| Home Surname List Name Index Sources Email Us | Fourth Generation31. Major William
Bryan1,2,3,11 was born on 16 May 1762 in Augusta County (now Rockingham
County), Virginia. He died before Jul 1845. William served
in the War of the Revolution when only nineteen years old and was at Yorktown,
and in the War of 1812 he was a Major of Virginia troops. On May 13, 1786, he
married Nancy Kelly, and they were the parents of Allen, Daniel, William, Benjamin,
Hannah, Elizabeth, and Nancy Bryan. Allen was born in 1800 at Edom, Va., on
the farm originally owned by his great-great-grandfather, Cornelius O'Bryan,
and he married Louise Pennypacker, a sister of Isaac S. Pennypacker of Harrisonburg,
afterwards United States Senator from Virginia. He was a lawyer at Harrisonburg
and was the father of Pendleton Bryan, who also practiced law at that place.
In 1864 Pendleton Bryan married Emma Lyon of Richmond, and their son is Allan
C. Bryan of Washington, D.C. Now, notwithstanding that the father and grandfather
of Allan were recorded Bryans, and used only that form of the name, I am informed
by Allan C. Bryan that "Allen (Allan C. Bryan's grandfather) originally
was called O'Bryan", but "being an attorney and living in an English
community where there were very few Irish besides his own family, he thought
it to his advantage to change his name to Bryan, although the commission his
son, Pendleton, (my father), as an officer in the Confederate Army is in the
name of Lieutenant Pendleton O'Brien".
Major William Bryan and Nancy Kelly were married on 13 May 1780 in Rockingham
County, Virginia. Nancy Kelly3,11 was born
before 1759 in Rockingham County, Virginia. Major William Bryan and
Nancy Kelly had the following children:
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