James Bland is from Penrith Township, Saint Andrews Parish, Cumberland County, England.
Cumberland County was a province in the extreme northwest of England on the border of Scotland. James left England, bound for Stafford County,Virginia when he was 22 years old.
James Bland's Will
In the name of God, Amen, I, James Bland of the County of Stafford in the Colony of Virginia, being sick of body, but of sound and perfect sense and memory, praise be therefore given to Almighty God for it, do make and ordain this my last will and testimony in manner and form, as followeth:
First and principally, I commend my soul to Almighty God who gave it, hoping in and by the merits, death and passon of my savior Jesus Christ, to have free pardon and remission of all my sins and to enter into eternal life, and secondly, I commit my body to the ground to be decently buried at the discretion of my excr's hereafter mentioned.
Item: My will and mind is, that all my debts by fully satisfied and paid.
Item: My will and mind is, that my loving wife, Margaret, shall fully possess my now dwelling plantation, and the land from the mouth of the creek to the first branch above the said plantation, during her natural life, and after her decease to fall to my loving son Robert Bland and his heirs lawfully begot.
Item: I give and bequeath to my loving son William Bland, 150 acres of land beginning at the upper side of the above said branch and so running up the creek, the full complement of 150 acres aforesaid to him and his heirs lawfully begot.
Item: I give to my two sons, James Bland and John Bland, all of the reversion of my land, the said tract beginning where my son William leaves off, and so running to the head of the line, and to be equally divided, between them, when my sons shall arrive to the age of twenty-one years old, to them and their heirs lawfully begot, and in case any of my sons shall die without issue, then to fall to the survivors to be equally divided amongs't them.
Item: My will and my mind is, that my loving son, William Bland, may have the tuition and bringing up of my eldest daughter Alice, and my youngest daughter Hannah.
Item: My desire that my loving son, James Bland, may have the tuition and bringing up of my daughter Patience and my daughter Ellen, and my youndest son Robert, my daughters till they come to 18 or married, and my son till he is 21 years.
Item: My will and my desire is, that after my debts are all paid, then what is left of my moveable estate shall be equally divided between my loving wife, Margaret, and my eight children, every one to have an equal share alike, when they shall come to age as aforesaid.
Item: I make and ordain my two sons, William Bland and James Bland, to be my whole and sole excutors of this my last will and testament. In confirmation whereof, I set my hand and fixed my seal, this 22nd. day of December 1708.
