Cavaliers in the Woodpile....Maybe

Daddy's black sheep great-grandfather B.J. Stubbs, who abandoned his wife and young daughter in a lawless county in Texas around 1890, was descended from an early Virginia family.

In 1620 a Mr. STUBBS bought two shares of stock in the Virginia Company of London for 25 pounds. A (John) STUBBS immigrated to America and settled in Gloucester County, Virginia about 1652. There is a difference in the interpretation of records in the biographies as to whether Mr. STUBBS is John STUBBS the immigrant or if John STUBBS was his son.

A much less direct ancestor of B.J.'s, Walter Chiles, Jr., was born in 1607 or '08 in Wrighton, Somerset County, England, and died in 1653 in Prince George County, Virginia. He married Elizabeth Saunders(?) on June 30, 1630 at Bristol Cathedral, Somerset County, England. Their son Henry Chiles was born about 1640 at the Kemp House in Jamestown, James City County, Virginia.

Many of the early Virginia colonists were younger sons of nobles and gentlemen along with the indentured servants who would help them maintain their customary stratified way of life. The Stubbs family, as stockholders, were obviously not indentured servants, nor were they nobility. Perhaps they were fortune-seekers, and if so, they did reasonably well in the New World. I do not know what station in life the Chiles family held in England.

On Mother's side of the family, the Bryans were a prominent Virginia family. According to some accounts, the family in America originated with William Smith Bryan of County Down, Ireland.

(Some of this is from "Colonial Families of U.S., Vol VI, By MacKinzie, pages 104 through 106. "Records of Agusta Co., VA 1745-1800 by Chalkley, pages 61, 151, 371, 428, 436" "Notable Southern Families'-by Armstrong and "The Bryans of Ballyroney" by Winfred Bryan Cole, reprinted from the bulletin of the "MO Historical Soc." , Apr. 1960.)
1. WILLIAM SMITH BRYAN - was deported from IR in Circa 1630 by Lord Oliver Cromwell as a "troublesome subject". He lost not only his title but his lands. Together with 11 sons and a shipload of chattels, including horses and other live-stock, he landed at Gloucester Beach Virginia.(Thoroughbred records credits him with being among the first to bring horses to America.) his sons and Grandsons (supposedly a total of 21) settled Gloucester Co. the wife of William Smith Bryan is unknown. His eldest son was Francis Bryan III.
2. Francis Bryan III - Was b. in IR Circa 1630. He returned to IR from VA and tried to regain the Co. Clare estates left by his Great Grandmother Lady Joan (Fitz-Gerald) Bryan. He was persecuted by the government and was obliged to seek refuge in Denmark. He was permitted to return to IR about 1638, and it is said to have been standard bearer to William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne.
He married Sarah Brinker(Bunker?), a cousin to the Princess of Orange. Francis Bryan died in Belfast, IR in 1694. He had two sons Morgan b. 1671 Denmark d. 1763 m. Martha Strode And WILLIAM BRYAN b.1685 Co. Down, IR. d. 1789 m. Margaret_______?
3. William Bryan - b. 1685 was 104 when he died near Salem, VA or Roanoke City. William and wife Margaret lived at Ballyroney Co. Down, IR. They were Presbyterians and when they left for America they carried with them a document from their church dated 17 April 1718. STORY - William and Margaret Bryan sent their son, John Andrew into the woods to cut a stick to make a handle for a hook used in weaving, and he was arrested for poaching. After much trouble and espense, his father got him clear, and immediately sailed for America, where, as he said, "timber was free and there were no constables". (from" Notable Southern Families", p. 40)
It is not known for certain how many children were born in IR and made the sailing with their parents. For sure John Andrew Bryan was born in IR sometime before 1717.
William and Margaret first settled in Pennsylvania, then West New Jersey and later moved to VA. William Bryan is listed many times in deed , Records, etc. in Agusta Co. VA. Records, including disposition of land to his sons.

Our descent from William Bryan through John Andrew Bryan is fairly solid. I'd dearly love to see the research that prompted the above improbable scenario, however. Whether cavaliers or rednecks (Presbyterians), our Bryans were a prosperous and prominent family. Grandma Grace Currin's great grandfather, Thomas Ross Bryan, owned numerous slaves at the outbreak of the Civil War, as did many of his relatives.

Lee's maternal grandmother's first American ancestor, Jacob (Jacques) Remy, was a French Huguenot who came to Virginia in 1654 as an indentured servant.

From The Remy Family in America 1650-1942 Compiled by Bonnelle William Rhamy, M.D., Fort Wayne Indiana 1942

Jacob Remy was a French Huguenot who fled to England. He came to Virginia in 1654 under the indenture system bound to Nicolas Spencer, Esq., who was appointed Secretary of the colony of Va., during the pleasure of King Charles II (1606-1702).

His first wife was Francoise, daughter to Antoine Haldat II, Seigneur de Bonnet and his wife Madelaine Marchand. She apparently died on the passage to Virginia, where she was to be indentured to John Drayton, 1654.

He became a landowner in 1671 and married Mary Miles. In 1680, he became a naturalized citizen.

According to some sources, Mary Miles' father Marmaduke Miles was born in 1624 in Virginia, but I have been unable to document that. Lee and I have a bit of a competition going about whose ancestors got here first, not counting Indians. So far, I have found no solid evidence of any Native American ancestry on either side in spite of several possibles. As long as our families have been here, there's almost bound to be some somewhere.