My Bryant Family Line-Kissing Cousins

Family Tree History and Research
March 4, 2018

"Untangling A Slew of Abigail's and John's and Finding  Kissing Cousins"

I made another strange discovery last night while researching my mother's family lines back to New England.
As I was working on the never ending task of growing and building my family lines, and researching my Faunce family branch, I discovered that a set of my 9th great grandparents were 1st cousins!
At first I thought to myself, how can this be?
There has to be some error in the trees somewhere.
There were numerous Abigail's with the same names but different birth dates (separated by generations) and the names kept coming back to the some of the same people in my tree such as Lt. John Bryant. (see screenshots below)

So I dug into the family lines and spent hours looking at their parents and their parents and researching numerous sites and books and becoming so confused that I was getting a headache trying to sort out what can only be described as a major conundrum.....

What I found was this:

1. .John Bryant (1592-1630) married Anne Perkins (1596-1654)
1. John Bryant and Anne Perkins Bryant Doane were my 11th Great Grandparents
2. (Anne would marry a 2nd husband by the name of John Doane after the death of John Bryant before leaving England for America)
3. Among their 4 children together, John and Anne would have two sons, Stephen (1615-1701) and John (1618-1684) who would both become my 10th great grandfathers.....
2. Stephen Bryant (John's brother) would marry Abigail Shaw (1624-1694): my 10th Great Grandparents 
1. From that union would come Abigail Bryant (1648-1715)
3. John Bryant (Stephen's brother) would marry Mary Lewis (1629-1655): my 10th Great Grandparents 
1. From that union would come Lt. John Bryant (1644-1708)
4. Stephen and Abigail's daughter, Abigail Bryant, would go on to marry John and Mary's son, John Bryant
1. These 1st cousins would be my 9th Great Grandparents as from that union would come a third Abigail Bryant (1682-1770) who would marry John Faunce (1678-1766)
5. Abigail Bryant Faunce and John Faunce would be my 8th Great Grandparents
1. John Faunce's father was a man named Thomas Faunce.
1.  My 9th Great Grandfather Thomas Faunce was the Ruling Elder of the Plymouth Church and he would also be the person to point out (and save) what is known as "Plymouth Rock", the landing spot of the Mayflower Pilgrims, for posterity. 
2. Thomas Faunce's father was a man named John Faunce as well.
1. This John Faunce (my 10th Great Grandfather) was the husband of Patience Morton Whintey (my 10th Great Grandmother).
1. Patience was the daughter of George Morton and Julianna Carpenter Morton (my 11th Great Grandparents).
1. George and Julianna were early settlers of Plymouth having come over shortly after the pilgrims on a ship called the Anne along with numerous other of my ancestral great grandparents.
2. George and Julianna would have many famous descendants.
3. Julianna was the sister of William Bradford's 2nd wife, Alice which makes Alice and her husband, Mayflower passenger and Plymouth Colony Governor, William Bradford my 11th Great Aunt and Uncle.
2. John Faunce's mother was a woman named Jane Nelson. 
1. Jane was the daughter of Martha Ford Nelson and William Nelson. 
2. My 9th Great Grandmother Jane Nelson Faunce was the granddaughter of Martha Ford Browne 
3. Martha Ford Browne 2nd husband (thus Jane's step grandfather )was Peter Browne-Mayflower passenger.
6. A few famous Bryant ancestral cousins would come from the above ancestors including the famed writer and poet, William Cullen Bryant and the 1st "married lesbian couple of Early New England, Charity Bryant and her "wife" Sylvia Drake"
7. These Bryant and Faunce and Morton Family lines would intermingle and many families would come from all of these unions that would settle not only the New England area but also a good portion of the United States in years to come.

As I delve into the history of this Bryant branch of my family line I have been finding a lot of written information on the lives of quite a few of them which is so exciting.

From my research over the last few weeks, I  have learned so much of my family history and how closely connected so many of my other lines such as the Faunce and Morton families were to each other and to the trials and tribulations of Plymouth and Colonial New England. 
I feel like I have gotten to know intimately a few more of my ancestors.

Some of these stories show how the relationships of my ancestors influenced each other and how for several generations, members of the family would marry each other and the reasons why and other stories show how the connections from one name to another would bear out in later generations. Follow me as I try to make sense of this line and their history and their lives that they lived almost 400 years ago. 

Lives that eventually would result in myself and my siblings and their children...

