Anna Bennett Bland was a principal in a court case that resulted in the General Assembly losing its status as the court of last appeal in the colony. Bland was involved in a nine-year series of lawsuits, petitions, and counterpetitions regarding ownership of the property of her first husband, Theodorick Bland, who died in 1672. She prevailed in the Virginia courts, but in 1682 the Privy Council decided that all future appeals were to be made to the Privy Council in England rather than the General Assembly. The suit was ultimately settled in a manner that was unsatisfactory to Bland, although she was able to preserve her first husband’s properties for their sons. She died about November 1687 in Maryland.
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