the house of
delegates at its first session, and was struck with apoplexy while
walking in the streets. His intellectual calibre was capacious, his
education finished, his habits of application indefatigable. Thoroughly
versed in the charters, laws, and history of the colony, he was styled
the "Virginia Antiquary." He was a political character of the first
rank, a profound logician, and as a writer perhaps unsurpassed in the
colony.

His letter to the clergy, published in 1760, and his enquiry into the
rights of the colonies, are monuments of his patriotism, his learning,
and the vigor of his understanding. He was an ungraceful speaker. It is
said that he was pronounced by Mr. Jefferson to be "the wisest man south
of the James River." He resided at Jordan's Point, on the James, in
Prince George. His portrait and that of his wife were mutilated by the
bayonets of British soldiers during the revolutionary war.[670:A] His
wife had died in 1758, aged forty-six years.

The Blands of Virginia derive their name from Bland, a place in or near
Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, or Cumberland, England. William de Bland
flourished in the reign of Edward the Third, and did good service in the
wars which that king carried on in France, in company of John of Gaunt,
Earl of Richmond. Thomas de Bland obtained a pardon from Richard the
Second, for killing his antagonist in a duel, by the intercession of
his friend the Duke of Guyenne and Lancaster. The coat of arms of Bland
is quartered by the family of Wansford, of Kirklington, in the County of
York, afterwards Lord Viscount Castle-Comer, in the kingdom of Ireland;
and the family of Thistlewait, of Thistlewait, bear the arms of Bland
for their paternal coat as descended from the ancient family of Bland.
Edward Bland, of Burfield, died in the reign of Edward the Fourth; from
him was descended Adam Bland, who lived in the reign of Edward the
Sixth. John Bland was free of the "Grocers and Merchants Adventurers
Company." Thomas Bland, receiver of the rents for Yorkshire in the time
of Charles the First, married, secondly, Katherine, sister of Sir
Richard Sandys, of Northbourne, in Kent. Giles Bland, collector of the
customs for James River, owing to a quarrel with Sir William Berkley,
became a partisan of Bacon, and was executed during the rebellion.
Edward Bland, a merchant in Spain, (1643,) afterwards removed to
Virginia, where he lived at Kimages, in Charles City County. Robert
Bland was rect