COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATI-
129
patent for the Northern Neck, which the King
had granted. In 1674, he, together with 1-ran-
cis ]\Ioryson and Thomas Ludwell, was ap-
pointed an agent for \irginia to secure from
the King a repeal of his grant of Virginia to
Lords Arlington and Culpeper, and a new
charter. The charter which they attempted
to gain, and which embodied the ideas of the
colonists as to their rights, was a splendid
document and inckided among other provis-
ions the prophetic stipulation that the Virgin-
ians, in common with all Englishmen, should
not be taxed without their own consent. Un-
fortunately for the efforts of the agents, the
news of Bacon's rebellion reached England
just as the King seemed ready to sign the
charter and served him as an excuse for with-
holding it. He withdrew his grant of the
colony to the two noblemen, however, so that
the colony were much beholden to their agents'
efforts. After his return to the colony, he
played a prominent part in the suppression of
the "plant cutting" insurrection and continued
to be present at the meetings of the council
until 1683, after which he seems to have visited
England. His only daughter Elizabeth mar-
ried Harry Beverley.
Stegg, Thomas, Jr., was a son of the first Thomas Stegg. councillor, a sketch of whose life appears above. The earliest fact men- tioned of the younger Stegg is that he was a justice of the peace of Charles City in 1661. On Nov. 24, 1664, a commission from the King confirming Thomas Stegg's appointment as auditor general was read in court. He w^as a member of the council in 1666 and died in 1670. His sister, Grace Stegg, was mother of the first William Byrd of Westover.
Bland, Theodorick, the ninth son of John Bland, an eminent merchant of London and
VIR_9
member of the X'irginia Company, was born
on Jan. 16, 1629. Lie was a merchant at St.
Lucar, Spain, in 1646, at the Canary Islands
in 1647-48, and came to Virginia in 1654 as
the representative of his father, who had large
interests in the colony. He settled at Berke-
ley Hundred, Charles City county, and in
1659-60 he represented Henrico in the house
of burgesses, of which he was the speaker.
By instructions from England, dated Sept. 2,
1662, the act passed by the assembly, imposing
two shillings per hogshead on all tobacco from
Virginia, was confirmed and "Theodorick
Bland, Esq." was appointed collector of the
same. A few years later Bland was appointed
a member of the council, and was present June
21, 1665, J^b' 10, 1666, and March and April,
1670. On April 17, 1665, Theodorick Bland
bought "Westover," Charles City county, an
estate of 1,200 acres, for £170 sterling. His
grandson, Richard Bland of "Jordan's," who
says that his grandfather was "both in fortune
and understanding, inferior to no person of
his time in the country," also says that he built
and gave to the county and parish the church
at Westover, "with ten acres of land, a court-
house and prison." This may have been so,
but it is more likely that he only gave the land.
The worthy councillor died on April 23, 1671,
and was buried in the chancel of Westover
church. The church has long since disappeared
but the tomb remains with his arms and the
following epitaph :
S. M.
"Prudentis & Eruditi Theodorici
Bland Armig. qui obijt Aprilis
23d A. D. 1671 Aetatis 41
Cujus Vidua Maestissima Anna^
Filia Richard Bennett Armig :
hoc Marmor Posuit."
