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 a plantation there in 1620, calling it "Beggar's Bush," which later became better known as "Jordan's Journey." Richard Bland I had seven children by his first wife, Mary Swann (d.1700), the daughter of councillor Thomas Swann, but none survived their mother.
Bland often published pamphlets (frequently anonymously), as well as letters. His first widely distributed public paper came as a result of the Parson's Cause, which was a debate from 1759 to 1760 over the established church and the kind and rate of taxes used to pay the Anglican clergy. His pamphlet A Letter to the Clergy on the Two-penny Act was printed in 1760, as he opposed increasing pay and the creation of a bishop for the colonies.
An early critic of slavery, though a slaveholder, Bland stated "under English government all men are born free", which prompted considerable debate with John Camm, a professor at Bland's alma mater, the College of William & Mary.
Colonial rights advocate
When the Stamp Act created controversy throughout the colonies, Richard Bland thought through the entire issue of parliamentary laws as opposed to those that originated in the colonial assemblies. While others, particularly James Otis, get more credit for the idea of "no taxation without representation", the full argument for this position seems to come from Bland. In early 1766, he wrote An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, which was published in Williamsburg and reprinted in England. Bland's Inquiry examines the relationship of the king, parliament, and the colonies. While he concludes that the colonies were subject to the crown and that colonists should enjoy the rights of Englishmen, he questions the presumption that total authority and government came through parliament and its laws.
In September 1774, the Virginia Burgesses sent Bland to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Some of the views expressed in An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies found their way into the first session of the Congress and were included in the Declaration of Rights.
Bland was elected to the Second Continental Congress, serving until August 12, 1775, when he declined another term because of his age.
On January 1, 1759, the widower Bland married the widow Martha Macon Massie, who died eight months after their marriage. In 1760 he married for a third time to Elizabeth Blair Bolling, widow of John Bolling Jr. (son of John Bolling) and sister of councilor John Blair. She died late in April 1775, and like Martha Massie Boling, bore no children during her marriage to Richard Bland.
Death and legacy
Bland collapsed on a Williamsburg street on October 26, 1776, and died later that evening at the house of John Tazewell. Bland owned an extensive library for his time, much of which was acquired after his death by Jefferson and his nephew-in-law St. George Tucker, and made its way to the Library of Congress as part of Jefferson's personal library donation in 1815.