Richard_Bland_(burgess)

Richard Bland (burgess)

Richard Bland (burgess)

Virginia planter


Richard Bland I (August 11, 1665 April 1720),[nb 1] sometimes known as Richard Bland of Jordan's Point,[nb 2] was a Virginia planter and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses,[3] and the father of Founding Father Richard Bland.[4][5]

Quick Facts Burgesses representing Charles City County, Preceded by ...

Early and family life

Coat of Arms of Richard Bland

The son of Theodorick Bland of Westover,[4] and his wife Anna Bennett, the daughter of Governor Richard Bennett.[2][4][6][nb 3], Bland was born into the First Families of Virginia. His maternal grandfather Richard Bennett was the first elected Governor of the Colony of Virginia, during the English Commonwealth period.[4] His brothers were the surveyor Theodorick Bland and John Bland, who was the great-grandfather of Chancellor Theodorick Bland of Maryland.[1]

Bland married Mary Swan, the daughter of councillor Thomas Swann who bore seven children, none of whom reached adulthood.[2] After his first wife died in September 1700, the widower remarried on February 11, 1701/02, to Elizabeth Randolph, the daughter of William Randolph, who bore five children before she too predeceased Bland:[2]

Bland's many notable descendants, in addition to his son and namesake, include Roger Atkinson Pryor[10] and Joseph Pembroke Thom, a Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates.[3]

Career

Bland operated plantations using enslaved labor. He was also a county commissioner of Charles City County and later Prince George County, a member of the founding Board of Visitors of The College of William & Mary,[3] and is noted in the church records as a member of the Vestry of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, which authorized in 1710 the building of the present Church structure.

When his father died in 1671, Bland's elder brother, Theodorick inherited Westover Plantation and legally joined Richard in its ownership.[11] The brothers eventually conveyed 1,200 acres of the Westover Plantation lands in Charles City County to William Byrd I in 1688 for £300 and 10,000 pounds of tobacco and cask.[5] Richard Bland then established the Jordan's Point Plantation across the James River in Prince George County, where he died in 1720.[12]

Death and legacy

Preceding her husband in death, Elizabeth Randolph Bland died January 1720.[1][2]

Ancestry

More information Ancestors of Richard Bland (burgess) ...

Notes

  1. The specific date of death has been given as April 6, 1720,[1] April 10, 1720,[2] and April 11, 1720.[3]
  2. Richard Bland's son, Richard Bland, is also referred to in some sources as Richard Bland of Jordan's Point.
  3. Some references spell Anna Bennett's name as "Anne".[2]
  4. Reports differ regarding the names or number of subsequent wives. According to Earl Gregg Swem, Bland's second wife was Elizabeth Harrison but notes that other accounts said she was Elizabeth Bolling, the daughter of John Bolling Jr. and Elizabeth Blair.[4] Tyler initially reported that Martha Massie married Theodrick Bland after the death of William Massie.[9]

References

  1. Hunter, Joseph (1895). "Bland". In Clay, John W. (ed.). Familiae Minorum Gentium. Vol. II. London: The Harleian Society. pp. 421–427.
  2. Bland, Theodorick (1840). "Appendix". In Campbell, Charles (ed.). The Bland papers: Being a Selection from the Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland Jr. of Prince George County Virginia. Vol. I. Petersburg, Virginia: Edmund & Julian C. Ruffin. pp. 145–149.
  3. Bland, Richard (1922) [1766]. "Introduction". In Swem, Earl Gregg (ed.). An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies. Richmond, Virginia: William Parks Club Publications. p. V.
  4. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915). "Fathers of the Revolution". Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Vol. II. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.
  5. Gundersen, Joan. "Anna Bennett Bland (d. 1687)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  6. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915). "Burgesses and Other Prominent Persons". Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Vol. I. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 286.
  7. Sons of the American Revolution (1894). "Roll of Members". Yearbook. The Republic Press. p. 198.
  8. Tyler, Lyon G. (January 1896). "Title of Westover". William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. 4 (3): 151–155. doi:10.2307/1914946. JSTOR 1914946. Retrieved December 11, 2010.
  9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-18. Retrieved 2013-04-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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