| Home Surname List Name Index Sources | Third Generation18. Major William Bryan1,3,4,10. Birth: 16 May 1762, Augusta County (now Rockingham County), Virginia. Census: 1840, Rockingham County, Virginia, William Bryan pensioner age 78, enumerated household of Elisha Bryan. However, there was not a male explicitly listed as age 70-79. The closest possibility was a male age 60-69. The census entry was clearly in error. Death: before July 1845, age 83, Rockingham County, Virginia. 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". "Statement of Allan C. Bryan dated June 4, 1928. The original commission is in the possession of Mrs. Louisa Bryan Lapin of Harrisonburg, and she verifies the spelling of the name as "O'Bryan", from Irish Settlers in America" by Michael J. O'Brien. Major William Bryan and Nancy Kelly Marriage: 13 May 1786, Rockingham County, Virginia. Nancy Kelly1,10. Birth: before 1759, Rockingham County, Virginia. Census: 1840, Rockingham County, Virginia, Age 70-79, enumerated household of Elisha Bryan. Major William Bryan-891 and Nancy Kelly-2977 had the following children:
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