Bryant Breeding1

M, ( - before 1787)

Father*Bryant Breeding1 (bt 1705 - 1715 - Aug 1778)
Bryant Breeding|d. b 1787|p2752.htm|Bryant Breeding|b. bt 1705 - 1715\nd. Aug 1778|p2753.htm||||||||||||||||

Charts Pedigree for Stanley Russell McKinney
Relationship 5th great-grandfather of James Jay McKinney.
Last Edited 1 Apr 1999
Reference MMMMMFMMC
Researcher 0
Unrelated 0

Note Bryant Breeding Jr., also known as “Bryant the Younger,” was a son of Bryant Sr. and Elizabeth Conway Bredin. He was born in Prince William County, Virginia, most likely in the mid-1740s. As a youngster he was taken to Frederick County, where his father established a claim on a branch of Hawksbill Creek, a tributary of South Shenandoah River in the present Page County.
On September 12, 1765, Bryant purchased a 100-acre tract from Michael Rinehart, a weaver, who had inherited the property. The land lay on the western ‘riverbank of the South Shenandoah and was a part of the old Massanutten Grant. The price was 35 pounds.
No record of his wife’s name has been located, but his marriage-date was almost certainly near the time of his land-purchase.
During the July 7, 1767, Court Session, Bryant produced a certificate for 1,930 pounds of hemp, to which he made oath that “the same was raised on his plantation in Frederick County, winter rotted, dry, bright and clean, duly & properly weighed, and that neither he or any other person had obtained any other certificate of the same.” There were several other hemp certificates presented during this session; Bryant’s was the second largest.
"The Virginia government had been encouraging the cultivation of hemp since 1722, but not until settlemnt was well under way west of the Blue Ridge,was a more serious subsidization considered. Western frontier settlers used a winter rotting process to separate fiber from stalk; the harvested plants were spread out in the fields to allow the fall and winter rains and ground frosts to leach out the gum substance binding the lint to the main stalk, a process that could take up to three months. But until 1748, bounties were only given for water-rotted hemp, produced more laboriously by tying the plants in bundles and leaving them tosoak in ponds or streams for up to two months, a process which yielded a cleaner fiber in a shorter period of time. Although hemp did not have the soil-depleting reputation
of tobacco, it required a great deal of labor. The outer bark and other woody parts had to be reduced to small pieces and separated from the bark, resulting in a minimally processed "gross" hemp. An additional procedure, involving the scraping of the hemp so that only the fiber remained (scrutching,) resulted in a more finely procsssed "neat" hemp, suitable for sail and tent cloth and a variety of coarse materials far clothing. It was incorporated into osnaburg for everyday clothes, and used as a warp with a wool weft to produce linsey-woolsey, a cloth easterners associated with the frontier.

"The pruduction of hemp for external markets could be a very profitable enteprise. In 1760 the price of neat hemp was 25s to 26s per hundredweight, plus the bounty of 4s per hundredweight added."

Dunmore - later renamed Shenandoah - County was formed in 1772, including this area. Bryant Breeding was a member of Capt. Michael Rader’s Company of Dunmore County Militia. They were serving in a military camp near Fort Pitt on October 7, 1775. Capt. (later Major) Michael Rader’s company roll contained no tax information and appears to have been entirely a military operation, with a full set of officers. Michael seemingly had some artistic ability, as the list he submitted was headed by decorative flags, drums and cannon.

They had returned to their homes before 1777, as in that year Michael Rader, Bryant Breeding and Michael Rinehart were among the appraisers for someone’s estate.

Then, at the May sessions of 1778, Bryant Breeding was sworn in as Lieutenant of Shenandoah County Militia. During the same Court, he was named an appraiser for yet another estate.

In 1779, Michael Rinehart was appointed to be an appraiser for Bryant’s father, who had recently died.

No account of the death of either Lieut. Breeding or his wife has been found. Neither has the probate or any settlement-record for his estate. However, a substantial amount of information may be inferred from the eventual sale of the property and from tax-records. From these sources, it appears that Bryant died in 1782, while still in middle age. This is somewhat reinforced by the omission of Bryant’s name from Alexander Hite’s list in 1783.

Further, Bryant’s brother James became guardian to his eldest son, and conservitor of the estate for the son’s benefit, paying the taxes on the 100-acre farm until the period of his guardianship expired.




2 
Note* BRYANT the Younger
Frederick County Deeds Book 11 p. 96. Sept 12, 1765, purchase of 100 acres from Mathias Ryanld (Mathew Rinehart); no other records of Bryant the younger as such, however. JEREMIAH BREEDING and his wife ELIZABETH dispose of the 100 acres in 1796 (Shenandoah Deed Book L, p. 339) and JEREMIAH claims to be the oldest son and heir of Bryant and states he was dead by 1787. No probate record is to be found in Shenadoah Co.; tax records do not show the presence of this Bryant in Shenandoah Co. any time after 1782. No issue other than JEREMIAH is known. (NOTE: Marriage records of Shenandoah Co. indicate JEREMIAH was the son of James (1)) (Here I suggest (Margaret's note to Bruce's note) that it is not explicitly stated that James was the father, just that he appears to allow the marriage, sort of stand-in for the parent, I would say- I think the will is more powerful evidence). Jeremiah is father of Russell, so Jeremiah is my gr gr grandfather).

Some records of "Bryant" in Shenandoah may belong to this individual rather than to Bryant (1). For instance, the appointment of a Bryan Breeding as Lieutenant in the Shenandoah Co. Militia in May 1778
(Shenandoah Minutes 1774-1780 p. 50) and the showing of a Bryant Breden on the roll of Michael Reader (Rader) Capt. & Maj. or Militia in 1775 (Brumbaugah, Revolutionary War Records Vol. I p. 602). Bryant (1) was certainly at least 60 years of age at this time, old enough to be excused from miliitia duty, and hence Bruce Breeding believes it likely these entries refer to another Bryant, possibly Bryant the Younger.3 
Death*before 1787 VA1 

Family
Child

Citations

  1. [S74] Unknown compiler, compiler, "Correspondence"; Margaret Hunt, August 17, 1993., Ancestral File unknown repository, unknown repository address.
  2. [S73] Paul McGowen, Breeden/Hurst Family (n.p.: n.pub., 1983).
  3. [S74] Unknown compiler, compiler, "Correspondence"; Margaret Hunt, March 30, 1999., Ancestral File unknown repository, unknown repository address.