Blair was one of the best-trained jurists of his day. A famous legal scholar, he avoided the tumult of state politics, preferring to work behind the scenes. He was devoted to the idea of a permanent union of the newly independent states, and loyally supported fellow VirginiansJames Madison and George Washington at the Constitutional Convention. As a judge on the Virginia court of appeals and on the U.S. Supreme Court he influenced the interpretation of the Constitution in a number of important decisions. Contemporaries praised Blair for such personal strengths as gentleness and benevolence and for his ability to penetrate immediately to the heart of a legal question.
... [John Blair] died in Williamsburg, November 5, 1771, leaving by his wife Mary Monroe, daughter of Rev. John Monroe, a son John, member of the federal convention of 1787 and one of the first judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.
