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JOHN BLAIR,
JR., was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1732. He was
graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1754.
After one year of law study in England at the Middle Temple,
London, he returned to Virginia to practice law. Blair
began his public service in 1766 as a member of the Virginia
House of Burgesses. In 1770, he resigned from the House
to become Clerk of the Governor’s Council. Blair
was a delegate to the Virginia Convention of 1776, which
drafted the State Constitution. Blair became a Judge of
the Virginia General Court in 1777 and was elevated to
Chief Judge in 1779. From 1780 to 1789, he served as a
Judge of the First Virginia Court of Appeals. Blair was
a delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention of
1787 and was one of three Virginia delegates to sign the
Constitution. He was also a delegate to the Virginia Ratification
Convention of 1788. On September 24, 1789, President George
Washington nominated Blair one of the original Associate
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. The
Senate confirmed the appointment two days later. Blair
served five years on the Supreme Court. Citing the rigors
of circuit riding and ill health, he resigned on January
27, 1796, Blair died on August 31, 1800, at the age of
sixty-eight. |
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