|
|
BRYAN FAMILY HISTORY
The following entries were copied by Eardley Bryan from a book in Poole Library. Some may be of relevance, some may not. Time will tell.
1. BRYAN, AUGUSTINE (d.1726), classical scholar, received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1711, M.A. 1716); was instituted to the rectory of Piddlehinton, Dorsetshire, on 16 Jan. 1722; and died on 6 April 1726. He published a sermon on the election of the lord mayor in 1718, and just before his death he had finished the printing of a splendid edition of Plutarch's 'Lives,' which was completed by Moses du Soul, and published under the title of 'Plutarchi Chaeronensis Vitae Parellelae, cum singulis aliquot. Graece et Latine. Adduntur variantes Lectiones ex MSS. Codd. Veteres et Novae, Doctorum Virorum Notae et Emendationes, et Indices accuratissimi,' 5 vols., London, 1723 9, 4to. This excellent edition is adorned with the heads of the illustrious persons engraved from gems. The Greek text is printed from the Paris edition of 1624, with few corrections, and the Latin translation is also chiefly adopted from that edition.
[Hutchins's Dorsetshire, 2nd edit.ii.352,353; Nichols's Lit Anecd. iv 286; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit.iv.375, vii,629; Polital State of great Britain, xxxi,344; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), 1890 Graduiti Cantabrigiensis (1787),60]
2. BRYAN, SIR FRANCIS (d.1550), poet, translator, soldier, and diplomatist, was the son of Sir Thomas Bryan, and grandson of Sir Thomas Bryan, chief justice of the common pleas from 1471 till his death in 1500 (Foss, Judges). His father was knighted by Henry VII in 1497, was 'knight of the body' at the opening of Henry VIII's reign, and repeatedly served on the commission of the peace for Buckinghamshire, where the family property was settled. Francis Bryan's mother was Margaret, daughter of Humphrey Bourchier, and sister of John Bourchier, Lord Berners [q.v.] Lady Bryan was for a time governess to the princesses Mary and Elizabeth, and died in 1551 2 (cf MADDEN, Expenses of The Princess Mary,216). Anne Boleyn is stated to have been his cousin; but we have been unable to discover the exact genealogical connection. Bryan's prominence in politics was mainly due to the lasting affection which Henry VIII conceived for him in his early youth.
Bryan is believed to have been educated at Oxford. In April 1513 he received his first official appointment, that of captain of the Margaret Bonavanture, a ship in the retinue of Sir Thomas Howard, afterwards duke of Norfolk, the newly appointed admiral. In the court entertainments held at Richmond (19 April 1515), at Eltham (Christmas 1516), and at Greenwich (7 July 1517), Bryan took a prominent part, and received very rich apparel from the king on each occasion (BREWER, Henry VIII, ii. ptii. pp. 1503 5,1510). He became the king's cupbearer in 1516. In December 1518 he was acting as 'master of the Toyles,' and storing Greenwich Park with 'quick deer.' In 1520 he attended Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and took part in the jousts there under the captaincy of the Earl of Devonshire; and on 29 Sept. he received a pension from the king of 33l. 6s. 8d. as a servant and a 'cipherer.' He served in Brittany under the Earl of Surrey in July 1522, and was knighted by his commander for his hardiness and courage (HALL, Chronicle). He was one of the sheriffs of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1523, and accompanied Wolsey on his visit to Calais (9 July 1527), where he remained some days. A year later he escorted the papal envoy Campeggio, on his way to England from Orleans, to Calais. In November 1528 Bryan was sent to Rome by Henry to obtain the papal sanction for his divorce from Catherine. Bryan was specially instructed to induce the pope to withdraw from his friendship with the emperor, and to discover the instructions originally given to Campeggio. Much to his disappointment, Bryan failed in his mission. Soon after leaving England he had written to his cousin, Anne Boleyn, encouraging her to look forward to the removal of all obstacles between her and the title of queen; but he subsequently (5 May 1529) had to confess to the king that nothing would serve to gain the pope's consent to Catherine's divorce. On 10 May 1533 Bryan, with Sir Thomas Gage and Lord Vaux, presented to Queen Catherine at Ampthill the summons bidding her to appear before Archbishop Cranmer's court at Dunstable, to show cause why the divorce should not proceed; but the queen, who felt the presence of Bryan, a relative of Anne Boleyn, a new insult, informed the messengers that she did not acknowledge the court's competency. In 1531 Bryan was sent as an ambassador to France, whither he was soon followed by Sir Nicholas Carew, his sister's husband, and at that time as zealous champion of Anne Boleyn as himself. Between May and August 1533 Bryan was travelling with the Duke of Norfolk in France, and he was engaged in similar negotiations, together with Bishop Gardiner and Sir John Wallop, in December 1535.
