Richard Bland

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.