Lilian Bland

comad October 8th, 2015

In 1993 Dora and Mary prepared a handwritten illustrated scroll describing the history of the Bland family. The scroll presents two pages of detailed research.

“Where the fates call”

“The branches as they grew in wealth and diversity blossomed into other ‘coats of arms’.
This, the original, date unknown, commemorates a time when archery was a vital skill. Certainly there is a military tradition here. Happily the discipline & energy of the true soldier serves every pursuit.”

55 BC – 407 AD    Roman Britain
AD 300     Saxons arrive
800 – 900     Viking raids
871 – 900     King Alfred
1016     Canute, King
1066     William the conqueror
1189 – 99    Richard the lion heart
1190 ++      Robin Hood
1215     King John  and  Magna Carta
1297     Wallace for Scotland
1381     Peasant’s revolt
1382     Wyclif translating the Latin bible into the common tongue.

Near the old town of Sedbergh, in the far North West corner of the W. Riding of Yorkshire is to be found the hamlet of Bland. Nearby the farmstead of Blands Gill still thrives, tending to its sheep in that spacious hill-country.

From this area the family takes its name – a name which may go back to Roman times;   ‘Bland’ in the Latin tongue meaning smooth, mellow, as of a pleasant downy countryside. But in the old Norse tongue it meant something like ‘Blam’

1333  Patricius de Bland  was appointed to raise ten man-at-arms and one hundred footmen of archers for the Wappentak at Ewecross.  (From the annals of Sedbergh)
This was near the height of the heroic early days of Scottish resistance.

1299  Wallace bled

1314  Bruce defeated the English at Bannockburn.

1323  The Scots burned Lancaster to the ground.

1346  The English defeated the Scots at Neville’s Cross. And doubtless the border country was full of skirmishes throughout that time.

1349 – 1349  Then came a more terrible arbitrator than the sword – the  Black Death.

1550  One Adam B. Skinner is made free of the city of London.

1567  Adam B.Skinner is now sergeant pelletier (head coat maker) to Good Queen Bess. Descendants of Adam emigrated to Viginia ca.1645, making  coonskin caps ?   Nothing said about that!   There is a village called Blandford in Virginia today (1993) and a very old church, resting on its laurels that may possibly be the one that with courthouse and prison, was donated by the 1st Bland to the New W.

The National Library of Ireland has the following manuscript:
Accounts of Adam Bland, skinner for furring gowns, etc. for the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sydney  1570-71. The Lord Deputy was the King’s representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule.

1553  This was the first year of Mary Tudor’s reign (as Queen of England and Ireland.) In her four years she had three hundred protestants burned and others hung.

1555  John Bland, a rector in Kent, formerly a tutor at Sedbergh, is tried at Canterbury for heresy against the catholic tradition. He stands firm in his belief and, with three others, was burned at the stake.

1642  On August 30th, Sir Thomas Bland of Kippax-Park, is made a Baronet by King Charles 1st for his “Active zeal and devotion to the Royal cause”.

In this year of ’42 Charles was hiding out among the oaks of the North, trying to raise an army to beat that of the men of England’s infant parliament, whose fury the king had roused by his efforts to return England to absolute monarchism. The king’s effort was in vain. The Scots joined forces with parliament in this, England’s first civil war.
(Note: In 1746 the 8th Baronet Sir Hungerford died unmarried and the Baronetical title became “extinct”)

Thomas Bland lived at Lisnagarvan, County Down, Ireland. Married Ms Trydelt, and had six children. Col. John Bland, Gen. Humphrey Bland, Capt. William Bland, Frances Bland, (married Lawless) Anna Bland (unmarried) and Elizabeth Bland (unmarried)

Note: There is no current record of a Lisnagarvan in County Down. The nearest match would be Lisnagarvey in County Antrim.