Bryan during all these years remained the king's permanent favourite. Throughout the reign almost all Henry's amusements were shared by him, and he acquired an unrivalled reputation for dissoluteness. Undoubtedly Bryan retained his position in the king's affection by very questionable means. When the influence of the Boleyn family was declining, Bryan entered upon a convenient quarrel with Lord Rochford, which enabled the king to break with his brother in law by openly declaring himself on his favourite's side. In May 1836 Anne Boleyn was charged with the offences for which she suffered on the scaffold, and Cromwell no doubt without the knowledge of Henry VIII at first suspected Bryan of being one of the queen's accomplices. When the charges were being formulated, Cromwell, who had no liking for Bryan, hastily sent for him from the country; but no further steps were taken against him, and there is no ground for believing the suspicion to have been well founded. It is clear that Bryan was very anxious to secure the queen's conviction (FROUDE, ii. 385, quotes from Cotton MS, E. ix. the deposition of the abbot of Woburn relating to an important conversation with Bryan on this subject), and he had the baseness to undertake the office of conveying to Jane Seymour, Anne's successor, the news of Anne Boleyn's condemnation (15 May 1536). A pension vacated by one of Anne's accomplices was promptly bestowed on Bryan by the king. Cromwell, in writing of this circumstance to Gardiner and Wallop, calls Bryan 'the vicar of hell' a popular nickname which his cruel indifference to the fate of his cousin Anne Boleyn proves he well deserved. Bryan conspicuously aided the government in repressing the rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace in October of the same year. On 15 Oct 1537 he played a prominent part at the christening of Prince Edward. In Dec. 1539 he was one of the king's household deputed to meet Anne of Cleves near Calais on her way to England, and Hall, the chronicler, notes the splendour of his dress. He was M.P. for Buckinghamshire, 1542 and 1544. At the funeral of Henry VIII, on 14 Feb 1546 7, Bryan was assigned a chief place as 'master of henchmen.'
As a member of the privy council Bryan took part in public affairs until the close of Henry VIII's reign, and at the beginning of Edward VI's reign he was given a large share of the lands which the dissolution of the monasteries had handed over to the crown. He fought, as a captain of light horse, under the Duke of Somerset at Musselburgh 27 Sept 1547, when he was created a knight banneret (their spelling, not mine! EWHB). Soon afterwards Bryan rendered the government a very curious service. In 1548 James Butler, ninth Earl of Ormonde, An Irish noble, whose powerful influence was obnoxious to the government at Dublin, although there were no valid grounds for suspecting his loyalty, died of poison under very suspicious circumstances. Thereupon his widow, Joan, daughter and heiress of James Fitzjohn Fitzgerald, eleventh earl of Desmond, sought to marry her relative, Gerald Fitzgerald. To prevent this marriage, which would have united the leading representatives of the two chief Irish noble houses, Bryan was induced to prefer a suit to the lady himself. He had previously married (after 1517) Philippa, a rich heiress and widow of Sir John Fortescue (MORANT, Essex, ii. 117); but Bryan's first wife died some time after 1534, and in 1548 he married the widowed countess. He was immediately nominated lord marshal of Ireland, and arrived in Dublin with his wife in November 1548. Sir Edward Bellingham, the haughty lord deputy, resented his appointment, but Bryan's marriage gave him the command of the Butler influence, and Bellingham was unable to injure him. On Bellingham's departure from Ireland on 16 Dec 1549 the Irish council recognised Bryan's powerful position by electing him lord justice, pending the arrival of a new deputy. But on 2 Feb 1549 50 Bryan died suddenly at Clonmel. A post mortem examination was ordered to determine the cause of death, but the doctors came to no more satisfactory conclusion than that he died of grief, a conclusion unsupported by external evidence. Sir John Allen, the Irish chancellor, who was present at Bryan's death, and at the autopsy, states that 'he departed very godly.' Roger Ascham, in the 'Scholemaster,' 1568, writes: 'Some men being never so old and spent by yeares will still be full of youthfull conditions, as was Syr F. Bryan, and evermore wold have bene.'(ed Mayor, p. 129).
