Oil on canvas, 29 x 23 in, by Robbie L. Nurnberger, 1963
Location: courtroom foyer, right

Born November 1732 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Died August 31, 1800 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Elected by the General Assembly to the General Court in October 1777 and became a member, ex-officio, of the Court of Appeals when it met for the first time on August 30, 1779. Elected to the Court of Appeals when it was reorganized as a separate entity and began his service on that court on March 5, 1789. Service terminated by resignation.

Education:
College of William and Mary, A.B., 1754
Middle Temple, London, England, 1755-1756

Other judicial service:
Judge, General Court, 1777-1779 (chief judge, 1779).
Judge, High Court of Chancery, 1780.
Associate justice, U.S. Supreme Court, September 30, 1789-October 25, 1795.

Professional career:
Private practice of law in Williamsburg, Virginia, 1756-1789.
Burgess, Virginia House of Burgesses,1766-1771.
Clerk, Virginia Governor’s Council, 1771-1775.
Deputy auditor of the royal revenue in Virginia, 1771-1775.
Delegate, Virginia Convention, 1776.
Member, Virginia Governor’s Council, 1771-1775.
State delegate from Virginia, U.S. Constitutional Convention, 1787.
Delegate, Virginia Convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution, 1788.

Further reading/Research collections

Sources:
Appointed to the General Court, 4 Call (8 Va.), 633, 644; chief judge on the General Court, and judge, High Court of Chancery; birth and death, education and career, “Blair, John Jr. (1782-1800),” in the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, 1779-present, retrieved from the Federal Judicial Center on January 6, 2014; and Mark F. Fernandez, “John Blair, Jr. (1782-1800),” Dictionary of Virginia Biography (1998); see also J. Elliott Drinard, “John Blair, Jr., 1732-1800,” Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association, v. 39 (Richmond, Va.), 436-448; portrait, Library of Virginia catalog, Proceedings of the Seventy-Third Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association, July 1963 (Richmond: Keel-Williams Corporation, Printers, 1963), 111; and Proceedings, . . . July 1964, 131.