THE BRYAN FAMILY LINEAGE: AGONY AND ECSTASY

Brothers and sisters, I hope you will be patient with me, and follow me through this post. Please read it all, because I have so much to share, and you won’t be sorry! This past week of studying our past has been glorious, thrilling, and sobering, full of adventure and sadness. That is why I have entitled this post “Agony and Ecstasy.” I know that you too, will thrill at how deeply our roots cut into Western history, from settling the New World, to Tudor England, to the Carolingian Dynasty. The Bryan line is filled with saints (yes, canonized saints!), nobles, landed lords, farmers, Kings, pilgrims, scoundrels, poets, warriors, crusaders, Emperors, and combinations of all of the above… and it travels back as far as the 200s.

Great Grandmother Elsie Pauline Bryan ("Munny")

The Bryan line travels through our Grandmother, Katherine Bass Myers, through her mother, Elsie Pauline Bryan (Bass). Daddy refers to Great Grandmother Elsie as “Munny.” As I have waded into the Bryan line, it has by far been the most giving line of inquiry into our past. The Bryans, clear into the horizon of their history, appear to have been wealthy in every instance, and they eventually reach into a “noble” heritage. (Noble in the European since, i.e. noble blood) I have found that when you reach a noble lineage in the past, you are confronted with meticulously kept records and pedigrees, because one’s pedigree equaled one’s standing, one’s land, one’s power, and one’s title. Here is a wealth of information. But let’s begin with our Great Grandmother Munny’s family.

Wilson Turner Bryan’s Family

2nd Great Grandfather Wilson Turner Bryan

I love the family photo above, and I believe it tells a great deal in the quality of the photo, of the clothes worn by Munny, her parents and her siblings. Our Great Great Grandfather, Wilson Turner Bryan, like his father and grandfather before him, was a farmer. I speculate (and you will understand why) that he produced well as such, but also that he inherited wealth from his ancestors. I have not uncovered a great deal about Wilson, other than his occupation and the attached photo. His wife, our Great Great Grandmother, was Margaret Patton. His children are Thomas, George, Mai, Minnie, Elsie (Munny), Hattie, Gracie, Clarence, Catherine, and Elizabeth. It is worth noting that our Great Uncle Wid (William Wilson Bass) was no doubt named in part for his Grandfather Bryan.

Also of interest was our 2nd Great Grand Uncle, Professor John Bryan. Is he not the spitting image of his older brother? 

 I hope you will read Professor Bryan’s obituary, as well as that of his wife, Laura Bryan, which I offer below. I do not doubt that you will be reminded of Katherine Bass Myers and John Albert Myers:

Here is a photo John and Wilson with their other siblings:

You can see that Wilson is seated on the furthest left and John is tallest standing. Just imagine the descendants… Indeed, it is because there are so many that I have been able to find so much history for the Bryan line via ancestry.com. 

18th and 19th Century Tennessee: A sobering discovery

I experienced a sad, albeit thrilling encounter with American history when I ventured into the two generations of Bryans who preceded our Great Great Grandfather’s. Wilson and John were sons of Nelson Jemmison Bryan Jr. (1813-1897) who was also a farmer. In fact, I think I can say that going back 11 generations, all the way to the first pioneer (among the Bryans) to America, the Bryans were “planters.” Lord Edward Bryan sailed from England to Virginia in 1618. He was “born in Denbigh, Wales. Landed at Jamestown in 1618 aboard the ship “Marigould” from London/South Hampton. Listed in the 1624 Virginia muster as a planter. Son Rodger (our 8th great grand uncle) was one of the leaders of Bacon’s Rebellion.”

Nelson Jemmison Bryan Jr.

But I digress. Nelson Jemmison Bryan Jr., born 1813, was preceded by Nelson Jemmison Bryan Sr. (1786-1836). I should say that N.J. Bryan Jr. may have been a confederate soldier, but I have not established that as yet. However, passing on to his father, there is much to know, thanks to the fact that Nelson Bryan Sr. left a very detailed will. When I found this, I was absolutely thrilled, because it was so detailed. I bent over it, savoring every detail, until I realized that Nelson Bryan was not simply passing on money, land, and resources to his children. He was also bequeathing human beings. 

