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The First Two Vinerian Professors: Blackstone And Chambers, Rupert Cross

William & Mary Law Review

This is the second in a series of four articles commemorating the bicentennial of American legal education, dating from the establishment of the first chair of law and police, occupied by George Wythe, at the College of William and Mary on December 4, 1779. The colonial antecedents to the College's formal relation to professional legal education may be traced to the career of Sir John Randolph, a student at William and Mary, 1705-1713, who then prepared for the bar at Gray's Inn, London (1715-1717). Randolph's two sons, Peyton ("The Patriot") and John ("The Tory") followed his example, first at the …