Colonel John Bland, son of Thomas Bland, bought land at Rahanavannagh, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland and built a mansion house ‘Blandsfort’ the ‘Family Seat’ which was finished in 1715 to which his brother Humphrey succeeded him. Blandsfort was a big square three storey, five bay house, built on the ruins of an O’Moore house. Blandsfort House is 3 miles (5km) Northeast of Abbeyleix   ( 52°55’39.01″ -7°17’11” ) and 60 miles (96km) Southwest of Dublin.

Colonel John Bland died in 1728 – no children. His will was dated 14th June 1728 and he left Blandsfort to his brother Humphrey and his heirs.

On 12th January 1755 Gen Humphrey Bland, son of Thomas Bland, married Elizabeth Dalrymple, of the Earls of Stair.  He was  Quartermaster-General  (Q.M.G.) in 1742. He fought in the Battle of Culloden, in April 1746 as the Major-General. He held the office of Governor of Gibraltar 1749 – 1754 and was Commander-in-Chief of Scotland between 1747 and 1756. From July 1752 until his death he was Colonel of the 1st Dragoon Guards. He lived at Blandsfort, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland. General Bland died in London on the 8th May 1763 aged 77 – no children.

Elizabeth Dalrymple was born on the 31st January 1721. She was the daughter of Hon. George Dalrymple and Euphame Myreton. She died on the 14th October 1816 in Isleworth, Greater London, UK.

Hon George Dalrymple of Dalmahoy (baptised 10 March 1680, died 29 July 1745) was one of six sons of John Dalrymple and Elizabeth Dundas.

Euphame Myreton (died 8th July 1761) was the daughter of Sir Andrew Myreton and Dame Jean Murray. Sir Andrew was the 1st Baronet of Gogar, Midlothian, Scotland. (died in 1717)

Capt William Bland of the 8th Dragoons, son of Thomas Bland.
First marriage to Elizabeth Jones Cock (alias Horseman of Liverpool), daughter of William Cock, on 14th September 1720.
Second marriage to Letitia Davis daughter of Hercules Davys, Battle-Axe guards (Bodyguards), on 28th November 1732 in St Catherine’s, Dublin.
Capt William Bland died 1746.

Frances Bland, daughter of Thomas Bland, married a member of the Lawless family.
Anna Bland, daughter of Thomas Bland, died unmarried.
Elizabeth Bland, daughter of Thomas Bland, died unmarried.

John “of Blandsford” 1723 – 1790, son of Capt. William Bland, married Sarah, daughter of Charles Birch of Birchgrove, Co. Wexford in 1763.

Capt. Humphrey Bland, son of Capt. William Bland, served in the 62nd Regiment. He married Mary Matthews and they had three daughters. He died in 1788.

General Thomas Bland (Army General), son of Capt. William Bland, was Colonel in the 5th or Bland’s Dragoons. He died on 14th October 1816.

Captain Neville Bland (d.1789), son of Capt. William Bland, married Charlotte Smith, of Colbarey, Co. Tipperary in 1765 in the Diocese of Ossory. They had four children.

Lt.Col. Humphrey Dalrymple Bland.
Captain Loftus Otway Bland.
William Bland.
Margaret Bland.

Lt.Col. Humphrey Dalrymple Bland was born in Co. Laois, Ireland and began military service in 1793. He was appointed to the rank of Major in  47th Regiment of Foot  on 28th August 1804 and to Lieutenant-Colonel on 3rd May 1810. He commanded the 2nd Battalion of 47th Foot in  Peninsula  (Cadiz) from November 1809 to April 1811. Retired in 1815. Died in June 1816.

Captain Loftus Otway Bland served under Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen, and also saw service in the West Indies where he married Sarah, widow of J. Ashbourner and daughter of Samuel Foote of  Demerara.  He earned fame for his capture of the Genoese pirate ship ‘Liguria’ on the 7th August 1798 and received a promotion to captain on 25th September 1798.

Painting shows Captain Loftus Otway Bland’s ship ‘HMS Espoir’,  (14 guns), towing the captured Genoese pirate ship, ‘Liguria’, (26 guns), into Gibraltar.