I had stumbled upon the first hard, clear evidence of slave ownership in our family. Here is a portion of the will:

My emotions were a mix of sorrow, awe, and horror as I read. Awe, because here was a sublime connection with our nation’s past. Horror and sorrow, because every word of the will makes clear how sure Nelson was that this was acceptable. “But for the grace of God there go I.” What would I have been in his time? What evils do I accept today as goods, because they are wrapped in philosophy, politics, and theology that validate them? In his last will and testament, 22 souls were passed on, by name:

Silva

Charles
Little Jim
Henry
Nancy Boswell
Fountain
Eliza
Big Jim
Hannah
Emily
Linda
Martha
Anselitta
Jasper
Teba
Israel
Mary
Bethel
Sary
Jackson
Jefferson
Armstead

These men, women, and children were handed down either as property, or they were sold for money. Have you or I known descendants of Nancy Boswell, or of Fountain, or Israel? I could not help but think of our beautiful sister-in-law and her two babies.

Truly an agony and an ecstasy. 

I found very little about the second Nelson Bryan, our 3rd Great Grandfather, but I did find more evidence of slave ownership through Tennessee supreme court records. The John B. Bryan referred to in the case would have been his brother John Boswell Bryan and not our Great Great Grand Uncle, Professor John Bryan, whom I referred to earlier. My assumption here is that John and Nelson were receiving these slaves from James Thomas in partial payment of a debt, since the slaves are not named among those bequeathed by the older Nelson Bryan. Still, it is possible the situation was the other way around. A sad history, truly. The following is the recorded text regarding the case:

1847 court case involving slave ownership:

John B. Bryant, Nelson J. Bryan v. James Thomas, et al.

“Deed of trust, including three negroes, woman "Harriet," her children- boy, "Isham," and girl, "Louisa." "Harriet" died shortly after trust deed, "Isham" sold, and "Harriet" sold against debt.”

Whatever the Bryans’ history with slavery, it seems clear that they weathered southern reconstruction well after the Civil War ended. I will continue to dig for more information about Munny’s family and the immediate preceding generations. I encourage anyone with more information to share it with me. 

The Bryans – An Epic Adventure in History

Let me now turn to the robust and exciting lineage that gave issue to the American Bryans who had so much success as planters and farmers. As I shared, Lord Edward Bryan was the family’s pioneer, and he travelled here from England with his wife, Ann Butler Bryan. (Ann’s Butler lineage also appears to be promising as a source of information about our past) Lord Bryan’s heritage is very rich in its ties to history and to great, even towering figures of the past. I share below a list of some of the remarkable people in our family’s history. I’ve provided hyperlinks to larger articles about these ancestors. I invite you to read about them at your leisure. You will be amazed.

Historical notables in the Bryan line include, but are not limited to:

Sir Francis Bryant (11th Great Grandfather) Courtier and favorite of King Henry VIII, Lord Marshal of Ireland, Diplomat, poet, court rake, cousin of Anne Boleyn, known as “The Vicar of Hell” for his hasty distance from his cousin when Boleyn fell out of favor. Here is a scene from “The Tudors” that features Sir Francis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4OcNVpWwP0

Lady Margaret Bourchier Bryan (Sir Francis’ mother and our 12th Great Grandmother) was chosen by Henry VIII to be Governess to his two children, Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth (Elizabeth I!!!)

CHARLEMAGNE “Charles The Great” Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Franks (Our 35th Great Grandfather) – This was the most amazing find thus far.

Charles “The Hammer” Martel (Our 37th Great Grandfather)

Saint Begue (or Begga) (Our 40th Great Grandmother) On the death of her husband, she made a pilgrimage to Rome and returned home to build 7 churches and a convent. Her feast day in the Catholic Church is December 17th.

Saint Bavo of Ghent (Our 1st Cousin 42x removed) There is a cathedral named for him in Ghent, Belgium. He is the patron saint of Ghent. His feast day is October 1st. Saint Bavo’s Cathedral is also the location of the famous altar piece of Ghent, by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck:

Saint Arnulf of Metz (Our 41st Great Grandfather) PATRON SAINT OF BEER. Saint Arnulf was a Frankish Bishop of Metz and advisor to the Merovingian court of Austrasia. He later retired to be a hermit. In English he is known as “Arnold,” and there is a brewing company in Texas named in his honor. Saint Arnulf’s feast day is July 18th.

Saint Itta of Metz (Our 41st Great Grand Aunt) founded a Benedictine Nunnery. Her feast day is May 8th.