Due to his Scottish education, Founding Father James Wilson offers a novel opportunity to investigate how Scottish thought influenced American legal instruction. Current research on Wilson lacks substantive discussion of his Scottish years, with most scholars simply noting similarities between Wilson’s writings and philosophical treatises of the Scottish Enlightenment. By reconstructing the nature of 18th century Scottish education as it relates to Wilson’s own background, this thesis explores the influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on Wilson’s practice of legal instruction at the College of Philadelphia in the late 18th century. This research will contribute to the understanding of the complex intellectual inheritance of the early American republic and challenge/further nuance contemporary perceptions of the American legal tradition as being solely influenced by British common law.