Benjamin Blanshard was born in about 1680, possibly in Virginia. By 1702 he had acquired land in Chowan Precinct, North Carolina. That year, he and several of his neighbors submitted a petition to the North Carolina Council regarding a boundary dispute between the colonists and the Chowanoke Nation. Aside from his plantation in the Beaverdam Swamp portion of Chowan Precinct (present Gates County), Blanshard was also a resident of Nansemond County, Virginia. He died sometime after June 1719.