- Thomas Bladen
Sir Thomas Bladen (1698-1780) was an appointed Governor of Provincial
Maryland in 1742.Bladen was born in Maryland in 1698.cite book
last=Mereness
first=Newton Dennison
title=Maryland as a Proprietary Province
publisher=The MacMillan Company
date=1901
location=London
pages=350
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=__gMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA350&dq=Thomas+Bladen+subject:%22Maryland%22
asin=B0006BT5K4
isbn=] [citation
last=
first=
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
journal=
volume=
issue=
pages=
date=
year=2007
url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101068455/
doi=
id= ]He traveled to England, where he married Barbara Jansen (daughter of Sir Theodore Jansen, the
Baronet of Surry), who was also the sister-in-law ofCharles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore and Proprietor of the Province.cite book
last=Warfield
first=Joshua Dorsey
title=The Founders of Anne Arundel And Howard Counties, Maryland
publisher=Kohn & Pollock
date=July 1905
location=Baltimore, Maryland
pages=208
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vgINAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA208&dq=Samuel+Ogle#PPA208,M1
isbn=0806379715] In 1742, he returned to Maryland as provincial Governor, the first governor to be born in the Province.Upon his arrival in Maryland, the Legislature awarded him £4,000 to build himself a residence, which was £1,000 more than his predecessor. In 1774, he bought four acres of land in Annapolis from Stephen Bordley and commenced construction of a building. He quickly disagreed with the Legislature about its architecture and became involved in a lawsuit with Bordley, the previous owner, and construction halted.
He quickly became an unpopular Governor and returned to England in 1746, when he was succeeded by
Samuel Ogle .In England, he was later a member of Parliament.
Legacy
The Governor's residence sat uncompleted until 1766 when the roof collapsed. The building now serves as the central hall of St. John's College and is named
McDowell Hall .The town of
Bladensburg, Maryland , which was incorporated in the first year of his governorship, was named after him.Family
He had three daughters:
* Harriet, m. 4thEarl of Essex , ancestress of the 6th and subsequent earls.
* Elizabeth (a.k.a. Anne), m.Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke .
* Barbara, m. Henry St. John, a brother of the 3rdViscount Bolingbroke .References
External links
* [http://virtualology.com/apthomasbladen/ Biography at Virtualology.com]
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