Richard Bland (May 6, 1710 – October 26, 1776), sometimes referred to as Richard Bland II or Richard Bland of Jordan's Point, was an American Founding Father, planter, lawyer and politician from Virginia. A cousin and early mentor of Thomas Jefferson, Bland served 34 years in the Virginia General Assembly, and with John Robinson and this man's cousin Peyton Randolph as one of the most influential and productive burgesses during the last quarter century of the colonial period.
In 1766, Bland wrote an influential pamphlet, An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, questioning the right of the British Parliament to impose taxes on colonists without their consent. He later served in the First Continental Congress where he signed the Continental Association, a trade embargo adopted in October 1774 in opposition to Parliament's so-called Intolerable Acts. Bland retired from the Second Continental Congress due to his age in August 1775, two months after the creation of the Continental Army. However, he remained active in Virginia politics and helped draft a constitution for the newly-formed state in June 1776. Bland was named to Virginia's House of Delegates when it was formed in October 1776, the same month as his death.
Early life and education
Born on May 6, 1710, to Elizabeth Randolph (1680–1720) (daughter of William Randolph), the second wife of prominent planter Richard Bland, he was born either at his father's main plantation on the James River called "Jordan's Point" or at the family's "Bland House" in Williamsburg. Both his mother and father were of the First Families of Virginia, intermarrying and wielding economic, social and political power in the colony for generations. His namesake, Theodorick Bland of Westover, had immigrated to the Virginia colony in 1654 after the death of his older brother Edward Bland, in order to manage the family's mercantile and shipping enterprises in Virginia. The eldest Theodorick established Berkeley Plantation and Westover Plantation on the James River, as well as the Bland house in Jamestown (the preceding colonial capitol), and served several terms in the House of Burgesses and was its speaker in 1660. He married Anna Bennett, the daughter of Virginia Governor Richard Bennett, who bore three sons: Theodorick Jr., Richard I (this man's father), and John.
As his family's second son in an age of primogeniture, Richard Bland I moved further upstream on the James River and started his own plantation, on land his father had purchased in 1656, and which became located in Prince George County, Virginia. Samuel Jordan had established that plantation in 1620, calling it "Jordan's Journey". This man's father had seven children by his first wife, Mary Swann (d.1700), the daughter of councillor Thomas Swann, but none survived their mother. His parents had married in 1702, and Elizabeth had borne two daughters before this boy's birth, and would bear another daughter and son, Theodorick (b. 1718). His sisters all married burgesses: Mary Bland (b.1703) married Capt. Henry Lee I, Elizabeth Bland (b.1706) married William Beverley and Anna Bland (b.1711) married Robert Munford.
Both his parents died just before his tenth birthday in 1720. His mother died on January 22 and his father on April 6. His uncles, William and Richard Randolph, looked after his farm and early education and raised, as guardians, Richard and his siblings.
Bland became close friends with his first cousin, Peyton Randolph, that would last throughout their lives, often sitting side by side during their years of service in the House of Burgesses, the Committee of Safety, and the First and Second Continental Congresses. Another of Richard's and Peyton's first cousins, Jane Randolph Jefferson, had a son Thomas Jefferson who followed his cousins and mentors to the House of Burgesses and the Continental Congresses.
Richard attended the College of William & Mary and, like many of his time, completed his education in Scotland at Edinburgh University. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1746, but never offered his legal services to the public.
Planter
Although Upon reaching legal age, Bland inherited his father's Jordan Point plantation and other land. He farmed using enslaved labor. At his death, his estate included 30 slaves.