Morgan Bryan

DNA proven as not related to William Smith Bryan, I. Descendants of William Bryan are from "E" Haplogroup, specifically E-PH3735. Descendants of Morgan Bryan are "R" Haplogroup, specifically R-DC191.

Morgan Bryan was born about 20 May 1671, of Irish background, and died 3 Apr 1763 at about age 91 in Rowan, North Carolina.

This man has been given many fanciful ancestries, as can be seen in online family trees. Until documentation is discovered or provided, his parents are unknown. No evidence is known that he was born in Denmark.

Biography

From Wikipedia

Morgan Bryan, an immigrant, led his extended family to the Forks of the Yadkin in the Province of North Carolina, now the state of North Carolina, and founded Bryan's Settlement there. He was known for "establishing critical settlements down the Shenandoah Valley along the Great Wagon Road in the Southeast."[1] Bryan and his wife Martha raised their granddaughter Rebecca Bryan Boone, the wife of Daniel Boone.

Bryan left Ballyroney, County Down, Northern Ireland[5] and immigrated to Colonial America about 1695.[3][6] He landed at Roanoke in Colonial Virginia[5] and ultimately went to Philadelphia in Colonial Pennsylvania.[3][6] He sought to make a fortune[5] and attain religious freedom, as did other Quaker immigrants. His brother William, a Presbyterian, immigrated in 1718.

Marriage and children

Bryan married Martha Strode (born about 1697[7]) in 1719 when he was listed as a member of the New Garden Quaker Meeting of Chester County, his only known Quaker affiliation.

Eight of the Bryan children survived their parents:

1. Joseph, the father-in-law of Daniel and "Neddy" Boone, died in Kentucky in 1804 or 1805.
2. Eleanor Bryan Linville's husband William and son John were killed by Indians while hunting in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1766. She and her married children left the Yadkin area after the Revolutionary War. She died in Kentucky in 1792.
3. Samuel, a Loyalist colonel during the war. He died in the Yadkin area in 1798.
4. Morgan, Jr. died in Kentucky around 1800.
5. James, who also helped found Bryan's Station, became a widower in 1770. Rebecca and Daniel Boone raised his six small children after his wife's death. James died in Kentucky in 1807.
6. John, a farmer, died in the Bryan Settlements in the winter of 1799–1800.
7. William, with his brothers, established Bryan's Station near the present Lexington, Kentucky. He was killed there by Native Americans in May 1780.
8. Thomas inherited his father's Deep Creek property but sold it to his brother William and was living elsewhere in the Settlements at the time of his death in 1777.

In the late 1740s, Bryan's children had married and began having children. His sons scouted lands south of the Shenandoah Valley to establish a settlement for his large family, and with Bryan decided to establish themselves on Lord Granville's land south of the Virginia border.[3]

The Bryan Settlement

In the fall of 1748, Morgan and Martha Bryan and their children and grandchildren traveled south to the Granville District in the Province of North Carolina.[3][13] His brother William, who had followed him to Roanoke County stayed there.[13] Son Joseph delayed his move until a later time.[3] Joseph's daughter Rebecca Bryan traveled with Bryan along what became the Great Wagon Road.[1] At that time, it was an old Cherokee path of rough terrain.[15] The journey took three months because he had to clear the path along the way.[16] There were a number of waterway crossings. Bryan, said to be the first settler to use the trail, was said to have needed to take his wagon apart at some point to make it through an impassible area and continue the journey.[15][17] On November 28, 1748[5] or in the spring of 1749, the clan settled near Shallow Ford in the Forks of Yadkin, an area that became known as the Bryan Settlement and is now the town of Farmington, North Carolina.[18] Bryan acquired several thousand acres in the Granville District within five years. His sons and his son-in-law William Linville also acquired substantial property. They all lived in Rowan County when it was formed in 1753.[3] At that time, there were more than 1,000 settlers in the county.[19] Referring to his wife, many of the deeds were labeled "Martha's land". Her name was on many more deeds than most colonial women.[20] Bryan continued to earn income as a land speculator, as friends and others from Pennsylvania and Virginia settled in Rowan County into the 1750s. He built a mansion on Deep Creek.[3] He was among the first white men to settle there and was a leader in the community.[1]

Friends that Bryan knew in Virginia moved into the area, including the Boone, Linville, Strode, Hampton, Hunt, and Bryan families.[21] Moravians also moved into the Yadkin River valley area and provided religious support for the Bryans, including performing baptisms and wedding ceremonies.[21] Four of his family members married into the Boone family. His son William married Mary Boone, Squire Boone's daughter. His granddaughters, Rebecca and Martha, married brothers Daniel and Edward Boone, respectively.

