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Richard Bland (burgess)

Summary

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]

Richard Bland
Burgesses representing Charles City County
In office
1693–1694
Preceded byJohn Stith
Succeeded byThomas Chamberlain
Burgesses representing Charles City County
In office
1700–1704
Serving with Joseph Wynn, Joshua Winn, Drury Stith, Edward Hill
Preceded byRobert Bolling
Succeeded byBenjamin Harrison
Burgesses representing Prince George County
In office
1705–1706
Serving with Robert Bolling
Preceded byWilliam Harrison
Succeeded byJohn Hardiman
Personal details
BornAugust 11, 1665
London, England
DiedApril 1720
Jordan Point plantation, Prince George County, Virginia, English America
Spouse(s)Mary Swann
Elizabeth Randolph
Residence(s)Charles City County
Prince George County
OccupationPlanter, politician

Early and family life edit

 
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]

  • Mary Bland (born August 21, 1704), oldest daughter, married Henry Lee I and had four children, including Henry Lee II who was the father of Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee III and the grandfather of Robert E. Lee.[2][7]
  • Elizabeth Bland (born May 29, 1706), 2nd born daughter, married Colonel William Beverley, the son of Robert Beverley Jr.,[citation needed] and had four children.[2] The Beverleys were indirect lineal descendants of Pocahontas through their marriage to The Randolphs.
  • Anna Bland (born circa 1708), 3rd born daughter, married twice.[2] She had three children with her first husband, Robert Munford, and had two children with her second husband, George Currie.[2]
  • Theodorick Bland (born 2 December 1718), youngest son, married Frances Bolling, the daughter of Drury Bolling, and had five children, including Congressman Theodorick Bland.[2]
  • Richard Bland (born May 6, 1710), oldest son and heir, married Anne Poythress and had twelve children.[2][4] According to Lyon Gardiner Tyler, his second marriage was to Martha Macon and his third marriage was to Elizabeth Blair.[8][nb 4]

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 edit

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 edit

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

Ancestry edit

Notes edit

  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 edit

  1. ^ a b c Hunter, Joseph (1895). "Bland". In Clay, John W. (ed.). Familiae Minorum Gentium. Vol. II. London: The Harleian Society. pp. 421–427.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ a b c d Spencer, Richard Henry, ed. (1919). "Joseph Pembroke Thom, M.D.". Genealogical and Memorial Encyclopedia of the State of Maryland: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. New York: The American Historical Society. pp. 587–598.
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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.
  5. ^ a b Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915). "Fathers of the Revolution". Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Vol. II. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.
  6. ^ Gundersen, Joan. "Anna Bennett Bland (d. 1687)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  7. ^ Dillon, John Forrest, ed. (1903). "Introduction". John Marshall; life, character and judicial services as portrayed in the centenary and memorial addresses and proceedings throughout the United States on Marshall day, 1901, and in the classic orations of Binney, Story, Phelps, Waite and Rawle. Chicago: Callaghan & Company. pp. liv–lv. ISBN 9780722291474.
  8. ^ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1920). "Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine".
  9. ^ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner, ed. (1915). "Burgesses and Other Prominent Persons". Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography. Vol. I. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 286.
  10. ^ Sons of the American Revolution (1894). "Roll of Members". Yearbook. The Republic Press. p. 198.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ "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)

External links edit

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