On 18th January 1808 Captain Loftus Otway Bland was in charge of the 36-gun fifth rate  ‘HMS Flora’  launched in 1780. The ship was driven ashore in a storm at Terschelling on the Dutch coast and was wrecked with the loss of nine men. Captain Bland was taken prisoner and kept in a damp prison cell in Holland, where he contracted an illness. On his release by a prisoner exchange, he was acquitted of any wrongdoing in the loss of his ship. The Court Martial board found that he had been caught on a  lee shore  and was unable to prevent his ship being driven ashore in the atrocious weather.

Lieutenant Furber was serving as first officer on the Flora frigate on the day of the storm.

“The Flora struck upon  Schelling reef  last Monday, the 18th about nine o’clock that night we succeeded in getting her off, but lost our rudder in the attempt and after getting her to sea, could hardly keep her free with all the pumps, therefore was obliged, the next day, to run her on shore again. After making rafts, fearing that if it came on to blow hard during the night, she would go to pieces, the captain, Furber, Keith, Doneville, Watson, and myself, pushed off in the barge, that being the only boat we then had, with about 130 of the crew on rafts, the rest choosing to stay by the ship. After rowing for eighteen hours, without sustenance, we landed on the island of  Ameland,  where they made us prisoners. Those whom we left on the wreck are at  Harlingen. “

‘Royal Naval Biography’ – Lt. John Marshall R.N. (pub.1828)  

Captain Bland’s next appointment was to command the 32 gun third rate ship of the line  ‘HMS Africa’  and was sent to the Baltic, where the cold damp weather played havoc with his health. He died in Exeter in 1810 and is buried in the nave of Exeter Cathederal. The flat gravestone is inscribed:

“To the memory of Loftus Otway Bland, Esq., of the Royal Navy and Captain of His Majesty’s Ship “Africa”, who died 7th July, 1810, aged 39″

John “of Blandsfort”, son of John “of Blandsford”, was an  Ensign  in the 15th Regiment of Foot. He married Elizabeth Birch, daughter of Robert Birch M.P.(d.1810), and his wife Catherine, née Ryves (d.1819) of Turvey House, Donabate, Co. Dublin. Catherine’s father was William Ryves, of Castle Jane, Co. Limerick.
Marriage licence: John Blandsfort, Queens County, married Elizabeth Birch, Donabate, Co. Dublin on 27th November 1790.

Captain Robert Bland, son of John “of Blandsford”, was a captain in the 72nd Regiment of Foot.
‘The London Gazette’, Saturday 17th March, 1810. War Office notices.
“Lieutenant Robert Bland, from the 7th Garrison Battalion, to be Lieutenant, 72nd Foot.”

‘The London Gazette’, Tuesday 20th October, 1812. War Office notices:
“72nd Foot. Lieutenant Robert Bland to be captain of company, by purchase.”

On 25th August 1822 Robert Bland, late captain, 72nd Regiment of Foot, Tullamore, King’s County (County Offaly), sent a petition to Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquis Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant, Dublin Castle, seeking a situation of employment in any department such as ‘Ordnance, Barrack Master, Store Keeper, Gauger in the Country, or the Police’: claims that his family supported the political aspirations of the Lord Lieutenant’s brother,  William Wellesley-Pole, Lord Maryborough. 

William Bland, son of John “of Blandsfort” – no details.

Elizabeth Bland, daughter of John “of Blandsfort”, married J.Crawford of Ballintober, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

Ann Bland, daughter of John “of Blandsfort”, married George Pringle of  Stradbally. 

Catherine Bland, daughter of John “of Blandsfort”, married Thomas Lyon of Watercastle, Durrow, Queen’s county, (Co. Laois) in 1787.

Hannah Bland, daughter of John “of Blandsfort”, married M.Nugent.

John Thomas “of Blandsford” gained the rank of  Cornet  in the 4th Dragoons. Married Margaret Elizabeth Bond. No children. He was succeeded by his fourth brother, Loftus Henry, passing over Robert, the next in line.