Granddaughter Nancy Linville married George. Daniel, Edward, and George were sons of Squire Boone.[3]

Settlers were attacked by Native Americans during the Anglo-Cherokee War (1758–1761), which caused the deaths of hundreds of people and resulted in about a hundred families leaving the area.[3] Of those who remained, some went to Fort Dobbs for safety.[22] Bryan was a regional leader in the militia during the war.[1] Bryan's sons also joined the local militia during the war.[3] His son Captain Morgan Bryan Jr. led militiamen throughout the area to guard settlements.[23][24] There was ongoing conflict in the region up to and including the Revolutionary War.[14]

Dr. Robert W. Ramsey said that Bryan was "the most prominent of the settlers in northwestern Carolina before 1752" in his book Carolina Cradle: Settlement of the Northwestern Carolina Frontier, 1747 – 1767.[14]

Death

Martha Strode Bryan died August 24, 1762.[3][7][a] Morgan Bryan died on April 3, 1763,[1] on Easter Sunday.[3] They were both believed to have been buried on their Deep Creek property. Martha Bryan's tombstone is now at the Rowan Museum in Salisbury. It was found in northeastern Davie County during the construction of a highway.[3] A historic marker in Advance, North Carolina identifies the site of the Bryan Settlement Cemetery and their house and tells of Morgan and Martha's roles as settlers in the region.[1]
Bryan's sons had influential roles during the American Revolutionary War.[3][6] Son Samuel served for the Torys, while James, John, Joseph, William, and Morgan fought for the colonists.[25] The sons were also influential in the early settlement of Kentucky County, Virginia, now the state of Kentucky.[3][26]

Granddaughter Rebecca Bryan Boone became the wife of Daniel Boone and attained fame as a pioneer woman.[25]

Will

• Page 80, Rowan County, North Carolina Will Book A, page 13
• I, Morgan Bryan of Rowan County, living in perfect mind and memory, blessed be God for his mercies, do dispose of my worldly estate as follows, viz,
• First I give and bequeath unto my beloved son Thomas Bryan my mansion house and plantation, also my part of a Negro named Jack, also my wagon and wagon horse named Black and the necessaries belonging to the wagon and my plow and the utensils thereunto. Two brood mares, viz. a mare called Brown Dent and her yeard and young and her colt. Two cows, viz. a cow called Josey and her calf the other called Brown and her calf also my bed and furniture after my decease reserving a sufficient living for me of the land while I live.
• Second, I give and bequeath unto my beloved daughter Elinor Linville all my wife's wearing apparel,
• I give and bequeath unto my grand daughter, Mary Forbes my great pot and five shillings Sterl.
• Eight pounds proclamation to my beloved son James Bryan. I reserve for my funeral charges and sickness.
• I give and bequeath Joseph, Samuel, Morgan, John, William and Thomas and my daughter Elinor Linville all the rest of my real and personal estate to be equally divided amongst them together with that part of my estate which they have already received.
• I do nominate my beloved sons John Bryan and William Bryan to be Ext.
• Ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this March twenty 28, 1763.
• Morgan Bryan (Seal) Signed, sealed, published and pronounced in the presents of Morgan Bryan Jr., Anthony Heaverloe, Mary (X) Forbes. Proved July Court 1763

