No, not Thomas Jefferson. It was St. George Tucker. Tucker was one of the most influential jurists and legal scholars in the United States during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He served as judge on three different courts in Virginia: the General Court (1788-1804), the Virginia Court of Appeals (1804-1811) and the federal district court for the eastern district of Virginia (1813-1825). In addition to his work as a jurist, Tucker was an important legal scholar and educator. From 1788 until 1804, Tucker taught law at the College of William and Mary, carrying out his teaching duties between court terms. Perhaps Tucker’s most significant contribution was his 1803 publication of a new, five-volume edition of William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. Dubbed the “American Blackstone,” it was the first major treatise on American law and included Tucker’s law lectures, which were the first systematic effort to describe the contours of the American legal system as it had been shaped by the American Revolution, the United States Constitution and state constitutions (particularly the Virginia constitution).
Further Reading:
Charles T. Cullen, St. George Tucker and Law in Virginia, 1772-1804 (1987)
This Vignette Provided By
Davison M. Douglas, Arthur B. Hanson Professor of Law, William and Mary School of Law
On July 31 2009 Thomas T. Hay said: @ 11:21 am
Any mention of early Virginia law treatises should mention George Webb’s Office and Authority of the Justice of the Peace Williamsburg 1736 and Richard Starke’s similiarly titled manual for JPs printed in 1774. Thomas T. Hay(Quote)