BERTIE COUNTY WILL - Bryan, Needham - 1767 File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Pauline Pierce The below was found in the Bryan Family file in the NC State Archives in Raleigh. Will and Settlement of Needham Bryan, Sr., Bertie County, NC. In the name of God Amen the Twentie Third day of September int he year of Our Lord 1767, I Needham Bryan of North Carolina in the County of Bartie farmer being very sick in body but of perfect mind and memory Thanks be Given unto God for the Same and Caling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die do make this my Last will and Testament. That is to say principally and first of all I give and Recommend my Soul into the hands of God that Gave it and for my body I recommend it to the Earth to be burid in a Cristian like and decent manner at the discretion of my Executors nothing douting but that at the general Resurrection I shall Receive the same again by the mity power of God and as Touchen such wordly Estate whearwith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life I give and devise and dispose of the same in the following manner and forme. Imprimis I give and bequeath SARAH my dearly beloved wife one feather bed and furniture the chose of all my beds one horse choise as she likes side saddell and bridell and after her decease to go into the estate. Item I give to my gran son WILLIAM BRYAN the son of my son WILLIAM my still and my stock of smiths tools. Item I give and bequeath to my fore gran sons EZEKIL WILLIAMS LEWIS GARDNER and JOHSEPH JARNIGHAN and my daughters son WILLIAM hur first born each of them a cr[torn]lin and bequeath to SUSANA HARRELL one [torn] called Anny ? Item and bequeath to young JACOB JARNIGHAN three pounds out of my estate when sheared and after my debts is paid. I do lend all my hole estate to my wife and my gran son WILLIAM BRYAN that now lives with me and after my wifes widowhood to be eaqually devided to my three children all but he has in razen? that his shear all rest to my son NEEDHAM an WILLIAM and daughter RACHELL and my son NEEDHAM nad son WILLIAM and my son in law WILLIAM WHITFIELD for every one of them ot chuse them a man to vally and devide to three lots and each to take their shear and I do make and ordain my two sons NEEDHAM BRYAN and WILLIAM BRYAN my sole executors of this my last will and testament and I do hereby utterly disallow revouk and disannull and all and every other forms testaments and wills and legases bequeaths and executors by me in any wise before this time named or ment. In witness wheeof I have heir unto set my hand and seal this day and year above ritten. Signed sealed published pronounced and declared by me the said NEEDHAM BRYAN SENER as his last will and testament in the presents of us the subscribers. NEEDHAM BRYAN William Turner Jurat James Turner Joseph Turner Proved in March Court, 1770; Bertie Co., NC, Will Book 2, page 8. ******************************************************************************* In Bertie, on 15 May 1777, Pursuant to the Dimentions of an order of the Inferior Court of Pleas and Quarters Sessions....the second Tuesday in May [1777]... We the Subscribers met examined audited and setled the accounts of WILLIAM BRYAN Exec. of NEEDHAM BRYAN deceased and find a ballance due to the said deceaseds estate of four hundred and eighty and eight pounds thirteen shillings and nine pence proclamation money - which we have divided and set apart agreably to the last will and testament of the said deceased to the administrator of NEEDHAM BRYAN son of the said deceased for his part and shair of the said deceaseds estate one hundred and sixty two pounds seventeen shillings & eleven pence... and the same amount for their shares "To Rachel Whitfield daughter of the said deceased". This is signed by Noah Hinton, Samuel Moore, and Thomas House. We may assume the recent death of the elder Needham Bryan's widow Sarah, in 1776 or early 1777, terminating her life interest and allowing final settlement of the estate. The three principal heirs of Needham Bryan, Sr., as clearly indicated in both the will and settlement, were sons WILLIAM and NEEDHAM, Jr., and daughter RACHEL WHITFIELD. Payment to "the administrator of NEEDHAM BRYAN son of the said deceased" indicates the death intestate of NEEDHAM, JR., after date of the will, 23 Sept. 1767, and before the settlement, in May 1777. This conflicts with 1784, given as year of Needham, Jr's death by Zella Armstrong [see below]. The will does not name the daughters who were mothers of "my fore Gran Sons", each of the four being cut off with a crown sterling, thus disinheriting these daughters and or their heirs and avoiding division of the estate per stirpes. The executor's accounting, as approved by the commissioners in 1777, includes payments of five minor monetary bequests: For four grandson, "To pay Ezekiel wimberly [sic] shi Legacy" and, tabulated in immediate succession, "LEWIS GARDNER do do", "JOSEPH JERNAGAN do do", and "WILLIAM BRYAN son of ANN BRYAN do do", each 8 chillings, 4 pence [the equivalent then in local currency of a crown sterling]; to "JACOB JERNAGAN, Jr. do do" 3 pounds [Bertie Co., NC Inventories and sales of estates, 1775-1790, Part I, pp. 18-19, in NC Archives, Arleigh; photocopy in compiler's possession]. Possibly JACOB JERNIGAN, Jr., is a son-in-law. SUSANNA HARRELL, legatee in the will, may be a favored niece, namesake, and or god-daughter of NEEDHAM'S second wife, said to have been born SUSANNA HARRELL. The compiler is uncertain wheather one of the above legatees and grandsons of NEEDHAM BRYAN, Sr., is really EZEKIEL "WILLIAMS", as named in the will, or EZEKIEL "WIMBERLY", as listed in the final accounting. Jewel Davis Scarborough, in a chapter on Bryans and Gardners of Bertie [Southern Kith and Kin, vol. 2, The Davis Family and Their Connections, 1952, page 116-122], misinterpreted NEEDHAM BRYAN's will as though it named three GARDNER grandson - EZEKIEL, WILLIAM and LEWIS GARDNER. With inadequate justification, she then assigned these three as sons to MARTIN GARDNER, Jr. of Bertie, although admitting that they are not mentioned in the latter's will of 1784. LEWIS GARDNER appears in an early Bertie record as a "headright', 9 Nov 1742: "WILLIAM GARDNER proved his rights vis: WM. GARDENER, MARY GARDENER, USELFA GARDINER, NEHOMI [NAOMI?] GARDINER, LEWIS GARDENER, MARY GARDINER, whites, Pegg, black" [Bertie Co. NC Minute Book 1724-1743, pg. 193], presumably WILLIAM as head of family, wife MARY, their four children, and a slave. A conjecture, for further consideration, is that WILLIAM and MARY GARDNER are son-in-law and daughter of NEEDHAM BRYAN, Sr., and LEWIS the GARDNER grandson named in NEEDHAM's will. In 1793 a LEWIS GARDNER [died 1799] of Georgia gave ALEXANDER GARDNER power of attorney to sell two tracts of land in Bertie (Columbia Co Ga, Deed Book B, pg. 202]. Incomplete, and not altogether in agreement, are some published notes on the Bertie County Bryans: J.R.B. Hathaway, "Bryan Record", North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 1, pg. 577-84; Worth S. Ray, "The Bryan Family", Lost Tribes of North Carolina, pg. 655-58; and Zella Armstrong, Notable Southern Families, vol. 2, pg. 50-57. Malcolm E. Gardner Arlington, Virginia 12 November 1969