  ---

Memorial Plaque Morgan Bryan Martha Strode Family Cemetery Davie County, NC

References

1. Bryan, E. (1942). BRYAN, A PIONEER FAMILY. Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, 40(132), 318–322. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23372207
2. Seven Sons and Two Daughters of Morgan Bryan (1671-1763) Irish Immigrant and Some of Their Descendants, Authored and Compiled by David C. McMurtry, David R. Bryan, Kathryn H. Weiss, John K. Bryan, Jr., and Pat R. Forbis. Vol 2 of 2, Privately Printed 2009, Lexington KY
3. Updated from WikiTree Genealogy via daughter Mary Bush (born Bryan) by SmartCopy: Jan 28 2015, 21:46:16 UTC
4. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/bryan-morgan cites
   1. Lyman Chalkley, comp., Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement . . . from the . . . Records of Augusta County, Va., 1745–1800 (1966).
   2. Robert O. DeMond, The Loyalists in North Carolina (1940).
   3. J. F. Dorman, Abstracts, Orange County (Virginia) Will Book I (1966).
   4. Draper MS Collection (Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison).
   5. Adelaide L. Fries, ed., Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, 8 vols. (1922–54).
   6. Handwritten copy of deposition signed by Samuel and Mary Hunt Bryan in 1830 in connection with Revolutionary War pension application (North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh).
   7. Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), for Chester County Deed Book B-3 and Tax Lists of Chester County.
   8. H. R. McIlwaine, Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia IV (1925).
   9. New Garden Meeting records (Swarthmore College Library, Swarthmore, Pa.).
   10. R. W. Ramsey, Carolina Cradle (1964).
   11. Rowan County records (North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh).
   12. Jethro Rumple, A History of Rowan County (1881).
   13. W. W. Scott, History of Orange County, Virginia (1907).
   14. John Shane, ed., Bryan Family Papers (MS Collection, Presbyterian National Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.).
   15. Paul H. Smith, Loyalists and Redcoats (1964).
   16. Frederick A. Virkus, ed., The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy (1925).
   17. James W. Wall, History of Davie County (1969). Additional Resources:
   18. McMurtry, David C. Seven sons and two daughters of Morgan Bryan (1671-1763), "Irish immigrant" and some of their descendants. Lexington, Ky: Mil-Mac Publishers. 2009.
   19. McMurtry, David C., David Randall Bryan, and Kathryn Weiss. Morgan Bryan (1671-1763): a Danish born "Irish immigrant" and some of his antecedents and descendants. Lexington, Ky: Mil-Mac Publishers. 2007.
   20. Image Credits:
   21. "Martha Bryan Tombstone." Photograph. Images of North Carolina Collection, Davie County Public Library. Image courtesy of the Davie County Public Library. http://library.digitalnc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ncimages/id/1439 (accessed December 18, 2013)
5. https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Morgan_Bryan_%281%29 cites
   1. Bryan Family by Melvin E. Hurst, in FAYETTE COUNTY (KY) GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY 68-69, Fall 1996. Morgan Bryan immigrated from Ireland, with his younger brother William Smith Bryan [NO], in 1718 to Pennsylvania where about four or five oldest of his children were born after his marriage to Martha Strode in 1718/19. About 1728/30 Morgan Bryan, Alexander Ross and other Friends (Quakers) obtained a grant of 100,000 acres of land on the Potomac and Opequan Rivers in Virginia. Morgan moved his family to this land and settled near the present site of Winchester about 1730. Here the rest of the children were born to Morgan and Martha Strode Bryan. Morgan sold his interests in Virginia and in the, fall of 1748 moved his family to North Carolina and settled in the Forks of the Yadkin River. ...
   2. Society of Friends. Hopewell Monthly Meeting (Frederick County, Virginia : Orthodox), and John Walter Wayland. Hopewell Friends history, 1734-1934, Frederick County, Virginia: records of Hopewell Monthly Meetings and Meetings reporting to Hopewell, two hundred years of history and genealogy. (Strasburg, Virginia: Shenandoah Publishing House, 1936) 16-18. [Hazel Spraker's summary]
6. “Ancestors of Morgan Bryan” By Paul Gifford July 06, 2007 < link >; (document attached). “I am going to try here to begin to explain how the alleged ancestry of Morgan Bryan (d. 1763), of Rowan County, North Carolina, was developed. It's an interesting lesson in how genealogical guesses develop into "facts," how early publication of such "facts" develops into "family traditions." …”
7. GEDCOM Note. Information obtained from Boyce Bryan.
8. Findagrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25366716/morgan-bryan
9. The Boone Family: A Genealogical History of the Descendants of George and ... page 508. < GoogleBooks >
10. “The Bryan Lineage and Alliances” by Edward Bryan. Genealogies of Kentucky Families, from the Filson Club History Quarterly. Page 171-174 < GoogleDrive > (has errors)