Adventures in Genealogy

Sir Francis Bryan II
My 12th Great Grandfather

Born: 11 June 1549, Munster, County Claire, Ireland
Died: 1 June 1640, Gloucester, Virginia

Father: Sir Francis Bryan, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
Mother: Lady Joan Fitzgerald, Countess of Desmond and Ormond

Wife: Lady Ann Smith
Children: Sir William Smith Bryan

Sir William Smith Bryan, aka “Prince William of Ireland”
My 11th Great Grandfather

Born: 1590, Claire, Ireland
Died: 1667, Gloucester, Virginia

Father: Sir Francis Bryan II
Mother: Lady Ann Smith

Wife: Lady Catherine Morgan, Countess Ormond
Children: Francis Bryan III

During the Puritan Rebellion, Sir William Smith Bryan attempted to gain the throne of Ireland and was dubbed “Prince William of Ireland” by his followers. Sometime about 1650 or 1660, William Smith Bryan and Catherine Morgan were exiled to Virginia by Oliver Cromwell for anti-English insurgent activities. He is said to have been “dropped” at Gloucester Beach, Virginia. He arrived in Virginia with a shipload of personal belongings and his wife, eleven sons, and three daughters. They were among the first English to bring horses to the British colony of Virginia. William Smith Bryan and Catherine Morgan both died in Gloucester, Virginia.

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland

Francis Bryan III
My 10th Great Grandfather

Born: 1 June 1630, County Claire, Ireland
Died: April 1693, Belfast, Antrim, Ireland

Father: Sir William Smith Bryan
Mother: Lady Catherine Morgan, Countess Ormond

Wife: Sarah Brinker
Children: William Smith Bryan

After being exiled to Virginia with his parents, Francis Bryan III returned to Ireland several years later and attempted to regain the Bryan family estates lost under Oliver Cromwell. He was unsuccessful and had to seek refuge in Denmark, where he met and married Sarah Brinker, a cousin of William of Orange.

Francis Bryan III was the standard bearer to William of Orange at the Battle of Boyne, 12 August 1690. He died three years later in Belfast, Ireland.

William Smith Bryan
My 9th Great Grandfather

Born: June 1684, Ballyroney, Down, Ireland
Died: 1789, Salem, Roanoke, Virginia, USA

Father: Francis Bryan III
Mother: Sarah Brinker

Wife: Margaret Brockers
Children: John Andrew Bryan

The town of Bryanford, County Down, Ireland, is named after relatives of William Smith Bryan.

William Smith Bryan & his family were among the first settlers of Roanoke, Virginia.

William lived to the incredible age of 104, and he is buried on the Bryan family homestead near Salem, Virginia.

John Andrew Bryan
My 8th Great Grandfather

Born: 1 May 1724, Ballyroney, Down, Ireland
Died: 9 December 1799, Molly’s Creek, Campbell, Virginia, USA

Father: William Smith Bryan
Mother: Margaret Brockers

Wife: Mary Morrison
Children: John Bryan, Andrew Morrison Bryan

John Andrew Bryan was a member of Capt. Peter Hogg’s Company of the Virginia troops serving under George Washington at the Battle of Great Meadows, and at the siege and surrender of Fort Necessity. He also served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Thomas Merriwether’s Company, First Virginia State troops, 1777-1780.

Sons of the American Revolution – Application: