The Lillian Goldman Law Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of a four-volume set of lecture notes kept by James Hammond, a Maryland student attending William Blackstone’s lectures at All Soul’s, Oxford, in 1758.
James Hammond had studied at the Middle Temple in London before matriculating at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1758, when Hammond attended Blackstone’s course of lectures, Blackstone had recently been appointed the first Vinerian Professor of Common Law. Blackstone’s private course of lectures, first offered at All Soul’s in 1753, represented the first formal instruction in English common law and served as the basis of his Analysis of the Laws of England (1756), a syllabus of the course of lectures, and his monumental Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769).
In 1760, Hammond returned to Maryland, where he practiced law, served in political office, and taught apprentices in his law practice, including Samuel Chase, later signer of the Declaration of Independence and Supreme Court Justice. Hammond’s set of lecture notes was retained by the family until its sale this January to the Yale Law Library. The acquisition represents a rare surviving witness to Blackstone’s formative lectures on the common law, as observed by an American student. As a new addition to the scholarly record of Blackstone’s lectures, the acquisition contributes to the Lillian Goldman Law Library’s world-renowned collection of works by or relating to Blackstone, and opens opportunities for new research on the influence of Blackstone’s lectures on an American audience.
