Prince George County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Bland, Col. Theodorick Jr. 1742 - 1790
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Alice Warner http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00015.html#0003503 April 1, 2008, 12:15 am

Author: Henry Howe


Col. Theodoric Bland Jun., a worthy patriot and statesman, and a descendant of
Pocahontas, was born in this county about the year 1742. In 1753, when about 11
year of age, he was sent to England to be educated, and in 1761 he repaired to
Edinburgh to study medicine. He was among the first persons from Virginia that
devoted themselves to the study of medicine -- a profession in that day but
little cultivated in the colongy, and in the improvement of which, from his
diligence, he is entitled to the merit of having been one of its earliest
pioneers. After an absence of about 12 years from America, he returned to
Virginia, and entered upon the practice of his profession. but he was not an
indifferent spectatior of the political commotions of the day. In December,
1774, in writing to a mercantile friend in England, he says "I should have
vested the small proceeds in goods, but the present political disputes between
these colonies and the mother country, which threaten us with a deprivation of
our liberties, forbid such a step, and induce us to exert every nerve to imitate
the silkworm, and spin from our own bowels, although the web should be our
winding-sheet." The battle of Lexington was the subject of a patriotic poetical
effusion by him. On the 24th of June 1775, Dr. Bland was one of a party of 24
gentlemen who, shortly after the flight of Dunmore, removed certain arms from
the governor's palace at Williamsburg. In the following December he wrote,
apparently for publication, certain philippies against Dunmore, in picted the
blackest hues. In June, 1776, he was captain of the first troop of Virginia
cavalry. He was subsequently appointed lieutenant-colonel of horse, and in
September, 1777, joined the main army. From a letter, it would appear that
towards the close of this year he was a member of the senate of Va. "While in
the army, he frequently signalized himself by brilliant actions." [* Sketch of
Col. Bland, in the History of Va. by J.W. Campbell.] In November, 1778, he
superintended the march of the British troops of convention-made prisoners at
Saratoga, to Virginia; and on their arrival, or shortly after, was appointed by
Washington to the command of the post at Charlottesville. From 1780 to '83, he
was a member of Congress. In 1781, Farmingdale, his residence in Va., was
plundered by the enemy. While in Congress he manifested his usual spirit and
industry in the public cause, particularly in the financial department. In 1785,
he was appointed, by Gov. Henry, lieutenant of this county. He was in that
minority in the convention of Va., convened to consult upon the adoption of the
federal constitution, that believed it repugnant to the interests of the
country, and therefore voted against its ratification. On its adoption, however,
he acquiesced in the will of the majority, and was elected to represent his
district in the first Congress held under the constitution. While serving in
that capacity he died at New York, June 1st, 1790, aged 48. "In person, Col.
Bland was tall -- in his latter days corpulent -- and of a noble countenance.
His manners were marked by ease, dignity, and well-bred repose. In character he
was virtuous and enlightened, of exemplary purity of manners and integrity of
conduct, estimable for his private worth, and respectable for his public
services. His career was distingushed rather by the usefulness of plain,
practical qualifications, than by any extraordinary exhibitions of genius.
Animated, from his childhood, by a profound love of country, and with him
patriotism was not an impulse but principle. In style, he is fluent and correct,
and if sometimes too florid or diffuse, he is at others wanting neither in
energy of thought nor in elegance of diction. Moderation and good temper pervade
his correspondence, and it is nowhere sullied by profanity or indelicacy." [*
The foregoing memoir is abridged from that in the introduction of "The Bland
Papers, being a selection from the manuscripts of Col. Theodorick Bland, Jr.,
etc. etc., " edited by Charles Campbell, of Petersburg, and published there, in
1840, by Edmund and Julian C. Ruffin -- an octavo volume of about 300 pages, and
composed principally of an interesting collection of letters written by the
first personages in the country during the revolutionary era.]



Additional Comments:
From Prince George County history in Historical Collections of Virginia by Henry
Howe, 1845.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/princegeorge/bios/bland98gbs.txt

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