 A New World-A New Beginning

The Life of Anne Perkins Bryant Doane 
(My 11th Great Grandmother)
1596-1654

This story begins in 1630 in Kent County, England

• Once upon a time there was a widow named Anne Perkins Bryant. Anne's husband had died, leaving her with three young boys: Thomas Bryant , Stephen Bryant and John Bryant. (Stephen and John would become my 10th Great Grandfathers). 
• Among the family friends and neighbors was a lawyer, John Doane, a widower with a son also named John. 
• The elder John offered to give Anne's three lads a chance in the New World if she would marry him and go there with him.  John was a capable man, highly regarded, and his influence would give the three Bryant boys opportunities they otherwise would not find. So Anne consented. 
• The six of them boarded a little ship known as the Handmaid, on August 10, 1630 and two months later, October 29, 1630, they landed in Plymouth Colony. 
• Shortly after arriving at Plymouth, they commenced to settle in and as it seemed they knew a good percentage of the population from back in England and in Leiden, they felt at home almost immediately. 
• Anne and John would go on to have five more children (a total of nine children would call Anne their mother and those 9 children would have close to 75 children according to the research I have done thus far).
• She died on June 1, 1654 and was buried in Cove Burying Ground, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts (then the Plymouth Colony).

The Life of John Doane (My 11th Step Great Grandfather) 

• The Stepfather to Anne's three boys rated highly in the estimation of Governor William Bradford and Thomas Prence. 
• His name appears many times in the old records of the colony. He held many offices and is mentioned frequently on various committees. 
• He had charge of settling many estates and handling the legal affairs of numerous minor children who had been left orphans. 
• For example, in 1633, Peter Brown, Mayflower passenger (who was also My Step 11th Great Grandfather, having been married to my 11th Great Grandmother, Martha Ford) died at Plymouth, leaving two daughters by Martha, who had died in 1629 and an estate of 100 pounds. Peter's second wife Mary, refused the responsibility for the two girls; so one of them was bound to John Done for nine years. Fifteen pounds were paid from Brown's estate to help with the girl's expenses.
• In Nov. 1636, John Doane was appointed a member of a committee to assist the governor in revising the laws, orders and constitution of the colony.
• In Oct. 1641, Governor William Bradford bought a place bordering John Doane's place to give to Bradford's son-in-law, Thomas Southworth. 
• The following April, 1642, Doane sold to Governor Bradford for four goats a garden place in Plymouth adjacent to Doane's own garden, and three acres of marsh meadow at Jones River. 
• That same month, Doane, as agent for the church at Plymouth, bought a house, buildings and garden plots at Plymouth, and six acres of upland, for 120 pounds from Ralph Smyth, for the Plymouth church. 
• On Jan. 7, 1645, John Doane was licensed by the colony to sell wine, which would indicate he had a tavern or inn at Plymouth.
• John Doane was not always sympathetic with the governing powers, and, was especially against certain ideas regarding intolerance often expressed by the Plymouth leaders. When the agitation arose to move the entire settlement of Plymouth across the bay to Nauset, John Doane was the chief leader and supporter of the movement. When the town was assembled in meeting, the citizens voted against the proposition. John was not to be deterred. 
• Having bought property in Nauset some years earlier, he sold all of his property in Plymouth, Feb. 1645, including house, buildings, gardens, fruit trees and fences, to William Hanbury for ten pounds, moved to Nauset and changed the name of that place to Eastham, probably in honor of the town where he was born: Ham, East Parish, in Essex County, England. He and his son John both were still on the Eastham town list of freemen in June, 1689.
• Following a practice common in those days, John and Anne bound out two of the Bryant boys to good friends.
• Thomas Bryant was bound out to Samuel Eddy, and Stephen Bryant to John Shaw. Offering boys financial opportunities and connections independent of, and supplementary to those, which their own parents could offer them as they grew up. 
• The third Bryant boy, John, being the youngest, stayed with his mother and stepfather.
• John and Anne would have five children after arriving in America, making the total children of Anne being nine.
• Anne passed away in 1654
• John passed away Feb 21, 1685 at the ripe old age of 92

The Line of Stephen Bryant of Plymouth and Abigail Shaw 

(My 10th Great Grandparents)

• It is Anne's middle son, Stephen Bryant, who is the beginning of one line of the Bryant family in the New World that would combine with his brother's line in only one generation and that is the line that would lead to me and my siblings and their children through our mother, Marlene Dietz Repinski from one of her father's family lines.

