| 8. | Morgan Bryan was born in 1671 in Denmark (son of Francis Bryan, III and Sarah Brinker); died on 3 Apr 1763 in Mocksville, Rowan Co, North Carolina. Notes:
Morgan Bryan, born in Denmark in 1671, Morgan was named for his grandmother and was 12 years old when he moved with his family to Ireland, land of his father's birth. He lived in Ireland for the next 12 years and as a young man of 24 migrated o Pennsylvania in 1695 with his brother William, two years after the death of their father. They first seettled in Chester County and lived here for many years. They might have made contact with their many uncles and aunts who had been in Virginia since 1650, but we have no evidence that they did.
Morgan marrtied Martha Strode. She was reported to have been born in Holland about 1678 (a date we question) and her father was probably Edward Strode, a descendant of a famous English family. Edward was a Protestant exile in Holland and was married in France to a Huguenot. It is believed that edward and his wife died at sea on their way to America and that young Martha together with two brothers, Geremiah and Samuel were bound out until they were of age. This event probably occurred before 24 September 1697 because the will of Edward's father on that date refers to his son as deceased. The marriage date of Morgan and Martha is in question. Once source states 1695 when she would have bene 17, which supposedly was two years before she arrived in Pennsylvania, and another source states 1719, when she would have bene 41, too old to have later had nine children. Since the first child was born about 1719, it is our guess that the birthdate given is too early by at least ten years. It must also be noted that if Morgan's birthdate is correct, he would have been 48 years old when his first child was orn. This is possible, and Martha also could have been his second wife.
Eight of their nine children were born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and as a member of the New Garden Quaker community, Morgan had been a successful trader with the Conestoga Indians.
In 1730, Quakers in Pennsylvania formed a Company under the leadership of Morgan Bryan and Alexander Ross for the purpose of making settlements in Maryland and Virginia. Permission was then gained from the quaker Meeting of Chester County to build a meeting house in Virginia. On 28 October 1730, Governor Gooch of Virginia granted a right to survey and lay out 100,000 acres west of the Opeckon River (just north of present day Winchester, Frederick, County). In 1734, Morgan led a group of Quakers in the building the "Hopewell Monthly Meeting" of Frederick. This settlement flourished for many years at Frederick Town, later named Winchester. Here, where their last child was born, the family lived for over ten years, and son Joseph was first married.
1734 petition for two more meeting houses (Presbyterian) one near Morgan Bryan's home; (this petition was signed by James Cole and William Rentfroe)
Sometime about 1745/46 Morgan moved with his wife and eight children up the Shenandoah Valley to the Big Lick at the head of the Roanoke River where land was more plentiful. His oldest son, Joseph, who by now had a family of his own, stayed in Winchester. The family did not like this new area in Roanoke County and in the fall of 1748 they all moved again to the Forks of the Yadkin in North Carolina. Morgan's brother William who had always lived close by up to this point decided to stay in Roanoke County Virginia where he presumably died.
"Morgan Bryan, the first to travel this way, had to take the wheels off his wagon and carry it piecemeal to the top, and had been three months on the journey from the Shanidore [Shenandoah] to the Etkin [Yadkin]." http://www.americanhistory.com/history/COSW/COSW02.mgi
As some of the earliest settlers in this part of the Yadkin River Valley, Morgan, Martha and eight of their children selected the choice pieces of land in an area that was afterward called "The Bryan Settlement." Their nearest neighbors were about 60 miles away. The Bryans claimed large acreages in Rowan County, parts of which are now in Wilkes County, and some 5000 areas in the northeast section of what is now Davie County, from Dutchman
s Creek into Farmington, Smiths Grove, and the Bend of the River sections of the county.
Morgan lived here for the rest of his life surrounded by his family. Martha died first, the date and place require explanation. Most early biographers of the family state that Martha Strode Bryan died in Virginia in 1747, but in teh Bryan Papers deposited by the Rev. John D. Shane with the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia, is the following:
Martha Bryan died August 24, 1762
Allenor Bryan died Oct 21, 1772
Morgan Bryan died Apr 3, 1763, Easter Sunday
These records given to Lyman Draper are a part of the "Shane Collection: Bryan Family Papers; MS/SH18/B84, Item 2." This document is more likely to reflect the true record of Martha's death since Morgan Bryan did die 3 April 1763 in Rowan County, North Carolina at age 92 and left a will dated 28 March, recorded in Will Book A, Page 13 as follows:
"I Morgan Bryan of Rowan County living in perfect mind and memory, blessed be God for his mercies, so dispose of my worledly estate as follows, vis. first, I give and bequeath unto my beloved son Thomas Bryan my mansion house and plantation, also my part of a Negro boy named Jack, also my wagon and wagon horse called Black and the necessaries belonging to the wagon and my plow and utensils thereunto. Two brood mares, viz. a mare called Brown Dent and her yeard and her colt, a cow called Josie and her calf and one called Brown and her calf; also my bed and furniture after my decease reserving a sufficient living for me from the land while I live. Second, I give and beqeueath unto my beloved daughter Elinor Linville all my wife's wearing apparel. I give and bequeath unto my granddaughter Mary Forbes my great pot and five shillings Sterling. Eight pounds proclamatin to my beloved sone James Bryan. I reserve for my funeral charages and sickness. I give and bequeath Joseph, Samuel, Morgan, John William, James 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 and appoint my beloved sons John Bryan and William Bryan to be Executors ratifyng and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament, whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this March 28, 1763.
