is stated by some, that our John, came over from Kent, England on the Ann in 1623. I cannot find his name on this list. His birth date has also been stated as being in 1615. If this was the case, he'd have been only 8 years of age at the time of his arrival in America.
It has likewise been stated, that the John Bryant Sr. of Taunton, Ma., was the father of John of Scituate and Stephen of Plymouth, Ma. I have found no evidence to show that John & Stephen were brothers, and the dates for the John of Taunton, refute the claim of him being the father.
The town clerk of Plympton, Ma. made an error, and the early compilers took this error as fact. In that, the clerk wrote that the Lt. John Bryant of Plympton, was the son of John Sr. of Scituate. (The parents of Lt. John are unknown) John Sr. did have a son, and he was called John Jr. of Scituate. These two John were both married and were having issue being born at about the same time. Each remain in there respective towns and died there. From looking at some of the Bryant Genealogies, I see what this error has done. In that, it has made some of John Sr. descendants merge with the descendants of Stephen Sr., and from what records I have seen, this never happened. In fact, I can find no records that show that these two lines, ever had anything to do with each other.
John Sr. is first on record in 1639, when he was charged with drinking inordinately at the home of a John Emerson. He was released by the court with only admonition, but his friend, James Till, was whipped for alluring young John to drink. By this, it would seem that our John was not yet of age (21), thus born after 1618, and as such, only about 5 years of age upon his arrival.
John Sr. was a house
carpenter by trade and lived on the second Herring Brook at Scituate.
It
is stated that his cheif interests in life were two: the
colony’s legal courts and the
begetting of children. He was married three times and the father of 19
issue.
Holmes, in his book, "Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England
Families 1620-1700," says that he came from Kent, England to Scituate,
Ma., about 1639 and later removed to Barnstable, Ma. Pope, in his book,
"Pioneers of Massachusetts," confuses our John with the John Sr. of
Taunton, Ma.