Bryan, like many other of Henry VIII's courtiers, interested himself deeply in literature. He is probably the 'Brian' to whom Erasmus frequently refers in his correspondence as one of his admirers in England, and he was the intimate friend of the poets Wyatt and Surrey. Like them he wrote poetry, but although Bryan had once a high reputation as a poet, his poetry is now indiscoverable. He was an anonymous contributor to the 'Songes and Sonettes written by the ryght honourable Lorde Henry Howard, late earl of Surrey, and others', 1557, usually known as 'Tottel's Miscellany;' but it is impossible to distinguish his work there from that of the other anonymous writers. Of the high esteem in which his poetry was held in the sixteenth century there is abundant evidence. Wyatt dedicated a bitter satire to Bryan on the contemptible practices of court life; and while rallying him on his restless activity in politics, speaks of his fine literary taste. Drayton, in his 'Heroicall Epistle' of the Earl of Surrey to the Lady Geraldine (first published in 1629, but written much earlier), refers to
sacred Bryan (whom the Muses kept,
And in his cradle rockt him while he slept);the poet represents Bryan as honouring Surrey 'in sacred verses most divinely pen'd.' Similarly Drayton, in his 'Letter . . . of Poets and Poesie,' is as enthusiastic in praise of Bryan as Surrey and Wyatt, and distinctly states that he was a chief author
Of those small poems which the title beare
Of songs and sonnetsa reference to 'Tottel's Miscellany. Francis Meres, in his 'Palladis Tamia,' 1598, describes Bryan with many other famous poets as 'the most passionate among us to bewail and bemoan the complexities of love.'
Bryan was also a student of foreign languages and literature. It is clear that his uncle, John Bourchier, lord Berners [q.v.] consulted him about much of his literary work. It was Bryan's desire that Lord Berners undertook his translation Guevara's 'Marcus Aurelius' (1534). Guevara, the founder of Euphuism, was apparently Bryan's favourite author. Not content with suggesting and editing his uncle's translation of one of the famous Spanish writer's books, he himself translated another through the French. It first appeared anonymously in 1548 under the title of 'A Dispraise of the Life of a Courtier and a Commendacion of the Life of a Labouring Man,' London (by Berthelet), August 1548. In this form the work is of excessive rarity. In 1575 'T.Tymme, minister,' reprinted the book as 'A Looking glasse for the Courte, composed in the Castilion tongue by the Lorde Anthony of Guevara, Bishop of Mondonent and Cronicler to the Emperor Charles, and out of Castilion drawne into French by Anthony Alaygre, and out of the French tongue into Englishe by Sir Frauncis Briant, Knight, one of the priuye chamber in the raygne of K. Henry the eyght.' The editor added a poem in praise of the English translator. A great many of Bryan's letters are printed in the British Museum (Cotton MS. Vital. B. x.73,77; and Harl. MS. 296, f.18)
[Nott's edition of Surrey and Wyatt's poems; Brewer and Gairdner's Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, 1509 35; Rymer's Foedera, xiv. 380; Brewer's Reign of Henry VIII, ed, Gairdner, 1884, vol ii; Archeaologia, xxvi. 426 et seq.; Chronicle of Calais (Camden Soc); Collins's Peerage of Ireland, i 71, 265; Metcalfe's Book of Knights, 29, 220; Hunter's MS. Chorus vatum (Add. MS. 24490. ff 104 5); Friedmen's Anne Boleyn; Cal. State Papers (Foreign), 1509 35; Cal. State Papers (Irish), 1509 73; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Handbook; Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), i.169 70; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors (1885).]
3. BRYAN JOHN (d. 1545), logician, was born in London, and educated at Eton, whence he was elected, in 1510, to King's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1515, M.A. 1518). He gained the reputation of being one of the most learned men of his time in the Greek and Latin tongues. For two years he was ordinary reader of logic in the public schools, and in his lectures he wholly disregarded the knotty subtleties of the realists and nominalists who then disturbed the university with their frivolous altercations. This displeased many, but recommended him to the notice of Erasmus, who highly extols his learning. He was instituted to the rectory of Shellow Bowells, Essex, in 1523, and died about October 1545. He wrote a history of France, but it does not appear to have been published.
