Theodorick Bland ( congressman ) Theodorick Bland ( March 21 , 1741 – June 1 , 1790 ) , also known as Theodorick Bland , Jr . , was a physician , soldier , and statesman from Prince George County , Virginia . He became a major figure in the formation of the new United States government , representing Virginia in both the Continental Congress and the United States House of Representatives . Early life and education . Bland was born in Prince George County in 1741 to a prominent family in colonial Virginia . His parents were Theodorick Bland of Cawsons and Frances Elizabeth ( Bolling ) Bland . His mother was the only child and heir of Capt Drury Bolling and Elizabeth Meriweather of " Kippax , " which plantation the younger Theodorick subsequently inherited . His grandfather , Richard Bland , had married Elizabeth Randolph , daughter of William Randolph of Turkey Island . His uncle , Richard Bland , his father ' s first cousin Peyton Randolph , and his second cousin Thomas Jefferson would precede him in the Congresses . At the age of 12 , Theodorick Bland , Jr . was sent to Great Britain for education . He studied first in Yorkshire , then went to Scotland to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh , graduating as a doctor in 1763 . Early career and marriage . That year Bland returned to Virginia and began a medical practice . He married Martha Daingerfield in 1768 and they likely settled at Kippax about that time . ( His parents had moved to Cawsons . ) With the inheritance of Kippax plantation , Bland became a planter and major slaveholder . Bland retired from medical practice in the late 1760s , " in favor of farming and politics " . He became active in politics before the war , serving as the Clerk of Prince George County . Revolutionary War . As the Revolution neared , Bland ' s Whig views aligned him with the rebels . In June 1776 , he became a captain in the Virginia ' s cavalry . He rose quickly to Colonel and commanded the 1st Continental Light Dragoons , often cited " Bland ' s Virginia Horse " in Revolutionary dispatches and correspondence . ( see " The Bland Papers " and correspondence between him and George Washington ) . In the latter capacity he reported directly to Gen . Washington . He retired in 1779 from active cavalry service due to poor health , which he had suffered from his youth . At the request of Gen . Washington , Bland then served as Warden at Charlottesville over British officers taken prisoner . He also worked to keep Washington ' s officers and cavalry supplied with quality horses both from his own stables and from others . As a participant in the early American horse - racing community , Bland owned a large stable and had access to others among his relatives and friends . Bland ' s observations at Brandywine supplied General Washington with the correct location of Lord Cornwallis ' and Howe ' s main armies ; Bland wrote two separate dispatches and Col James Ross of the 8th Pennsylvania wrote another dispatch reporting on the British . Both men ' s dispatches supported that of Col Hazen . Their dispatches were not interpreted accurately in sorting the British troop movements until it was almost too late . Without the accurate contributions of Bland , Ross and Hazen , a worse result might have befallen Washington ' s army at Brandywine . Some later accounts have Bland ' s Virginia Horse subsequently assigned to scouting duty . In his 1922 biography of John Randolph , the historian William Cabell Bruce suggested that the Brandywine incident encouraged Washington to use his cavalries more for scouting rather than sitting in formation on the front lines , as they had at Brandywine . Perhaps that shift is what led some to later speculate that Bland ' s unit was " subsequently relegated to scouting duty " . It was the lack of scouting that led to the Brandywine errors . In 1779 , Bland returned to Virginia , where for a few months he commanded the prisoner - of - war post at Charlottesville before being allowed to retire from military duty . He had requested this for some time from Washington due to his poor health . He had retired from his active medical practice for the same health issues in the late 1760s , nearly a decade before the war had begun . Political career . Bland ' s political career began before the Revolution , when he served as the Clerk of Prince George County , and had a great deal of contact with the House of Burgesses . As a planter , he cultivated tobacco , indigo and wheat . Following the war , he continued as Clerk of the county , maintaining contact with the Virginia House of Delegates . In 1780 , that house named him as a delegate to the Continental Congress , where Bland served until 1783 . He helped form the new United States government . After his father moved to Amelia County , Bland took over Cawsons ( apparently about 1783 - 1784 after his return to Virginia from the Continental Congress and his father ' s death . ) He operated Kippax as an out - plantation . In 1786 , Bland was elected to the Virginia House , where he served until 1788 . In 1788 , he was appointed as a delegate to the Virginia Convention called to ratify the United States Constitution . Bland was opposed to ratification , as he believed it yielded too much power to a central government . After the constitution was adopted , Bland was elected to the First United States Congress . He served in the House of Representatives from March 4 , 1789 until his death in 1790 at the age of 49 . He died while attending the Congress in New York City . Bland was the first member of Congress to die in office . William Branch Giles completed his term . Bland was originally buried in New York ' s Trinity Churchyard in Lower Manhattan . ( Trinity Church is a National Historic Landmark ) . 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 . She was an independent woman , maintaining the Bland holdings by executing marriage contracts to control her own lands .