The family of Blackstone are publishing an elementary treatise on architecture, written by him in early life, and illustrated by drawings from his own pen.—J. A., D.
BLACKSTONE or BLAXTON, William, a puritan clergyman, the first European occupant of the ground which is now the city of Boston in New England. The time and place of his birth are not known; but he was educated at Emmanuel college, Cambridge, where he became A.B. in 1617, and A.M. in 1621. How he came to America is not ascertained. He may have been one of the company brought over by Gorges for his unsuccessful settlement at Wessagusset in 1623. When John Winthrop arrived, seven years afterwards, leading the company which founded the colony of Massachusetts, Blackstone was dwelling alone in a cottage, on a peninsula called by the Indians, Shawmut, a name soon changed to Boston. The sort of hermit life which he led there, without a wife or any other companion, and the mystery which covered his earlier years, caused some fables to be invented concerning him, which were handed down by tradition. One was, that he had tamed a bull, on which he used to ride round the peninsula, and even into the adjoining country. He was certainly a learned person, as he had a good stock of books, among which were eleven quarto or folio volumes in Latin. He was probably an eccentric recluse, who at an early age had conceived some disgust with the world. This conjecture is supported by his subsequent history, which proves that he sought entire seclusion from his fellows. At first he claimed the whole peninsula, on the ground that he was the first white man who had slept upon it. This the company, who claimed all the territory under their charter, would not allow; but at a court held April 1, 1633, it was agreed that Mr. William Blackstone shall have fifty acres of ground set out for him near to his house in Boston. This was at least a fourteenth part of the whole peninsula. The next year he sold back the greater part of this reservation to the other inhabitants for £30; and having purchased some cows with the money, he removed with them farther into the country, then a wilderness, in order that he might be alone once more. He established his new residence in what is now the town of Cumberland, Rhode Island, on the banks of the beautiful river which now bears his name. Here he lived a quiet life, cultivating his garden and orchard, and studying his books. His passion for solitude seems to have gradually abated, as we find that he was married, July 4, 1659, when he must have been over sixty years old, to Mrs. Sarah Stevenson of Boston. She bore him one son, who survived him. The old man died in May, 1675, just before the breaking out of Philip's war, and was buried on his own farm, where a large white stone still marks his grave. A passion for independence must have mingled with his love of solitude, for he is reported to have said, on quitting Boston, "I came from England because I did not like the lord-bishops; but I can't join with you, because I would not be under the lord-brethren."—F. B.
BLACKWALL, Anthony, a biblical critic of considerable note, born in Derbyshire in 1674. he was admitted sizar of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, 1690, and after taking his degree of M.A., 1698, became head-master of the free school of Derby, and lecturer of All-Hallows in that town. In 1722 he was appointed head-master of the free school of Market Bosworth; and in 1726 was presented by Sir H. Atkins, who had formerly been his pupil, to the rectory of Clapham, Surrey. This living he resigned in 1729, and returned to Bosworth, where he died in the following year. He is the author of a well known work, "The Sacred Classics Defended and Illustrated," the first volume of which appeared in 1725, and the second shortly after his death. His object in that scholarly and interesting treatise was to vindicate the sacred penmen from the charge of inelegance in respect of style, and to show that certain passages adduced as barbarisms, may be defended on classical authority.—J. S., G.
BLACKWELL, Alexander. See Blackwell, Elizabeth.
BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, was the wife of Dr. Blackwell, who was condemned for crimes of state, and suffered death on the scaffold in Sweden in 1747. Her husband was a native of Aberdeen, where he received the elements of his education. He seems to have taken the title of doctor of medicine at Leyden, and after attempting practice in Scotland, and subsequently leaving a practice in London, to have settled in Sweden. His wife was fond of botany, and had a genius for drawing and painting. During his difficulties she contrived to support herself by these accomplishments, and was enabled to liberate her husband from jail on one occasion, by paying his debts from the profits of her drawings. She was enabled to get fresh specimens of plants for delineation by the kindness of Mr. Rand, demonstrator in the Chelsea garden. After she had completed her drawings she engraved them on copper, and coloured the prints with her own hands. She published a work in 2 volumes, folio, entitled "Curious Herbal, containing 500 cuts of the most useful plants which are now used in the practice of physic, engraved on folio copperplates, after drawings taken from the life; to which is added, a short description of the plants, and their common uses in physic," 1737-1739. Her work was recommended by Dr. Mead, Dr. Sherard, and others, and was approved by the College of Physicians.—J. H. B.
BLACKWELL, George, an English Romanist, born in Middlesex in 1545, was educated at Oxford. He was M.A., and for some time fellow of Trinity college, but having embraced catholicism he resigned his fellowship, and retired to a Romish seminary on the continent. During a residence of some years at Rome, he became acquainted with Cardinal Bellarmine, and the celebrated jesuit, Robert Persons, by whose interest, when it had been determined at the Vatican to attempt a revival of the Romish hierarchy in England, he was appointed archpriest over the secular clergy, with power to settle, in conjunction with Garnet, provincial of the jesuits, the disputes which had arisen between that order and the seculars. His appointment, of which Cardinal Cajetan, recognized at Rome as protector of the English nation, was the instrument, embittered rather than quelled the dissensions of English Romanism. The seculars pronounced him a mere creature of the jesuits, and treated his pretensions, which, they said, were allowed by an individual cardinal, but not sanctioned by the pope, with the utmost contempt. They even appealed to Clement VIII., delegating two of their number to sue at Rome the deprivation of the archpriest, or, at least, the restriction of his powers. Persons received the deputies, treated them to the comforts of a prison until a bull had been prepared confirmatory of the archpriest's appointment, and then dismissed them. An appeal to the faculty of divines at Paris was the next resource of the seculars, and to this they betook themselves. The university of Paris decreed that the archpriest's conduct in charging the secular clergy with schism and sin was indefensible, but this ordinance was of no value in presence of the bull of April 6th, 1599. As soon as the latter was received in England, the refractory regulars duly submitted, but submission was too late for the irritable archpriest, who persisted in treating them as schismatics and sinners. A second appeal to the pope in 1600 resulted in a letter of admonition to the archpriest, in which he was recommended to milder courses, and a third, in 1602, was so far successful as to draw down on him the censure of the holy see for occasional excess in the exercise of his authority. This satisfied the seculars, and restored peace to the church. Blackwell's conduct during the agitated period of the Powder Plot was more honourable and independent than could have been augured from his former career. In a circular dated November 28, 1605, he denounced that conspiracy as "detestable and damnable, a most grievous offence to God, scandalous to the world, utterly unlawful in itself, and against God's express commandments." He took the oath of allegiance, enacted in consequence of the plot, and had the boldness to issue a pastoral letter maintaining its lawfulness. On this point, however, the archpriest found himself in opposition to the head of the church. Paul V., who, in successive briefs, condemned the oath as flat treason to the holy see, the deposing power of the pontiffs being stigmatized therein as impious and heretical. In 1607 Blackwell was apprehended for corresponding with his old friend Cardinal Bellarmine, and examined before a board of commissioners at Lambeth. An account of the trial was published shortly after, from which it would appear that his English feeling with respect to papal supremacy in matters temporal completely disarmed his judges. His last public act was to issue another letter recommendatory of the oath. He was superseded in 1608, and died suddenly in 1612.—J. S., G.
BLACKWELL, Thomas, brother of Alexander, principal of Marischal college, Aberdeen, born in that city in 1701, took his degree of M.A. in 1718; and in 1723, being then only 22 years of age, was appointed professor of Greek. His enthusiasm for the language and literature of Greece he was successful in communicating to several pupils, who afterwards became eminent; among others. Principal George Campbell, and Dr. James Beattie;
