Background
William Blackstone was born in 1595 in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. He was descended from a family of some distinction.
William Blackstone was born in 1595 in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. He was descended from a family of some distinction.
Attending Emmanuel College, Cambridge, William took the degrees of B. A. in 1617 and M. A. in 1621, and took orders in the Church of England.
About 1623 Blackstone came to Massachusetts and was the first settler to live on the land where Boston now stands. He continued there after the Puritan immigration but in April 1633 the new settlers limited him to fifty acres. Neither he nor the Puritans liked each other. It was enough for them that he was a Church of England man, and his own most famous remark is that he left England because he did not like the lord-bishops and would not now be under the lord-brethren.
In 1634 he decided to remove, sold his property, except six acres, and settled at Study Hill, as he called his place, in what is now Cumberland, about three miles from Pawtucket. Blackstone died May 26, 1675.
He was a man who has perhaps gained in interest from a certain mystery attaching to him. He lived the life of a recluse, was cultured and devoted to his library of 186 volumes, and at the same time was thoroughly at home with the Indians, whom he much preferred to the Bostonians. He planted the first orchards in Massachusetts and seems to have had some property. In King Philip's War, soon after his death, his house and library were burned.
William Blackstone founded the Blackstone Valley. A town bears his name, as do numerous parks and thoroughfares located in that valley. Blackstone is credited with creating the first American variety of apples. His 400th birthday was celebrated on March 5, 1995 as well as the 360th anniversary of the founding of the Blackstone Valley.
Blackstone is considered to be the pioneer clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States.
In 1659 Blackstone married Sarah, widow of John Stevenson of Boston, Endicott performing the ceremony. By her he had a son John. She died in June 1673.
