The county was named after Richard Bland, a leader of Colonial Virginia whose arguments laid the intellectual foundation for freedom and independence from England.
This branch of the Bland family first came to Virginia in 1654, when the father of Richard I, Theodorick Bland of Westover(1629–1671), emigrated from London and Spain, where he had been attending to the family mercantile and shipping enterprises.
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His grandfather Theodorick Bland of Westover served as Speaker of the 1660 House of Burgesses session and, in this role, presided over the House during the transition from the Cromwell Protectorate to the restored government of Charles II.
Richard Nixon | Richard Wagner | Richard Strauss | Richard Branson | Cliff Richard | Richard Gere | Richard Burton | Richard Hammond | Richard | Richard Dawkins | Little Richard | Richard Feynman | Richard Attenborough | Richard M. Daley | Richard I of England | Richard Thompson | Richard Francis Burton | Richard Thompson (musician) | Richard Pryor | Richard Linklater | Richard III of England | Richard Petty | Richard II | Richard II of England | Richard E. Byrd | Maurice Richard Arena | Muhal Richard Abrams | Richard Herring | Richard Wright | Richard Stallman |
She was married on 26 April 1681 at St. Mary-le-Savoy to Mr. Nathaniel Bland, then a merchant of London and freeman of the Glovers' Company, but who in 1692 succeeded his father, Richard Bland, as lord of the manor of Beeston, near Leeds, Yorkshire, where he thenceforward resided.