Theodorick Bland (congressman)

Theodorick Bland (* March 21, 1742 in Petersburg, Virginia; † June 1, 1790 in New York City ) was an American politician. In the years 1789 and 1790, he represented the state of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Theodorick Bland grew up during the British colonial era, and was occasionally taught in England. He then studied medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland. 1759 he returned to Virginia, where he practiced as a physician. End of the 1760s, he gave up this profession and worked in agriculture. In the 1770s he joined the American Revolution. During the Revolutionary War he was a captain in the Continental Army. Between 1780 and 1783 he was a member of the Continental Congress, at its previous meetings in the years 1774 and 1775, his uncle Richard Bland ( 1710-1776 ) had participated. In 1785 he was a lieutenant in the militia in Prince George County. Between 1786 and 1788 Bland sat in the House of Representatives from Virginia. In 1788 he was a delegate to the meeting at which the state of Virginia ratified the Constitution of the United States. Bland rejected this constitution.

In the congressional elections of 1789 Bland was selected in the ninth constituency of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1789. Politically Bland in opposition to President George Washington and his government. He died while serving as a congressman on June 1, 1790 in New York. Bland was the first congressman ever, who died in office.