorian, as well as a lawyer; and, about the fame 
time, a final! treatife on the Law of Defcents in Fee-fim- 
ple. March, 1761, he was returned to parliament for 
Hindon, in Wiltlhire ; and in May had a patent of pre¬ 
cedence granted him to rank as king’s counfel, having 
before declined the chief jufticelhip of the court of com¬ 
mon pleas in Ireland. May, 1761, he married Sarah, the 
daughter of James Clitherow, Efq. of Bofton Houle, in 
Middlefex ; with whom he lived near nineteen years, and 
left feven children by her. 
His fellowfhip of All Souls thus becoming vacant, he 
was, in June, 1761, appointed by the chancellor of the 
univerlity principal of New-Inn Hall. In 1762, he col¬ 
lected and repubiilhed feveral of his pieces, under the 
title of Law Tracts, in two volumes, 8vo. In 1763, he 
was cliolen folicitor-general to the queen, and a bencher 
of the Middle Temple. November, 1764, he publilhed 
the firft volume of his ledtures, under the title of Com¬ 
mentaries on the Laws of England ; and, in the four 
fucceeding years, the other three volumes. In 1766, he 
religned the Vinerian profellurfhip, and the principality of 
New-lnn Hall ; thefe fituations being incompatible with 
his profeffional attendance in London. In the parliament, 
cholen in 1768, he was returned burgefs for Weftbury, in 
Wiltlhire. In the courfe of this parliament, what he (aid 
in the debate on the queftion concerning Wilkes, in the 
affair of the Middlefex eledtion, Whether a member ex¬ 
pelled was eligible or not in the fame.parliament ? being 
deemed by fiome contradidlory to what he had laid down 
on the fame fubjedt in his Commentaries, he was warmly 
attacked in a pamphlet, fuppofed to be written by another 
member, a baronet. Dr. Prieftley and Dr. Furneaux alfo 
animadverted on lome politions in the lame work, relative 
to offences againft the dodtrine of the eftabiilhed church ; 
to both of whom he replied. But the molt formidable 
obiedtions are difplayed in a work intituled, A Fragment 
on Government ; being an examination of what is de¬ 
livered on the fubject of government in general, in the 
introdudtion to Sir William Blackftone’s Commentaries : 
with 
