Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/204

 Blanchard 

 BLANCHARD, WILLIAM ISAAC (d. 1790). stenographer, was the grandson of a French refugee, who resided in England. He became a professional shorthand writer, and practised his art in Westminster Hall from 1767 till his death in 1796. His offices were at 4 Dean Street, Fetter Lane, and 10 Clifford's Inn. He was the inventor cf two separate and distinct systems of stenography, the first of which he published under the title of 'A Complete System of Shorthand, being an improvement upon all the authors whose systems have yet been made public; is easy to be attained, and may be read again at any distance of time with the greatest certainty; it being properly adapted to the Latin tongue, and all sorts of technical terms, will make it extremely useful for law, physic, or divinity,' Lond. 1779, 8vo, 16 pp. and two plates. This was followed by the explanation of a much more elaborate system in 'The Complete Instructor of Shorthand, upon principles applicable to the European languages; also to the technical terms used by anatomists, and more comprehensive and easy to write and to read than any system hitherto published,' Lond. 1786, 4to. The method of stenography described in this last work was never practised to any extent, and it certainly does not deserve the extravagant praise bestowed upon it by the author of the 'Historical Account of Shorthand,' which passes under the name of James Henry Lewis. Several trials taken in shorthand by Blanchard were published between 1775 and 1791, including the trials of Admiral Keppel and Horne Tooke.

 BLAND, ELIZABETH (fl. 1681–1712), celebrated for her knowledge of Hebrew, was the daughter and heiress of Robert Fisher, of Long Acre, and was born about the time of the Restoration. Her Hebrew teacher is said to have been Francis van Helmont, commonly known as Baron van Helmont. She was married on 26 April 1681 at St. Mary-le-Savoy to Mr. Nathaniel Bland, then a merchant of London and freeman of the Glovers' Company, but who in 1692 succeeded his father, Richard Bland, as lord of the manor of Beeston, near Leeds, Yorkshire, where he thenceforward resided. Of their six children all but two, Joseph and Martha, died in infancy. It appears from Thoresby's 'Ducatus Leodiensis' that Mrs. Bland was alive in 1712. She is known only by a phylactery in Hebrew written at Thoresby's request for his 'Musæum Thoresbianum,' to which she also presented a 'Turkish Commission.' Dr. Nathaniel Grew describes the phylactery as a scroll of parchment ¼in. broad and 15 in. long, with four sentences of the law (Exod. xiii. 7-11, 13-17; Deut. vi. 3-10; and Deut. xi. 13-19) 'most curiously written upon it in Hebrew.' She taught Hebrew to her son and daughter.

 BLAND, HUMPHREY (1686?–1763), of Bland's Fort, Queen's County, Ireland, general and colonel of the King's dragoon guards, and military writer, belonged to a family originally of Yorkshire, settled in Ireland about 1664. According to fragmentary notices in the published records of regiments of which he was colonel, he obtained his first commission on 4 Feb. 1704; made several campaigns under Marlborough as lieutenant and captain in some regiment of horse; and was wounded at the battle of Almanara in 1710, whilst serving in Spain with the Royal dragoons. The authority for these statements is uncertain. In 1715, when Honeywood's dragoons, the present 11th hussars, were raised in Essex, Bland was appointed major in the regiment, and served with it in the north of England during the Jacobite disturbances of that year, in which he appears to have been conspicuous by his zeal and activity. Among the Duke of Marlborough's MSS. are lists of 'gentlemen and noblemen of distinction taken at Preston and carryed to London by Major Bland,' which evidently refer to this period (see Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Report). Subsequently he became lieutenant-colonel of the King's regiment of horse, now the King's dragoon guards, and while so employed brought out his 'Treatise on Discipline,' a work which went through many editions, and for the greater part of the century was the recognised text-book of drill and discipline in the British army. His