William Bryant, "of Brunswick County", was an immigrant from Northern Ireland and England, perhaps coming to America with his father of the same name and his mother, Mary. In the early 1760s, he purchased a tract of land in Granville County, North Carolina. He brought with him his wife, Elizabeth Rowland Fearrington (the widow of John Fearrington, Sr.), and his wife's two children, John and Elizabeth Fearrington (or Farrington). William and Elizabeth's children were William, Rowland, Delilah, Martha, James, and Tabitha. Granville County records include an undated paper which lists this William Bryant, along with Pomfrett Herndon and Samuel Kittrell, as petitioners for a public road "to convey the produce of their land and labor to market" from Capt. John Dickenson to Callier's (Collier's) Road.  He was murdered: the trial of the slave convicted of the crime is on the 1773 record in Granville County. [Our cousin, Bebe Johns Fox of Winston Salem, NC, a descendent of Delilah Bryant, has shared her family research with us and has been a invaluable resource.]

       Rowland Bryant (c. 1754-60 to 1843), was not "of age" when his father's estate was settled in 1774. Although there are records of a Rowland Bryant in Botetourt County, Virginia of about the same age, he is not thought to be our Rowland who was recorded in Granville County, NC in 1780, 1783, 1786 and in the first NC census in 1790. The wife referred to in his 1839 will was Mary Rosa Hunt, daughter of William Hunt of Tabbs Creek, Granville County, NC. Children named in his will were John, Edward, Robertson, Rowland, James, Elizabeth (Summerhill), and Martha (Woodlief).  He refers to "other children" not mentioned which, according to other research, probably include "Rosey" (Kittrell), Tabitha (Murphy) and Patsy (Norman) who had died before her father.

       The son, Edward Bryant (1778-1845), married Nancy Parham in Granville County in 1801 and they had two children, Ann (or Nancy) Fuller and John F. Bryant. It is believed that Edward fought in the War of 1812. He was a farmer, a miller and a Whig. Sometime before 1818, Nancy died. Edward then married Elizabeth Amis (1797-1865), who was almost twenty years younger. One of his younger brothers, Robertson, married a Nancy Amis the same week. In 1807, the year Maury County was established, another if Edward's brothers, Rowland, left his home in Granville County and settled in the newly available land in Tennessee. After his marriage to Elizabeth in 1818, Edward also moved to Maury County.  Their children probably included William R., Abner (or Albert) H., Harriett, Lewis A., Lucy H., Ellen G., Martha, Elizabeth, James D., Lucius, and Thomas. [Ours thanks to Carole Applegate of South Jordan, Utah, a descendent of Lucius, for her Bryant family research and especially in establishing this list of possible children.]  In 1836, when Edward was 58 years old, he wrote a will which reveals much about his character and faith in his second wife. He died nine years later in 1845, the victim, with four of his children (Abner, Lewis, Lucy and Ellen), of a cholera epidemic.

       William R. Bryant (1819-1869), the oldest son, was 22 years old when he married Sarah Anthony. [The identification of this William as the son of Edward was confirmed with the generous help of Monte Hugh Knight, a genealogist of Maury County, TN.]  According to the 1850 census, William and Sarah had a family of three children by the ninth year of their marriage. By 1860, he was a widower in Madison County and the father of four more children. The youngest child, a daughter named Frances Elizabeth, was eight months old when the census was taken. Sarah probably died in childbirth in 1859. A year later, William married Frances Snodgrass and they had four more children. There is no record of his having any service with the Confederacy. Sometime during that period, he moved his family again. He died in Weakley County in 1869, eight years after his second marriage, and his wife Frances died the next year.

       When Frances Elizabeth Bryant(1859-1951) was seventeen, she married Leroy Moore in Obion County. Three years later they were living in Weakley County, their farm adjoining the Scott Green property. Frances had three daughters: Agnes, Ora, and Lee. After ten years of marriage her husband died. When she married the widower WinfieldScott Green, she was perhaps 29 years old. In addition to her own three girls, she was now responsible for his four: all seven under 11 years of age. Then she became mother to four more: Daisy, Homer Brieford, Clarence Noble, and Horace Willard. Fannie raised all these children as one family. Scott was a tenant farmer and unable to read or write until after he married Frances. However, even with their limited resources, they were able to provide an education in St. Louis for the two deaf boys, Walter and Allen. Scott died in 1920 and Fanny moved into Sharon, the small town nearby, to live with her widower step-son Oscar Green and his son Marvin . She died in 1951 and is buried next to her husband.