BLOND, CHRISTOPHER . [See Le Blond.]
BLONDEL, JAMES AUGUSTUS (d. 1734), physician, was a native of Paris, and received his medical education at Leyden, where he graduated M.D. 17 July 1692, his thesis, which was published, being ‘Dissertatio de Crisibus.’ He settled as a physician in London, and was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians 26 March 1711. In 1720 he published anonymously ‘The Strength of Imagination of Pregnant Women Examined, and the opinion that marks and deformities in children arise from thence, demonstrated to be a vulgar error.' To this work Dr. Daniel Turner replied in the twelfth chapter of his treatise on the ‘Diseases of the Skin,' and he returned to the subject in his treatise on ‘Gleets.' In answer to the statements of Turner, Blondel published in 1729 ‘The Power of the Mother's Imagination over the Fœtus examined, in reply to Dr. Turner.’ This pamphlet, to which Dr. Turner wrote a special reply, was published in French at Leyden in 1737, in Dutch at Rotterdam in 1737, and in German at Strasbourg in 1756. He died 4 Oct. 1734, and was buried at Stepney.
[Rees’s Cyclopædia, wi. iv.; Biographie Générale, vi. 254; Munk's Roll. Coll. of Physicians, ii. 34.]
BLOOD, HOLCROFT (1660?–1707), general, was the son of the famous Colonel Thomas Blood [q. v.], and was born about 1660. When only a stripling he, unknown to his father, went to sea, and served in the Dutch war of 1672. Some years afterwards he became a cadet in the French guards, where he began to study the art of engineering. Return in to England he served as captain in the Irish campaigns after the revolution of 1688, and was wounded at the siege of Carrickfergus. Some time afterwards he was accused of robbing a postboy of some letters that came from Spain, but after a trial at the Old Bailey he was acquitted. The incident, indeed, turned out rather to his advantage than otherwise; for the king, convinced of his innocence, and having a high opinion of his abilities, secured his promotion, Erst as major and soon afterwards as lieutenant-colonel. He did great service as an engineer at the siege of Namur in 1695, and becoming, in 1703, colonel of a regiment of the train of artillery, he manœuvred it with so much skill at Hochstädt, and in other important actions, as to acquire the reputation of being one of the ablest engineers in Europe. In reward of his brilliant services he was promoted brigadier-general. He died at Brussels 30 Aug. 1707.
[Compleat History of Europa for the year 1707, pp. 477–8; Le Neve's Monumenta.]
BLOOD, THOMAS (1618?–1680), the adventurer, better known as Colonel Blood, born about 1618, or soon afterwards, was the son of a blacksmith in easy circumstances, possessed of property in ironworks. The place of birth is unwrtain; it was probably in Ireland. Of his early life little is known, except that he took the parliamentary side. Having visited Lancashire, Blood married there a Miss Holcroft. about 1618, and returned to Ireland. He was made a J.P. by Henry Cromwell, and had large assignments of land as payment for his services and zeal. His prosperity was threatened by the Restoration, the land being taken from him, and he associated with snc of the Cromwellians as were ripe for insurrection. Two of their designs were to surprise Dublin Castle, and to seize the person of the lord-lieutenant, James Butler, duke of Ormonde. The management of these attempts was entrusted to Blood. The enterprises, planned for 9 or 10 March 1663, were to be effected simultaneously. One of the confederate council, named Philip Arden, betrayed the plot to Ormonde. It been arranged that several of the conspirators were to wait inside the castle, holding ‘petitions for presentation, while eighty of the disbanded soldiers were to remain outside, disguised as blacksmiths and carpenters. The signal for the expected commotion was to be given, after Ormonde arrived, by a man who pretended to be a baker stumbling and overthrowing s basketful of white loaves. The men on guard would then scramble to seize the bread, and while discipline was thus relaxed they were to be seized, and disarmed by the sham petitioners, who would be assisted by their confederates from outside, and imprison their adversaries. A discovery that they had been betrayed by Arden did not daunt Blood, who, with his men, arranged to anticipate the day first named, choosing 5 March instead. Twelve hours earlier than the time now fixed most of the confederates were arrested, Blood escaping; but his brother-in-law Lackie was among those captured, imprisoned, tried, convicted, and executed, on the charge of high treason. The Irish parliament ordered Blood's declaration to be burnt by the hangman. He made an attempt to rescue Lackie and the others and nearly succeeded in it. Hs found himself proclaimed, a large reward being offered for his apprehension; but he had fled to the hills, and remained there in safety, con-
