M. about 1749 in Rowan County, North Carolina
Wife: Sarah ________
D. before Nov 1800 in Rowan County, North Carolina
John Bryan was a member of a family who had origins in high places in Europe, yet ended up populating the American frontier during the 18th-century. John and his brothers were part of the first group of settlers to venture into Kentucky under the guidance of Daniel Boone, although he didn’t stay permanently.
John’s parents, Morgan and Martha (Strode) Bryan, had unusual stories of how they ended up in America. Morgan’s heritage was English, Irish, Welsh and Dutch, and may have descended from nobility who served in the court of Henry VIII, although there is no hard evidence of this lineage. Morgan’s mother was definitely of highborn English stock, and her male line followed a course of needing to leave England because they weren't firmly loyal to the crown. Eventually, Morgan and Martha met and married in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Among Morgan and Martha’s nine children, John was the fourth son and sixth child. Although they had started their family in Pennsylvania, it’s believed that John was the first child born after the move to the Opequon Creek region of Frederick County, Virginia. This was in about 1730, and he would spend the first 18 years of his life in Virginia. When Morgan prepared to move his family to North Carolina, he sent out some of his sons to scout the territory, and it’s likely that John was part of this group. It was a journey of over 300 miles over backwoods trails.
John’s father was very old by this time, and it was his plan to provide plots of land for all of his adult children. The number of Bryan family members involved in this migration gave the area the name Bryan Settlement. The land that was to be John’s was surveyed “on the bank of the Yadkin River below Mill Creek/Mulberry Field.” This was a tract of 313 acres where he probably built a cabin, and soon after, he got married. His new wife is assumed by researchers to be the same person mentioned in his will, and she was only known by the name Sarah. If this is correct, John and Sarah had a family of nine children born between about 1752 and 1768; each married and had families, giving John a wealth of descendants.
During the late 1750s, the Cherokee War took place in the Carolinas and Tennessee. It doesn’t appear that John took refuge by leaving the area with his family like others did, but they may have gone to a fort when the action got too close to home. After things quieted down in 1760, John added to his farmland by purchasing 449 acres from his brother-in-law William Linville, although it isn’t thought that John ever lived on this property. In 1762, he sold his original 313 acres so he could move his family to another tract of land. John then purchased 646 acres of land, and later another 560 acres. This second tract he sold in two parts in 1763, and again, he never made use of it himself.
John’s niece was the wife of Daniel Boone, and many of the Bryans, including John, were part of his early ventures into Kentucky. The first of Boone’s treks was in the fall of 1773 when he led 40 extended family members through the Cumberland Gap. Unfortunately, the group was forced to turn back after Indians attacked them, killing six. Two years later, when Boone led a group on another trip to Kentucky, it’s less certain that John was among them, but he likely was. This effort also didn’t end well because after they built some cabins, there was more violence from local tribes, and most of the settlers returned to Rowan County for a couple more years.
The planned migration of the Bryans into Kentucky finally took place in 1779, but instead of joining his siblings, it’s believed that John took on the task of filing their land claim at the office in Williamsburg, Virginia. He may have afterwards delivered the paperwork to the Kentucky settlement, but more likely that was handled by a nephew named William. Sadly, William was killed by Indians a few months later while out hunting. The experience of the Bryans trying to settle in Kentucky wasn’t a good one, and most of them came back to North Carolina the following year.
The Boone expeditions happened at the same time as the beginning of the American Revolution. The Bryan family were said to have had Tory sympathies, although to what degree, it isn’t known. Speculation is that Bryan Tories were against the local colonial leadership (as opposed to being in support of the English crown), and they saw escape to Kentucky as a way to avoid being conscripted to fight. It appears that John never served in the military on either side in the revolution, or at any other time. One thing that did affect him was that American leaders didn’t recognize land claims awarded under British rule, so John had to file for new land, which he did on February 16, 1778. This tract of 400 acres moved him well south of the Rowan County Bryan Settlement.
As the theater of war moved into the Carolinas, John seems to have remained neutral, but at least one of his nephews, James Bryan, joined Cornwallis’ army, and was killed in a rebel ambush. Also around this time, John’s own son John died, but it isn’t certain if he was also fighting for the British or not. John appeared in support of his son’s widow, Rebecca, and they both were administrators of John Jr.’s estate. He later became guardian for his son’s three children.
By 1787, tax lists show that John’s household consisted only he and his wife Sarah. In his old age, John made out a will dated November 18, 1797, and he died about two years later in early 1800. The will revealed that he owned at least four slaves. Two of them were left to his wife and a son, and two young women were ordered to be sold so that the money could pay off his debts—a cruel fate all too common in the South at that time. John made his mark on the will showing that was illiterate in spite of his relative wealth. Sarah survived him, but it isn’t known when she died.
Children:
1. Jane Bryan — B. about 1752, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. after Nov 1800; M. John Orton (~1748-~1825), 26 May 1770, Rowan County, North Carolina
2. John Bryan — B. about 1754, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. before 7 Aug 1781, (probably) Kentucky; M. Rebecca Orton (~1755-?), 26 Aug 1774, Rowan County, North Carolina
3. Samuel Bryan — B. about 1756, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. 1832, Davidson County, Tennessee; M. Margaret Morrow (~1760-1841), after 11 Aug 1784, Orange County, North Carolina
4. Jannet Bryan — B. about 1759, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. before 2 May 1808, Rowan County, North Carolina; M. Joseph Orton (~1758-1807), after 28 Sep 1780, Rowan County, North Carolina
5. Sarah Bryan — B. about 1760, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. after 1797; M. Zechariah Allen (1760-1838), about 1780, Rowan County North Carolina
6. Elizabeth Bryan — B. about 1762, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. after 1821, (probably) Rowan County, North Carolina; M. John Davis (?-1821), 22 Feb 1787, Rowan County, North Carolina
7. Mary Bryan — B. about 1764, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. about 1817, Tennessee; M. Thomas Huey, after 7 Feb 1787, Rowan County, North Carolina
8. Margery Bryan — B. about 1768, Rowan County, North Carolina; D. Dec 1846, Greene County, Illinois; M. Thomas Allen (~1766-1832), after 26 May 1789, Rowan County, North Carolina
9. James Bryan — B. about 1768, Rowan County, North Carolina; 1797, Rowan County, North Carolina; M. Margaret Johnston (~1770-?), before 8 Dec 1790, Rowan County, North Carolina
Sources:
Morgan Bryan (1671-1763) A Danish Born “Irish Immigrant” and Some of His Antecedents and Descendants, V. 2, David Cornelius McMurtry, David Randall Bryan, Kathryn Horton Weiss, 2007
Probate records of John Bryan, 1800, Rowan County, North Carolina