• Soon after his arrival in Plymouth in 1630, Stephen was bound out by his stepfather, John Doane, To John Shaw, a friend of the Bryant and Doane families.  This John Shaw had preceded the Doanes and the Bryant boys from Kent County, England, arriving at Plymouth Colony at least by 1627. On May 22, 1627, he is listed in the colony records as one of 12 men drawing lots for the division of the responsibility for caring for the colony's common herd of cows and goats. On July 7, 1630, John Shaw bought from John Winslow for 6 pounds a tract of firm land called Knave's Acre or Woodbee.

• With a step-father who was a friend of the colony's leaders, and a master who was prospering, Stephen was in an opportune position for success in the new fledgling colony.

• John Shaw and his wife Alice (Philips) had two sons, James, who married Mary Mitchell in 1652, and Jonathan, who married Phoebe Watson in 1656, and a daughter, Abigail.

• Jonathan Shaw and Stephen Bryant were working together. A deed dated may 5, 1643, records a sale of 40 acres of upland "at the high cliffe" from Edward Dotey to Stephen Bryant and Jonathan Shaw for the price of 12 pounds ten shillings, to be paid in corn or cattle.

• Two years later, in 1645, Stephen Bryant married the Shaw's daughter Abigail. They had eight children:
• Abigail, born 1646/47 (my 9th Great Grandmother)
• John, born April 7, 1650
• Mary, born May 29, 1654
• Stephen, born Feb. 2, 1657
• Sarah, born Nov. 28, 1659
• Lydia, born Oct. 23, 1662
• Elizabeth, born Oct. 17, 1665
• Mehittable, born 1669/70

A Large Landowner of the Area:

• A deed dated July 31, 1646, records two acres of upland meadow leased for Abraham Pierce for three years by Stephen Bryant and Samuel Sturtevant for 50 shillings per year.
• In 1650, Stephen bought or was granted 100 acres of land in a spot identified now as on the eastern side of Jones River Pond (now Silver Lake). This lot of land was eventually passed along to Stephen;s oldest son, John, and through him, down through many generations of the Bryant family.
• In 1651, Stephen bought 8 acres of marsh meadow for Jonathan Shaw; four months later he sold 4 of those acres to William Ford, and eight years later he sold three acres of the same to Edward Cook. Also in 1651, Stephen bought more property at " the high cliffe" for Benjamin Eaton and sold it to Edward Gray.
• Among other transfers of land where Stephen Bryant's name occurs are sales to Samuel Wood,Samuel Sturtevant, Jonathan Shaw, Edward Gray and Jacob Cook, and purchases from Samuel Eddy, Benjamin Eatonand Jonathon Shaw.
• These frequent deeds for Stephen Bryant's purchases and sales of land find a striking parallel seven generations later, when the brothers Colby and Gustavus Bryant were to crows the record books in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and Monona County, Iowa, with the same sort of transactions. (believe Gustavus was a Civil War Vet, lost a leg and almost an arm).
• What was Stephen doing with all of these parcels of land? William Bradford wrote in his journal that the first impression he had of the site of Plymouth Colony as he looked form the deck of the mayflower was "so goodly a land and wooded to the brink of the sea" (Mourts's Relation, p.2). 
• Back from the coastline, the colony was a vast area of swampland extending for miles in many directions. These swamps, bogs and marshes were overgrown with cedar trees. One of the first manufacturing enterprises in new England sprang up here as the land was stripped of the cedar trees, which were made into barrels, used for shipping to England the tar and pitch into which the coastal pines were being converted. Additional cedar staves and heads were shipped to Engalnd for use as beer barrels and wine casks. Unlike other woods, cedar did not damage the flavor of the beverages.

A man of Enterprise:

