Page 40 - The Ancestry of Francis Bryan (1770-1863)

The legend is that William and Margaret had a young son named John while they were in Ireland. The following is a description of that history, also from Places Near the Mountains Botetourt and Roanoke Counties, Virginia by Helen R. Prillaman (27):
William Bryan, son of Francis Bryan III and grandson of William Smith Bryan, was born in 1684 and died at Roanoke City in 1789 at the age of 104. He is said to have left County Down, Ireland in 1717 or 1718. The town of Bryansford near Ballymoney, County Down was named for his family. It has been said that he sent his little son, John, into the woods to cut a stick to make a handle used in weaving. The boy was arrested for poaching. Thereupon the family sailed for America where "timber was free, and there were no constables." Bryan helped organize Donegal Township and a Presbyterian church in what is now Lancaster, PA. It is said that his home at one time was a place called Old Salem in New Jersey. This may account for the settlement
in Virginia being named Salem. He and his son, William, settled on a fine body of land in Roanoke Valley, in 1729, building their cabin beside Lake Spring.
On the narrow, level top of Reservoir Hill, overlooking the town of Salem, is an old graveyard. At the east end is a monument in memory of William Bryan I, William Bryan II, and Margaret Watson, wife of William II, "erected by a grateful descendant, Thornton Whaling, D.D."
MARGARET STRODE
We know that Margaret Strode was born in England in 1682 and moved at a very young age to Chester, Pennsylvania with her father, George Strode, where she was raised. George Strode bought land in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1682 and likely moved there soon after Margaret’s birth.
It is unlikely that Margaret and William met anywhere other than in America. They most likely met in Pennsylvania.
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