Washington Irving, while at a post at the Court of St. James's, wrote to his superiors in Washington D.C. requesting information on Blackford and reported that "Blackford's Reports" were well known in Westminster and regularly used by the judiciary, and Irving compared him to the William Blackstone. The attribution stuck with Blackford, and earned him the nickname "Indiana Blackstone." His reports by then had become a staple in law schools and a necessity in most law firms in the United States.