• By the year 1649 the cooparage industry had developed so rapidly that Sunday work, a grave crime in the eyes of the Plymouth Church, had become prevalent. On June 6^th of that year, Stephen Bryant was presented in court for carrying a barrel to the tar pits on the Lord's Day. He was cleared "with admonition", but his brother-in law, Jonathan Shaw, was sentenced on the same day to sit in the stocks for working those tar pits.
• Jan. 16, 1650, John Cary of Duxbury, a planter (i.e., farmer), sold two acres of meadow ground "lying upon the north side of Pine Point" to Stephen. John Shaw signed the deed as a witness.
• In 1651, Stephen bought a cow from Samuel Cutbert for two bushels of Indian corn and two barrels of tar.
• March 2, 1651, Stephen and his wife, Abigail, appeared in court to "complain against John Haward, Edward Hall, and Susannah Haward, of Duxburrow, in an action of slander and defamation, to the damages of 500 pounds." They were awarded 5 pounds.
• The Plymouth records are so detailed we even read there what sort of mark Stephen used to identify his cattle (a slit on top of the left ear; his son-in-law Lieut. John Bryant used a "cut across the near ear", and what sort of gun he had " one of the longer sort of guns from Serg. Harlow".
• The swamp region was filled with numerous streams and ponds alive with pickerel, red perch, trout and herring. Wild ducks, turkeys, geese and pigeons in enormous flocks helped fill the larder, as well as the pillows and feather ticks. Moose, deer, bear and rabbit provided food and clothing. Beaver, mink muskrat and skunk pelts ere bartered for necessities. 
• This daily involvement with, and dependence upon nature found poetical expression five generations later in Stephen's descendant William Cullen Bryant and eight, nine, ten generations after Stephen, his offspring in Iowa were fishing the rivers and lakes and hunting and walking the fields and woods with a passion which is better understood by seeing this historical beginning.

The Death of John Shaw and the will giving Stephen more land:

• On Mar. 6, 1654, John Shaw's wife, Alice, died. In poor health john returned to England to die. On Jan. 30, 1663, a deed of gift was recorded in Plymouth whereby he distributed his land to his heirs. This deed reads as follows:"Know all men by these presents that I, John Shaw, of Plymouth in New England, Senior have and do by these presents give unto my son-in-law Stephen Bryant of Plymouth all that, my whole share of land allotted unto me near unto Namassaket both upland and meadow, with all and singular, the appurtenances there unto belonging to the said Stephen Bryant and his heirs and assigns forever. Also, I do give unto my son-in-law, Stephen Bryant, another portion of land called by the name of Rehoboth, which land was formerly granted unto me lying on the south-side of Smelt River according as it is bounded and set out with all appurtences there unto belong to the said Stephen Bryant, his heirs, etc. I do declare by these presents that I do give unto my son, James, one-half my purchase lands at Cushena and one-fourth to son Jonathan and one-fourth to Stephen Bryant. Me daughter, Abigail Bryant, my bed, etc., also my chest."

• On Nov. 3, 1653, Thomas and Anne Savory had indentured their son Benjamin, age 8, to John and Alice Shaw. On March 2, 1657, Thomas and Anne again indentured Benjamin, this time to Stephen and Abigail Bryant, to be "instructed in husbandry" (i.e., farming) and to receive five pounds sterling at the end of his term. This was a way for Benjamin to learn farming, and for Stephen to have cheap hired help, in the same way that Stephen himself had been indentured as a boy to John and Alice Shaw.

• The Plymouth town records show that Stephen was called upon to fill certain public offices. He was appointed constable for 1663, road surveyor for 1658, 1659, 1670, 1674 and 1676, and to serve on juries in 1653, 1659-62, 1670-72, 1674-76, 1678-79, and 1681. He was on the jury in 1676 when Mrs. Bethiah Howland drowned in a tub of clothes and water; her death was judged accidental.

• The Plymouth Church records, dated July 27, 1684, read as follows:"The Church was desired to stay after public worship they if any, had any just exception of admission of Old Goodman Bryant with the church they might express it. The issue of the agitation was that nothing appeared to his calling forth to declare himself on the next Lord's Day."A later entry reads:Stephen Bryant, Senior, admitted to the church."

• A Record of cousins marrying cousins within the family:
• Of Stephen and Abigail (Shaw)'s six daughters, the oldest, Abigail, married Lieut. John Bryant of Plymouth. 
• This Bryant-Bryant marriage was not at all unusual at that time, and was a practice, which continued for several generations. Mary and Sarah probably died young, or at least before marriage, as their names have not shown up in any of the records. 
• Lydia married William Churchill on Jan. 17, 1684, and died a widow on Feb. 6, 1736. She was buried in a Churchill lot, next to a Bryant lot in the cemetery at Plympton Green. 
• Her son William Churchill Jr. married Ruth Bryant, a daughter of Lydias brother John. Another son, Deacon Samuel Churchill, married Joannah Bryant, also a daughter of John. 
• Thus the two brothers married tow sisters who were their first cousins. 
• Elizabeth married Joseph King on Jan. 15, 1689, and Mehittable married Isaac King, probably Joseph's' brother, on Aug. 13, 1689.

