• General Notes

  Christening:  16 Jan 1629/30 
  Place:   St Antholin,parish,London,England
  Buried:  in Westover, Charles City, Va.
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  Note:
  From Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, ed., Vol. I, p. 129, originally published 1915, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., reprinted 1998 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore:
  "Bland, Theodorick, the ninth son of John Bland, an eminent merchant of London and member of the Virginia Company, was born on Jan. 16, 1629. He was a merchant at St. Lucar Spain, in 1646, at the Canary Islands in 1647-48, and came to Virginia in 1654 as the representative of his father, who had large interests in the colony. He settled at Berkeley Hundred, Charles City county, and in 1659-60 he represented Henrico in the house of burgesses, of which he was the speaker. By instructions from England, dated Sept. 2, 1662, the act passed by the assembly, imposing two shillings per hogshead on all tobacco from Virginia, was confirmed and 'Theodorick Bland, Esq.' was appointed collector of the same. A few years later Bland was appointed a member of the council, and was present June 21, 1665, July 10, 1666, and March and April, 1670. On April 17, 1665, Theodorick Bland bought 'Westover,' Charles City county an estate of 1,200 acres, for £170 sterling. His grandson, Richard Bland of 'Jordan's,' who says that his grandfather was 'both in fortune and understanding, inferior to no person of his time in the country,' also says that he built and gave to the county and parish the church at Westover, 'with ten acres of land, a courthouse and prison.' This may have been so, but it is more likely that he only gave the land. The worthy coucillor died on April 23, 1671, and was buried in the chancel of Westover church. The church has long since disappeared but the tomb remains with his arms and the following epitaph:
  S.M.
  'Prudentis & Eruditi Theodorici
  Bland Armig. qui obijt Aprilis
  23d A. D. 1671 Aetatis 41
  Cujus Vidua Maestissima Anna
  Filia Richard Bennett Armig:
  hoc Marmor Posuit.'
  
  Theodorick Bland married Anne, daughter of Gov. Richard Bennett. She married secondly, Col. St. Ledger Codd, and died Nov. 1687, at Wharton's Creek. Maryland. He was ancestor of Richard Bland, the great Virginia patriot of 1776."
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  From "Extracts on the Bland Family from Bishop Meade," published 1858, p. 444
  
  "From the genealogy of the Blands preserved at Jordans, we take a few extracts, sufficient to comply with the character of these sketches, - their religious character. It is an old and highly respectable English family. I leave it to others to speak of the gallant conduct and fatal end of Giles Bland in Bacon's rebellion, and begin with Theodoric Bland, who settled at Westover, in Charles City, in 1654 and died in 1671. He was buried in the chancel of the church, which church he built and gave it, with ten acres of land, a court house and prison, for the county and parish. His tomb is now to be seen in old Westover grave and, lying between those of two of his friends, William Perry and Walter Aston. The church is fallen down. He was one of the King's Council for Virginia, and was both in fortune and understanding inferior to none in the Colony. He left three sons,- Theodoric, Richard and John."
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  From "Old Virginia Houses Along the James," by Emmie Ferguson Farrar, Hastings House Publisher, New York, 1957:
  
  "Captain Samuel Jordan came to Virginia in 1609, which was just before the 'starving time.' He patented 450 acres of land just below the confluence of the Appotomattox and the James and called his plantation Jordan's Jorney, or Beggar's Bush. The same year (1619) he represented his own and neighboring plantations in the first House of Burgesses. When the Indian Massacre occurred in 1622, Jordan's Jorney and all its inhabitants were saved. He gathered his neighbors into his home 'where he fortified and lived in spite of the enemy.' Burgess Jordan died the next year. On day of his burial Rev. Greville Pooley, who had conducted the services, proposed to his widow, who had been left alone to face the perils of the frontier with her children. She told him, since she would have to marry someone apparently, to be her protector, she would as soon it were he, but asked for time to think the matter over. She cautioned him not to cause a local scandal by talking about this premature proposal. But the overjoyed minister 'blabbed.' This incensed the young widow, and when he later repeated his proposal, she remained silent. Soon after she became engaged to Col. Wm. Farrar. Pooley thereupon instituted the first American breach of promise suit. Finally Cecilly won out.
  
  At Jordon's Jorney, in 1676, the volunteers of Charles City County south of the James assembled to join in Bacon's Rebellion.
  
  For perhaps one hundred years Jordan's Jorney was the home of members of the Bland family. Richard Bland, an ardent patriot in the struggle against the British, owned it at the time of the Revolution. The old plantation house he would have occupied has long since vanished." [p. 136]
  
  From the same source:
  "Theodoric Bland was an ancestor of John Randolph of Roanoke. Bland is buried at the Old Westover Church at Westover. Bland was a member of the King's Council, and at this time extablished a county seat for Charles City. He gave ten acres of land, a church, a court house, and a prison. Though born an English subject, had before coming to Westover been a Spanish Merchant." [p. 100]
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  From "The Descendants of Capt. Thomas Carter of 'Barford'", by Joseph Lyon Miller, M.D., in Virginia State Library, p. 74:
  
  "Theodoric Bland, baptized at St. Antholin's, Jan. 16, 1629, died at Westover, Va., April 23, 1671, is the ancestor of the Virginia Blands. He was a merchant at Luars, Spain, with his brother Edward, when he came to Virginia in 1654. Here he purchased and settled the now famous James River plantation, 'Westover,' and gave for the use of the county and parish, ten acres of ground on which he had built a courthouse, prison and church, known as 'Westover Church,' in the chancel of which he is buried. He was speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1659-61; member of the Council in 1665, and Campbell and Mead say that 'he was in fortune and undertanding inferior to none in the colony.' He married Anne, daughter of Col. Richard Bennett of Weyanloke and Kiccotan, who was a member of the House of Burgesses as early as 1629, member of the Council in 1639, and elected Governor by the House in 1652. [Under Cromwell] Died in Virginia in 1675. Mrs. Bland died at Wharton Creek, Md., in 1687. They had issue: Theodorick, Jr., of 'Westover,' member of the Council, died in 1702; Richard of 'Jordon's Point, abd John. Richard Bland, born at Berkely in 1665, died at Jordon's Point, April 6, 1720; was a merchant and planter, member of the House of Burgesses in 1700-1702, and '06, etc. He married (1) Mary, daughter of Col. Thomas Swann of "Swann's Point," Surry County, and had issue six children, all of whom, Mr. Slaughter says, died young; (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Col. William Randolph of 'Turkey Island,' founder of the distinguished Randolph family of Virginia. Mrs. Elizabeth R. Bland died Jan. 22, 1719, leaving five children: Mary, married Henry Lee of 'Lee Hall,' Westmoreland; Elizabeth, married William Beverley of 'Blandfield,' Essex; Richard, Jr., of Jordan's Point; Anne married Capt. Robert Munford; and Theodorick of 'Cawsons' and 'Kippax,' ancestor of John Randolph of Roanoke."
  ______________________________________________________________ref: "Burke's American Families with British Ancestory," pg 2992, book held in Willard Library, RGH REF 929.2 Burk
  
  "...Theodoric Bland, son of John Bland (b. 1573, d. 1632), merchant of the City of London, left England and settled at Westover, Virginia, ca. 1654, where he received a grant from the crown of about 20,000 acres; Burgess and Speaker 1659-1660; member of council 1664-1665, b. 1629; m. Anne Bennett, and d. 1671, leaving issue,Richard Bland, member of the House of Burgess, b. 1665; m. 2ndly, Elizabeth, dau. of Col. William Randolph, and d. 1720, leaving issue,
  1. Richard Bland, of whom presently.
  2. Theodoric, great grandfather of John Randolph, of Roanoke
  3. Mary, m. Lieut-Col Henry Lee, by whom she had issue, Lieut-Col Henry Lee, father of Major-Gen Henry Lee, whose son was Robert E. Lee, the celebrated Confederate General.
  
  The elder son, Richard Bland, Burgess, Member Virginia Convention and Committee of Safety, Delegate Philadelphia Congress, b. 1710, m. 1729, Anne, dau. of Peter Poythress of "Fleur de Hundred," and d. 1776, leaving issue, a son, Peter Bland, who was the father of Richard Edward Bland, who left issue, a son, John Randolph Bland, m. Maria Harden, and had issue,
  * Richard Howard (Bland), of whom we treat
  * a dau, m. *William Wallace Symington, of St. George's Road, Baltimore..."
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  ref: "Through Centuries Three" by Squires
  
  pg 171
  "William Claiborne continued as secretary of State and Theodoric Bland was elected Speaker of the Burgesses.
  Theodoric, the first of the Blands(2), was now a man of thirty (born in London, January 16, 1630). He came to Virginia in 1654 and married Anne, daughter of Governor Richard Bennett. Claiborne and Bland were pronounced Puritans..."
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  From the notes of Elizabeth Brown Stuart:
  
  "Theodorick Bland established the estate of Westover on James River where he is buried. Married Anne Bennett, daughter of Richard Bennett, Gov. of the Colony. Theodorick's son, Richard I, moved to Jordan's Point in Prince George Co.; married twice, 2nd wife Elizabeth Randolph, daughter of Col. Wm. Randolph of Turkey Island. 'Westover' is now open to visitors (garden only, I believe) and is never mentioned as being estate of Theod. Bland. I wrote Va. Library concerning this -- they sent book confirming it was sold to Byrd family by Theo. Bland."
  
  

Details of Theodorick 's family with Anne  BENNETT