Rev. Robert Wintringham Bland MA, JP, (21 Feb 1794 – 21 Dec 1880) of Abbeyville, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim was perpetual curate at  St George’s Parish Church  in Belfast. Married Alicia Evans on 14 July 1826. Alicia was the daughter of Rev. Edward Evans, JP of Gortmerron, Dungannon, Co. Tyrone. She died on 10 Oct 1879.

Charles Humphrey Bland (1795 – 1811) Midshipman R.N. was only sixteen when he was lost in the wreck of  ‘St. George’  off Denmark.

HMS ‘St George’ was a 98 gun  second rate,  launched in 1785 and wrecked on the 24th December 1811 with a loss of 731 lives.

Loftus Henry “of Blandsfort” (1805-1872) QC, MA, was elected MP for King’s County (Co. Offaly) on 26th July 1852 and was chairman of quarter sessions in Co. Cavan in 1862. He was educated at Mr Corcoran’s School in Wicklow, at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was admitted in 1820, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted as a Pensioner on 2nd October 1822, and took his B.A. in 1825, and his M.A. in 1828.

He was admitted at Lincoln’s Inn on 7th February 1824 and was called to the Irish Bar in 1829. He became a Q.C.  (Queen’s Counsel)  in 1854.

His first marriage was on 20th August 1840 to Charlotte Elizabeth Arthur Grove-Annesley of Anne’s Grove, Co. Cork, the second daughter of General the Hon. Arthur Grove Annesley JP, High Sheriff for Co. Cork.

(‘Annesgrove’, previously ‘Ballyhemock’, was the seat of General Annesley. It is a mansion, near  Castletownroche,  built on the verge of a precipitous cliff rising from the river  Awbeg. )

Charlotte Elizabeth died in 1841. One son, John Loftus.

Loftus Henry’s second marriage was on 2nd December 1843 to Annie Jane Hackett, eldest daughter of John Prendergast Hackett, of Stratton Place, London. One son, Lieutenant Thomas Daryrmple (died aged 23) and two daughters.

Loftus Henry Bland’s elder brother died childless in 1849 so Loftus Henry succeeded to the estates at Blandsfort.

He died on 21st January 1872 aged 69 years and is buried in  Rahanavannagh Graveyard , Co. Laois.

His great, great grandson John (born 15th February 1932) is the current possessor of title. His mother was Marion Dease (1900-1969), daughter of Major Edmund James Dease (1861-1945), JP and High Sheriff of Tipperary, who lived at Rath House, Ballybrittas, County Laois, Ireland. John Bland has two sons, David Humphrey Bland (born 1965) and Peter William Bland (born 1967)

Catherine Jane Bland, eldest daughter of John “of Blandsfort”, married Capt Richard Croker of Thornbury, Queen’s County in February 1817.

Extract from  “The Irish Crokers”  by Nick Reddan:-

“Richard who entered the Royal Navy and was commissioned Lieutenant on 7 January 1809, was stabbed by a seaman, Joseph Gibson in 1812, who was hanged 20 November 1812. Richard was promoted Commander on 15 June 1814 but received a pension for wounds that December when he retired with the courtesy rank of Captain. He was granted the freedom of Limerick on 1 July 1816.

His brave actions saving seven people from the sea off Glin were reported in the Limerick General Advertiser on 13 September 1816. Richard was of Blandsford, Queens County, when he married Catherine Jane Bland by an Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin licence in February 1817 at Ballyrone church. Their marriage settlement was dated 13 February prior to their marriage. Richard died at Thornbury Queens County in October 1836.”

‘Limerick General Advertiser’ 13 September 1816:
“A boat with a military officer and seven men, from Tarbert to Glin was upset a few days since in a heavy breaking sea, no boat or assistance being near and the distance from the shore being very great. Capt Richard Croker RN, son of the Rev Richard Croker, Croom, put off with a few gallant volunteers in a boat from Glin with nearly her forepart out, (the only one to be had) and after a most perilous and long pull in a very heavy sea and gale, succeeded in rescuing from a watery grave six out of seven of the crew – hopes are entertained for their recovery.”