• Stephen Bryant died between October of 1698 and July of 1701 in Plymouth Mass.

The Line of John Bryant of Scituate 

(my 10th Great Grandfather) 

• The youngest of Anne's boys, John Bryant, eventually became the head of the line now known as the John Bryant line of Scituate, Massachusetts. 
• Over a period of 45 year, the colony records outline the life of this cantankerous man, whose chief interest seems to have been the colony's legal court. 
• He made his court debut as a teenager in 1638, charged with drinking inordinately at John Emerson's house. He was released with admonition, but James Till was whipped "for alluring" John to drink. Three years later, 1641, he was in court "for drinking tobacco upon the highway." 
• The next logical step for John was to get a wife. Nov. 14, 1643, he married Mary Lewis, daughter of George and Sarah (Jenkins) Lewis of Scituate (a little settlement in the colony);John and Mary lived on land bordering her father's place, and had seven children.

• John shows up quite a bit in the written records of early New England history. A few mentions of his dealings:
• John Bryant served on the court jury for 15 years between 1659-1681, five of those years being on the grand jury (called the "grand enquest" at Plymouth). 
• Here are three examples of the sort of trials at which he was juryman: 
• In 1663, Elizabeth Soule sued Nathaniel Church, who "committed the act of fornication with her an then denied to marry her." The jury found him guilty, and Elizabeth was awarded 10 pounds. 
• In 1666, Mrs. Mary Totman went to the woods and dug up a root of a plant, brought it home, cleaned, cooked and ate it, and then died from its poison. The jury decided she had mistaken the root for a similar one she was accustomed to preparing, and her death was accidental. 
• In 1674, one Indian had told a group of colonists living at Scituate that he would "give" them a large tract of the Indian land adjoining Scituate. When the colonists later went back to the Indian to "accept" the land, the rest of the tribe found out about the deal, threw the Indian to the ground and prevented him from dealing further with the colonists. The white men then brought the tribe to court and the jury awarded the land to the colonists (=the juryman).
• The colony did buy some of its land from Indians. In 1666, John Bryant's name appears on a tax list which was drawn up to show how much each resident of Scituate had to contribute towards the purchase of Indian lands on the west edge of the settlement.
• John Bryant died on November 20, 1684, in Scituate, Massachusetts, at the age of 66.

The Line of Lt. John Bryant 

(my 9th Great Grandfather)

• On Nov. 23, 1665, at Plymouth, Lieut. John, son of John and Mary (Lewis) Bryant married Abigail Bryant, at Plymouth, daughter of Stephen and Abigail (Shaw) Bryant. 
• Lieut. John and Abigail lived in the area that was incorporated in 1707 as the town of Plympton (10 miles west of Plymouth). 
• On the town records,Lieut.John is called "Mariner". Harold Stanley Bryant, in his booklet William Cullen Bryant: His Ancestors and Where They Lived, conjectures that Lieut. John was related to the Alexander Bryan (sometimes spelled Bryant) sea-faring family of Milford, Conn. (there is a letter recorded in the Plymouth records, v. 5, p. 155, for Oct. 27, 1674, which shows Alexander and his son Richard were involved in Plymouth affairs) and the Lieut. John was involved in New England shipping, which was important and extensive at that time, importing goods from England and distributing them along the New England coast. 
• The house built by Lieut. Johnon the shores of Jones River Pond is said to have been the largest of its times in Plymouth County.
• March 2, 1668, found Lieut. John having his share in the Bryant family court actions. On that day he faced two charges. 
• One of his accusers was Mary Crisp. Mary was in court to answer charges that she had behaved uncivil towards three other persons; found guilty, she turned around and accused Lieut. Bryant of uncivil behavior toward her. He was cleared of that charge. 
• Next came a charge for "using reviling speeches to Edward Gray as soon as they came out of the meeting on the Lord's day". Lieut. John was fined 10 shillings. Exactly 3 months later, that scene was reversed down to the last detail: Edward Gray was fined 10 shillings for "using reviling speeches to John Bryant, son-in-law of Stephen Bryant, of Plymouth, on the Lord's day, as soon as they came out of the meeting".
• Lieut. John's last court appearance other than as juror was Oct. 28, 1684, when he brought charges of "slander and defamation" against Jonathan Barnes, asking 100 pounds damage. Barnes had said John broke open his locks on his warehouse and stole a barrel and several other things. Barnes acknowledged he was wrong and the case was dismissed.
• Lieut. John is in the Plymouth town records for the usual responsibilities which most of the townsmen shared at one time or another: juror (1696, 1698), road surveyor (1695), constable (1681). In 1684, the town paid him 15 shillings for gathering in the minister's rate for the preceding year, and 30 shillings for gathering in the town, country and minister's rate for that current year. In 1699 he was on a committee to see to the protection of timber on the town's common land (anyone carrying timber or lumber through town had to be able to prove it came off his own land and not off the common Land).
• In 1677, he was granted an additional 30 acres of land at Jones River, and in 1701, still another 15 acres.

