Background
Bland"s paternal uncle was the surveyor Theodorick Bland.
Bland"s paternal uncle was the surveyor Theodorick Bland.
Reported to be "magnificent", "spacious", and "a hospitable seat of taste and elegance", Bland"s plantation, Cawsons, was located on a promontory where the Appomattox River turned north to meet the James River. Around 1738, Bland married Frances Bolling, the daughter of Drury Bolling. They had six children: Elizabeth "Patsy" Bland (born January 4, 1739) married John Banister and had three sons.
Theodorick Bland (March 21, 1741/42) Mary Bland (born August 22, 1745) Ann Bland (born September 5, 1747) Jane Bland (born September 30, 1749) Frances Bland (born September 24, 1752) first married John Randolph, the son of Richard Randolph, and had four children (including John Randolph of Roanoke).
Then later married Saint George Tucker and had five children (including Henry Street George Tucker, Senior and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker). Bland later married Elizabeth Randolph the daughter of Edward Randolph, the granddaughter of William Randolph I, and the widow of William Yates.
On November 15, 1758, Francis Fauquier, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Colony, appointed Bland colonel of the militia for Prince George County. Before the American Revolution, the Bland and Randolph families of Virginia frequently cooperated with each other to manage their plantations.
Around January 1781, Saint George Tucker assisted Bland, his father-in-law, in escaping the advancing British Army commanded by Benedict Arnold.
A few months later, the British Major-General William Phillips ordered that his troops in Prince George County not harm Bland"s property. In 1775, Bland owned a sorrel mare that had been imported from England by William Byrd III. Quaker-Lass was described in one stud book as "the finest looking mare in Virginia, of her day".