His mother was the only child and heir of Captain Drury Bolling and Elizabeth Meriweather of "Kippax," which plantation the younger Theodorick subsequently inherited and operated.

[3] At age 11, after being tutored at home as was customary for his class, he was sent to Great Britain for his education, accompanied by an enslaved boy, Tom, as his body servant.

[1] Bland then returned to Virginia and began a medical practice, as well as following family traditions of political involvement and farming using enslaved labor.

In 1775 Bland joined the local "Committee of Intelligence" as well as helped locate arms and munitions for the patriot cause.

[7] He rose quickly to Colonel and commanded the 1st Continental Light Dragoons, often cited as "Bland's Virginia Horse" in Revolutionary dispatches and correspondence.

[3][11] At Gen. Washington's request, when Bland returned to Virginia to recuperate in 1779, he also served as Warden at Charlottesville over British officers taken prisoner.

As a participant in the early American horse-racing community, Bland owned a large stable and had access to other horses through relatives and friends.

Thus, his father's estate also owned 13 enslaved adult Blacks in Amelia County, Virginia, as well as 10 younger slaves and four horses.

[14] Bland's political career had begun before the Revolution, when he served as the Clerk of Prince George County, and had considerable contact with the House of Burgesses.

In 1780, the General Assembly named Bland as one of Virginia's delegates to the Continental Congress, where he served until 1783 and thus helped form the new United States government.

[18] In 1788, Prince George voters elected Bland and Ruffin as their delegate to the Virginia Convention called to ratify the United States Constitution.

In 1828, his remains were moved and reinterred in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His wife Martha Bland survived him and married two more times.