• Lieut. John and Abigail had seven children. The births of all seven originally were entered in the Plymouths records:
• Mary, born Sept. 11, 1666.
• Hannah, born Dec. 2, 1668.
• Bethia, born July 25, 1670.
• Samuel, born Feb. 3, 1673.
• Jonathan, born Mar. 23, 1677. He married Margaret West in 1700, had 3 children: Rebecca 1702, Priscilla 1703, and Mary 1705. His second wife was Mary Little, daughter of Thomas Little, from whom Jonathan inherited a lot on Middle Street Plymouth, built a house on it and there was proprietor of "Bryant's Inn".
• *Abigail, (my 8th Great Grandmother) born Dec. 30, 1682; married Nov. 20, 1705, to John Faunce, who was born Sept. 16, 1678, and died Mar. 19, 1766.
• Benjamin, born Dec. 16, 1688; married July 31, 1712, at Plymouth to Hannah Eaton. 
• John Bryant died on Jan 26, 1708 in Plymton Mass.

Abigail Bryant-Bryant 

(My 9th Great Grandmother)

• My 9th Great Grandmother Abigail Bryant-Bryant descends from one of the "Old Comers" and first families of the Plymouth Colony as well. 
• Her Mother, also named Abigail, was the daughter of John Shaw.
• My 11th Great Grandfather, John Shaw was commonly called "John "the Pilgrim" Shaw.
• John Shaw b. abt 1597 at England; m. abt 1622 Alice Shaw Nee Unknown; d. aft 30 January 1663 at Middleboro, Plymouth, MA, aged 66 years.
• Their Children:
• 1. John b. abt 1622 at England; thought to have returned to England after selling land to brother-in-law Stephen Bryant in 1651.
• 2. Abigail b. abt 1624 at England; m. abt 1646 Stephen Bryant; d. 24 October 1694 at Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, aged 70 years. 
• 3. James b. abt 1626 at England, MA; m. 24 December 1652 Mary Mitchell at Plymouth, Plymouth, MA (Interesting side note here is that Mary is also one of my ancestral great aunts two times over, being the daughter of my 10th great grandfather, Experience Mitchell)
• 4. Jonathan b. 1631 at Plymouth, Plymouth
• John Shaw must have come on one of the first ships for he first appeared in Plymouth, Plymouth, MA in the 1627 division of cattle. He was the leader of the sixth lot. 
• He was also called one of the purchasers or old timers. 
• The family came over later. 
• He was a freeman in 1633 at Plymouth, Plymouth, MA. 
• He was part of the group that cut a passage from Green's Harbor to Plymouth Bay before 1 July 1633. 
• He was a highway surveyor for Plymouth, MA in 1643 and 1644. 
• In 1645 John Shaw is one of eight men who went out against the Narragansetts.

• Of Stephen and Abigail (Shaw) Bryant's six daughters, the oldest, Abigail, married Lieut. John Bryant of Plymouth. 
• John was her 1st cousin according to the family research I have read, though there are a few sources that say that there were two Lt. John Bryant's in the area at the time but neither has been sufficiently proved to be accurate. 
• Bryant family tradition holds that John and Abigail were both the grandchildren of John Bryant and Anne Perkins Bryant Doane.
• This Bryant-Bryant marriage was not at all unusual at that time, and was a practice, which continued for several generations. 
• I haven't been able to discover much more information about my 9th great grandmother, except that she went on to have 8 children including my 8th great grandmother Abigail who would marry John Faunce. 
• Abigail Bryant-Bryant died on May 12, 1715 ai Plympton Mass.

And so a few hundred years after all of the above, there would be myself and my siblings and their children.

History is amazing!

Warm Regards,

The Historian of my Family History