Sarah Annie Bland died unmarried 1823.

Georgina Elizabeth Bland (June 1831-August 1895) married James Frank Rolleston DL JP of Frankfort Castle, Roscrea, King’s County (Co.Offaly) in St Ann’s church, Dublin, on 22nd May 1828.
James Frank Rolleston died in December 1875.

Page 420 of the ‘Handbook for Travellers in Ireland’ published in 1854 gives the location of Frankfort Castle (now demolished). “Two and a-half miles from Roscrea, on the road leading to Nenagh, is Inane, the seat of Mr. Jackson. Here the road leaves the county of Tipperary, and runs for nine miles through the King’s County, and at six miles from Roscrea reaches the village of Dunkerrin, which contains church and R. C. chapel. Adjoining the village is Frankfort Castle, the seat of Mr. Rolleston.“

offalyhistory.com has the following details:
‘Frankfort Castle’ (site) is situated on pasture-land North of the village of Dunkerrin.
Identified as O’Carroll’s castle of Dunkerrin which was by 1666 in the ownership of Thomas Francks. In 1740 it was the property of Francis Rolleston.
The present remains at ‘Franckfort Castle’ are of 18th/19th-century date and include a  bawn  incorporating an earlier datestone of 1732 and a moat about about the site which is of the same period. No visible remains of medieval buildings.

Marianne Sinclair was born in 1827. On 14 August 1855 she married Major General Conolly McCausland, Royal Engineers (born 22 January 1815) of  Bessbrook,  Co. Derry . They had two daughters, Alice and Henrietta.

John Humphrey (1828 – February 1919), Fernagh, Whiteabbey, (near Belfast), Co. Antrim. Married Emily, daughter of W.C.Madden of Norfolk in 1867.

They had three children:

Eva Charlotte (10th November 1868 – 1933)
Captain Robert Wyndham Humphrey Marciel Bland (27 Jan 1872 – 18 Jul 1942)
Lilian Emily (28th September 1878 – 11th May 1971)

Supplement to ‘The London Gazette’, 8 May, 1915.
18th (Reserve) Battalion: Dated 15th March, 1915.
Robert Wyndham Humphrey Maciel Bland to be temporary Lieutenant.

Captain Robert Wyndham Humphrey Marciel Bland (1872 – 1942) of the 18th Royal Irish Rifles, married Mildred Dorothea Mordaunt (16th March 1875 – 1949) at  St. Mary’s, Bryanston Square,  on 9th June, 1915. No children.
Mildred Mordaunt was born in Dinapore, West Bengal, and baptised on 1st April 1875.

Dinapore was a British garrison town in the 19th century. It is now called Danapur and is in Bihar state. It is about 10km north-west of Patna, and 500km north-west of Calcutta.

Eva Charlotte Bland married Geirge Kycas Blackey Borton on 30 November 1911. No children.

Lilian Emily Bland married Charles Loftus Bland on 3rd October 1911.

One daughter Patricia (born 13th April 1913 – died September 1929)

Major General Edward Loftus Bland, Royal Engineers, was born on 10th December 1829, the second son of the Rev. Robert Wintringham Bland and his wife Alicia Evans, daughter of Edward Evans, of Dungannon, Co. Tyrone. He lived at “Woodbank”, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, Ireland and is said to have built the fortifications at Halifax. Died 26th February 1923.

In January 1859 he married Emma Frances Franks, daughter of Robert Fergusson Franks and Henrietta (Bushe) Franks, of Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny. They had nine children.

