Francis Christopher Bland

F. C. BLAND was born in 1826, at Derriquin, upon the Kenmare River, County Kerry, where his family had been settled for generations. His early life was spent in Ireland, and in due course he entered Trinity College, and received his degree in Arts from the University of Dublin. At the comparatively early age of twenty-three he married the lady who was in no mere conventional sense his companion and friend and fellow-helper through all the vicissitudes of five-and-forty years. On his marriage, Mr. Bland settled at Derriquin, devoting himself in part to the management of the estate, which, under his care, emerged from the barbarism in which many parts of Ireland were sunk at the time of the potato famine, and in part to the amusements and hospitalities of an Irish country gentleman in a county as noted then for its social pleasures as it is famous at all times for its extraordinary natural beauties. A man of commanding presence and charming address, Mr. Bland was a special favourite with his fellows, and among the tenantry his word was law. Throughout the estate, indeed, his rule was a "benevolent despotism." In 1859 he served the office of High Sheriff for Kerry, and at the time of the revival in the south of Ireland he held a prominent position among the gentry of the county. https://www.brethrenarchive.org/people/f-c-bland

• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 144