Morgan Bryan"
Signed, Sealed, Published and Pronounced by the testator in presence of us - Morgan Bryan Jr., Anthony Heaverloe, Mary (X) Forbes: Proved July Court 1763.
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Morgan Bryan was also discussed in the historic records of Alexander Ross (see the Individual Page for Alexander Ross in this file):
Alexander was taxed from 1718-1730 in West Nottingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He and Morgan Bryan petitioned the Council of the Colony of Virginia on 28 October 1730 that there were 100 families desirous of settling in Virginia and requested 100,000 acres on the west and north side of "Opeckon" to the North Mountain and along the River Cohongarooton (Potomac River). With the advice of the Council, the Governor gave permission to Ross and Bryan to take up the 100,000 acres; patents would be granted, providing that the 100 families were present and dwelling upon the land within two years.
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Alexander (b. 1682 c.) sold a 214-acre section of patent land . . . to Joseph Bryan on 12 April 1744. (son of Morgan Bryan)
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Frederick County, Virginia, Hopewell Friends History [database online], Orem, UT: Ancestry.com, 1997:
In the State Land Office at Richmond are to be found recorded in Book 16, pages 315-415, inclusive, the patents issued to the settlers who came to the Shenandoah Valley under authority of the Orders in Council made to Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan. All bear date of November 12, 1735, and recite that the grantee is one of the seventy families brought in by them, and excepting location and acreage, are alike in wording and conditions, and are signed by William Gooch, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony at that time. . . .
These patents were issued under the seal of the colony and were grants from the Crown, free of any obligation of feudal services to the Fairfax family, who claimed the land as lords proprietors of the Northern Neck of Virginia. The sixth Lord Fairfax, who later established his home at Greenway Court near Winchester, instituted many suits against early settlers in the Shenandoah Valley, but it does not appear that any Friend who claimed under Ross and Bryan was ever ejected from his land.
Although it is specifically stated that seventy families have been "by them brought in to our said Colony and settled upon the Lands in the said Order mentioned," only thirty-six patents issued to thirty-four grantees have been found. The names of these grantees are here given, together with sundry information gathered from the minutes of various Friends' meetings, from the records of the counties of Orange and Frederick in Virginia, and Chester County, Pennsylvania.
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The Frederick County records show but one conveyance (from Alexander Ross) &, (Deed Book 1, page 75), and that is to Joseph Bryan, son of his partner Morgan Bryan, to whom he sells 214 acres on April 13, 1744. No other sales appear in the records, and as he bought no additional land, he could hardly be considered a speculator in land, as some have claimed.
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The identity of all 70 families who settled in Frederick County, VA by 1735, in the geographic area of the Bryan-Ross land order, is unknown to the compiler. However, each person listed below was a grantee in at least one patent dated November 12, 1735 to real estate in this area:
7. Bryan, Morgan, Sr.
(5) Following is a listing, in page number order in VA Patent Book 16, of the 40 patents which were executed and delivered on November 12, 1935 to members of the "70 families" who settled in Frederick County, VA by 1735, in the geographic area of the Bryan-Ross land order:
1. Pp. 315-318, Morgan Bryan, 400 acres
2. Pp. 318-320, Morgan Bryan, 264 acres
18. Pp. 356-359, Morgan Bryan, 450 acres
29. Pp. 390-382, Morgan Bryan, 1,020 acres
7. Bryan, Morgan, Sr. - By most accounts, Morgan Bryan was born in Denmark, about 1671, of English-Irish parentage, and came to America from northern Ireland in 1695 at the age of 24 years. The earliest known record on Bryan is the listing of his name on a 1719 tax roll in Chester County, PA. The migration pattern of the Bryan family was from Chester County, PA to VA.
Morgan married Martha Strode in 1719 in Chester, Pennsylvania. Martha was born in 1678 in Holland; died on 29 Aug 1762 in Bryans Station, Rowan Co, North Carolina. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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1798 - Abt 1855 (57 years)