Theodorick Bland (January 16, 1629 – April 23, 1671), also known asTheodorick Bland of Westover, was a planter, merchant and politician incolonial Virginia who served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses, as well as in both houses of theVirginia General Assembly.^[1][2] The founder of the Bland family of Virginia, hisson and grandson of the same name also served in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Revolutionary War, and later descendants sharing the same name would become a federal judge and congressman.

Born inLondon, the ninth son of prominent merchant John Bland (1573-1632) and his wife Susan.^[2] Although his father died when he was a boy, his eldest brother John Bland (d. 1680) succeeded their father as head of the family's mercantile firm.^[1] His birth family included sixteen children.^[3] Bland received a private education appropriate to his class.

His father had been a member of theVirginia Company of London and Bland joined his family's business, becoming its agent inSpain and theCanary Islands while in his early twenties.^[4] He moved to the Virginia colony in 1653, to replace his brotherEdward, who had been the enterprise's Virginia factor, but died in 1652. Bland initially lived on the Berkeley Hundred (until 1665 as discussed below) and traded inCharles City County.^[2] Upon this man's death, as discussed below, his nephew Giles Bland emigrated to the Virginia colony to handle the family's Virginia estates and business, but was executed in 1677 for his part inBacon's Rebellion.^[1]

Meanwhile, in 1662, the Virginia General Assembly passed an export tax of 2 shillings per hogshead of tobacco, and Bland became its first collector.^[2]

In 1665, Englisman Sir John Pawlett, by deeds oflease and release, sold 1,200 acres known asWestover Plantation in Charles City County to Bland for £170, and Bland soon gave the county and fellow parishioners a church and ten acres of land.^[2] Herring Creek and Kimeges plantations also were in Charles City County, and marked by historical markers;^[5]Jordan's plantation was in King George County after Charles City County was divided in this man's lifetime. Bland later invested in real estate further upstream on the James, York andBlackwater rivers in the Tidewater region. Bland's will named his plantations as Bartletts, Kimeges, Herring Creek Mill, Jordans, Westeffer [sic], Upper Chipppoakes, Sunken Marsh, Basse's Choice, Lawne's Creek, and Bland also owned a house lot in the colonial capital at Jamestown.^[1] Lawne's Creek and Chippoakes plantations are in Surry County, as probably was Sunken Marsh. Basse's Choice plantation is in Isle of Wight County.^[6]

Charles City County voters first elected Bland as one of their representatives in the 1660House of Burgesses session, and fellow members elected him as theirSpeaker.^[7] Thus Bland presided over the legislature during the transition from the Cromwell Protectorate to the restored government ofCharles II, with Governor Berkeley after extensive negotiations accepting the legislature's offer to serve as interim governor until resolution of the English succession, and further agreeing to call the assembly into session at least every two years and not dissolve it without the house's consent, as well as to issue all writs in the assembly's name.^[1] During the next legislative session, Bland was not re-elected speaker and represented newly formedHenrico County.^[8] In 1664, Bland accepted promotion to the legislature's upper body, theGovernor's Council and resigned in 1671, shortly before his death.^[9] He also served as a justice of the peace for Charles City County through at least 1664, the justices of that day jointly administering the county in addition to their adjudicative duties.^[1]

Bland married Anna Bennett, the daughter of GovernorRichard Bennett and his heiress wife Mary Ann Utie (widow of the late burgessJohn Utie Sr.). They had three sons:^[3]

• Theodorick Bland (1663-1700); he married Margaret Mann and had two sons, John and Theodorick.^[10][3]
• Richard Bland (1665-1720); he married twice.^[10][3] His first wife Mary Swann, daughter of councillorThomas Swann, bore seven children, who all died as children.^[3] After Mary's death, Bland marriedElizabeth Randolph, the daughter of burgessWilliam Randolph I. The couple had five children includingRichard Bland II andTheodorick Bland of Cawsons.^[3]
• John Bland (born February 8, 1668); also married twice.^[10][3] He first married Mary Breckon, then remarried and had at least three children with his second wife, Elizabeth Dale: Richard, John (who was the grandfather of ChancellorTheodorick Bland), and Anna.^[10][3] John returned to England, settled in Scarborough, North Yorkshire and was responsible for the construction of Bland's Cliff.

Other Bland descendants includeRoger Atkinson Pryor.^[11]

Bland died at his Westover plantation in 1671 or 1672 and was buried in thechancel of the originalWestover Church (which he had built).^[3]

However, his financial affairs were not in order at his death, in part because of the transatlantic nature of the family's business, unresolved debts and his failure to distinguish his own property from that of the company which his brother headed in England. His widow, Ann, contacted his brother John and asked him to help settle the financial affairs. Instead, John Bland sent his son, Giles Bland, who proved sharp-tongued (antagonizing his aunt, Governor Berkeley and many others) and politically inept and was ultimately executed following his participation in Bacon's Rebellion. After John Bland died in 1680, his widow Sarah Bland then sailed to the Virginia colony to obtain redress. This man's widow Ann [what man?--suggested edit: replace "this man" with "Theodorick Bland", if correct], had powerful political connections, both through her father (a member of the Virginia Governor's Council, which was also the appellate body of the state legislature), as well as through her Utie half brothers. Furthermore, she had married the widowerSt. Ledger Codd, a lawyer and military officer responsible for constructing defenses of the Potomac River area and who had a plantation near the border ofLancaster andNorthumberland counties. Codd would briefly represent both counties in the House of Burgesses, but would flee to Maryland with his wife and family because of financial difficulties in Virginia (some probably related to this litigation), but later sat in both houses of the Maryland legislature. Virginia Governor Effingham used Sarah Bland's litigation to limit the judicial powers of the Virginia Governor's Counsil.^[12] Ann Bennett Bland Codd died at Wharton's Creek in Maryland in November, 1687.^[10][13] The"Bland family" became one of theFirst Families of Virginia, and his son and grandson of the same name would also sit in the Virginia General Assembly.Pursuant toprimogeniture, his eldest son,Theodorick, inherited Westover plantation. With his brother,Richard and a mixture of indentured and enslaved labor, he operated that plantation until 1688.^[2] In that year, the brothers sold their 1,200 acres toWilliam Byrd I for £300 and 10,000 pounds of tobacco and casks.^[2] A successorWestover Church (built 1730) is on theNational Register of Historic Places, although rebuilt outside the Westover plantation grounds. Bland remains buried in the graveyard nearWalter Aston and Captain William Perry.^[3][14]Some of the Bland family's papers are held by the Swem Library of theCollege of William and Mary. A selection of papers from his son Richard has been published.^[15]

• Theodorick Bland of Westover atFind a Grave
• Theodorick Bland atEncyclopedia Virginia

• 1629 births
• 1671 deaths
• Bland family (Virginia)
• Speakers of the Virginia House of Burgesses
• Virginia Governor's Council members
• Politicians from London
• English emigrants
• 17th-century American planters
• Merchants from colonial Virginia
• 17th-century American merchants
• English slave owners

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