Theodorick Bland to Thomas Jefferson, 18 June 1821
From Theodorick Bland
Baltimore 18th June 1821
Dear Sir
I understand that you are one of the most active promoters of that valuable institution, expected ere long to be established in your neighborhood, the Virginia University—I have a Son, who is now fifteen years of age, and is pretty well advanced in the Greek, Latin, and French languages; and is very ambitious of becoming a good Scholar; in which I have resolved to gratify him as far as I can scrape together the means—I think he will be prepared to enter the University next Summer—Will you be kind enough to inform me, to what degree of the elementary branches of learning it will be expected a boy should have advanced before he enters the institution; when it will be opened; what will be taught in it from the commencement; whether it will be necessary now to engage a place; and if you can say; what will be the price of tuition, board &c, or the sum total of expense—
Your goodness will excuse my troubling you
Theodorick Bland
RC (MHi); endorsed by TJ as received 25 June 1821 and so recorded in SJL.
Theodorick Bland (1776–1846), attorney, diplomat, and judge, was born in Virginia. He read law in Tennessee and practiced in that state as well as in Virginia and Maryland, settling around 1801 in Baltimore. Bland served in the Maryland House of Delegates, 1808–10, and in the state senate in 1811. A year later he was chosen as associate judge in Maryland’s Sixth Judicial District. President James Monroe appointed Bland a commissioner to investigate conditions in South America in 1817, and he duly visited and reported on Argentina and Chile. Monroe subsequently named him a federal judge for the Maryland district in 1820. Bland resigned in 1824 to become chancellor of Maryland, a position he held until his death. He moved to Annapolis and owned seven slaves in both 1830 and 1840 (MdHi: Bland Papers; James W. Ely Jr. and Theodore Brown, Legal Papers of Andrew Jackson [1987], 358–9; TJ’s Notes on Appointments, [ca. Nov. 1805] [DLC: TJ Papers, 155:27116]; TJ to Bland, 24 Feb. 1806 [DLC]; Edward C. Papenfuse and others, eds., An Historical List of Public Officials of Maryland [1990– ], 1:384; DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1817–25; , 3:187, 188, 399 [3, 5 Jan. 1820, 28 Dec. 1824]; Bland, Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland, 3 vols. [1836–41]; DNA: RG 29, CS, Md., Annapolis, 1830, 1840; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 19 Nov. 1846; gravestone inscription in Saint Anne’s Cemetery, Anne Arundel Co., Md.; John Johnson, Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland [1851–54], 4:103–19).
Index Entries
- Bland, Theodorick (1776–1846); and son’s education search
- Bland, Theodorick (1776–1846); identified search
- Bland, Theodorick (1776–1846); letter from search
- French language; TJ studies search
- Greek language; elementary education in search
- Latin language; elementary education in search
- Virginia, University of; Establishment; opening of search
- Virginia, University of; Students; academic preparation for search
- Virginia, University of; Students; and tuition fees search
- Virginia, University of; Students; prospective students search
- Virginia, University of; Students; room and board search