1) Robert Norman Bland  (1859 – 1948)

Robert Norman Bland  (MALACCA) , B.A. Resident Councillor;
Born 8th October 1859 in Malta. Died 30th March 1948 (aged 88) in Sussex, England.
Educated at St. Paul’s school; Cheltenham College; Trinity College, Dublin.
Was a Cadet, Straits Settlements, October, 1882; passed in Malay, May, 1884 (age 26);
Collector Magistrate,  Sri Menanti , June 1886;
District Officer, Southern District,  Province Wellesley , 1888;
Collector of Land Revenue, Penang, 1889;
Collector of Land Revenue, Singapore, 1890;
Officer in charge,  Sungei Ujong , December 1894;
Officer in charge,  Negri Sembilan , January to April, 1895;
Acting Official Assignee of Deeds, Singapore, June, 1896;
Inspector of Prisons,  Straits Settlements , March, 1897;
Senior District Officer, Province Wellesley, April, 1897;
Acting Resident Councillor, Malacca, April to September, 1900-1903;
Capt. in Singapore Volunteer corps, 1902.

He married Laura Emily Shelford in 1893 and they had three children:
Evelyn Bland who married Lt.Col. Kirkwood. One daughter.
Major Thomas Edward Bland (b. 24 Feb 1903, d. 1 Aug 1944)
Robert Lawrence St. Colum Bland (b. 1905, d. 26 Jan 1907)

2) Mary Bland. (1862 – 1945)

This is an extract from a handwritten note by Kathleen Frances Theodosia Bland who was Brig. Gen. William St Colum Bland’s daughter   

“I stayed with Aunt Mary at Horsted Keynes in Sussex, where she built a charming small house “Antrim Cottage” and made a lovely garden. She was a very strong and upright character, and did much to help other people in her life.”

Mary Bland died on 27th May 1945.

3) John Otway Percy Bland (1863 – 1945).

On 29 November 1889 in Shanghai, he married an American, Louisa Dearborn Nickels (b. c.1864), widow of M. C. Nickels and daughter of a Pacific Mail Line skipper, Captain H. C.  Dearborn.

4) Brig. Gen. Edward Humphrey Bland CB. CMG.
(3rd May 1866 – 15th February 1945).

Served in the  Miranzai  2nd expedition 1896, Isazai expedition 1892 and WWI. He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle of Serbia in 1916.

In 1894 he married Bertha Mary Moore, third daughter of J. Fletcher Moore, D. L. , of Manor Kilbride, Co. Dublin. They had three children:
Angela Doreen Loftus Bland (6 Apr 1898 – 15 Oct 1973) married William le Belward Egerton.
Captain Humphrey Otway Carleton Bland (8 Jul 1901 – 22 Apr 1933) was a Captain in the Government of India Police Department and was killed in action 22 April 1933 at  Northwest Frontier , India.
Vivienne Rosalie Bland (born 8 Jul 1901) married Lt.-Col. Richard Brierley.

5) Brig. Gen. William St.Colum Bland   (born 6th June 1868) In September 1903 he married Kathleen, youngest daughter of Edward David Stewart Ogilvie (1814-1896) of Yulgilbar on the Clarence River, New South Wales, Australia. They had two daughters, Kathleen and Margaret.

6) Alice Rosalie Henrietta “Kitty” Bland (born 1870 – died 20th November 1962)

7) Thomas Dundas Bland (1876 – 1900) Murdered in Korea.

8) Sydney Frances Josephine Bland  was born in York on 11 May 1883. Watercolour artist. Sydney Bland died in March 1981 at the age of 97 at Kerrier, Cornwall, England

9) Charles Loftus Bland  (24th October 1881 – 6th January 1973)

Sarah Marie Bland (21st May 1832 – 1917) married  General William James Smythe  R.A., F.R.S. (1816   –  12th  July 1887)  on 15th December 1857 at Carnmoney, Co.Antrim, Ireland. No children.
 General Smythe’s Celtic Cross  at his grave in Carnmoney.

Robert Henry Bland (14th October 1834 – 1916) J.P. married Caroline, daughter of Charles Croker of Montevideo and resided in the Argentine.

Alice Louisa Jane Bland (2nd October 1841- March 1900)

Alice married Edward Lawrenson, of  Nurney , Co. Kildare and Sutton House, Howth, Co. Dublin.

Their son Edward Louis Lawrenson (1868 – 1940) became an artist.

 Work in progress – updated 16th December 2015 

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