John Blair Jr. was born on April 17, 1732, in Williamsburg, Virginia, the son of John Blair Sr. and Mary Monro Blair. His father was a merchant, burgess, councilor, and acting governor; his great-uncle James Blair founded the College of William and Mary. John therefore grew up at the center of Virginia’s political, educational, and Anglican establishment. He attended the College of William and Mary and then studied law at the Middle Temple in London. This education provided classics, legal doctrine, constitutional history, and the professional connections expected of an elite colonial attorney. Returning to Williamsburg, he practiced law and inherited a strong tradition of public service. Blair married Jean Balfour, establishing a household within the capital’s interrelated professional society. He served in the House of Burgesses and held county and colonial offices. His family’s wealth and standing were linked to property and enslaved labor. The revolutionary crisis required Blair to decide whether institutions that had benefited his family could be reformed or replaced. He supported the Patriot cause and helped organize Virginia’s new government. His legal training made him particularly valuable in transforming revolutionary decisions into functioning courts. Before becoming a constitutional framer and United States Supreme Court justice, Blair had been shaped by Williamsburg privilege, an eminent father, William and Mary, English legal training, marriage, slavery, and long observation of colonial administration. He was less celebrated as an orator than many contemporaries because his strengths were learning, reliability, and judicial temperament. Those quiet habits were formed within the institutions his own family had helped build.