[Add MS. 5814, f. 156; Newcourt's Repertorium, ii. 522; Knight's Life of Erasmus, 146; Cooper's Athenae Cantab. i.87.]
4. BRYAN, JOHN, D.D. (d. 1676),ejected minister, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and held the rectory of Barford, near Warwick, worth 140£. a year, but left it to go to Coventry, as vicar of Trinity Church in 1644. The living was worth 80£., to which the city agreed to add 20£. Bryan was appointed by 'power of the parliament,' and was not cordially welcomed by the vestry. In 1646 Bryan, assisted by Obadiah Grew, D.D. [q.v.] vicar of St. Michael's held a public disputation on infant baptism in Trinity Church with Hanserd Knollys, the baptist. Though Coventry was a stronghold of puritanism, it was not so well content as were some of its preachers to witness the subversion of the monarchy. Bryan, at the end of 1646, touched upon this dissatisfaction with the course which events were taking in a sermon which was printed. The vestry in 1647 agreed to raise his stipend. In 1652 and 1654 his services were sought by 'the towne of Shrewsbury,' and the churchwardens bestirred themselves to keep him. But the citizens were remiss in discharging their very moderate promises for the support of their clergy. Nevertheless, the puritan preachers remained at their posts until the Act of Uniformity ejected them in 1662. Bryan took very much the same view as Baxter on the question of conformity. To ministerial conformity he had ten objections, but he was willing to practise lay conformity and did so. Bishop Hackett tried to overcome his scruples, and offered him a month to consider, beyond the time allowed by the Act; but Bryan gave up his vicarage, and was succeeded by Nathaniel Wanley, of the 'Wonders of the Little World' (1678). Bryan continued to preach whenever and wherever he had liberty to do so; and in conjunction with Grew he founded a presbyterian congregation, which met, from 1672, in licensed rooms. Bryan also made himself very useful in educating students for the ministry, and though the dissenting academy as a recognised institution dates from Richard Frankland (whose academy at Rathmel was opened in 1670), yet Calamy tells us of Bryan that 'there went out of his house more worthy ministers into the church of God than out of many colleges in the university in that time.' Bryan was a student to the last, very ready in controversy, and occasionally an extempore preacher. He was fond of George Herbert's poems, and himself wrote verse. A tithe of his income he distributed in charity. He died at an advanced age on 4 March 1675 6. His funeral sermon, by Wanley, is a very generous tribute to his merits.
He left three sons: (1) John, M.A., vicar of Holy Cross (the abbey church), Shrewsbury, 1652; minister of St Chad's, Shrewsbury, 27 March 1659; ejected 1662; minister of the presbyterian congregation meeting in High Street, Shrewsbury; died on 31 Aug. 1699; buried in St Chad's churchyard. (2) Samuel, fellow of Peterhouse, vicar of Allesley, Warwickshire; ejected in 1662; imprisoned six months in Warwick gaol for preaching at Birmingham; household chaplain at Belfast Castle to Arthur, First Earl of Donegal (who left him 50£. a year for four years, besides his salary, in his will dated 17 March 1674); died out of his mind, according to Calamy. (3) Noah, fellow of Peterhouse; ejected from a living at Stafford in 1662; according to Calamy, he became chaplain to the Earl of Donegal, and died about 1667, but it seems likely that Calamy has confused him with his brother.
Bryan was succeeded as presbyterian minister at Coventry by his brother Gervase(or Jarvis), appointed to the rectory of Old Swinford, Worcestershire, in 1655; ejected in 1662; lived at Birmingham till 1675, died at Coventry on 27 Dec 1689, and was buried at Trinity Church. The liberty to meet in licensed rooms was withdrawn in 1682; but in 1687, after James declaration for liberty of conscience, Grew and Gervase Bryan reassembled their congregation in St Nicholas Hall, commonly called Leather Hall. Bryan published: 1. 'The Vertuous Daughter,' 1640, 4to (sermon, Prov.xxxi. 29, at St Mary's, Warwick, at funeral, on 14 April 1636, of Cicely, daughter of Sir Thomas Puckering; at end is 'her epitaph by the author' in verse). 2. 'A Discovery of the probable Sin causing this great Iudgement of Rain and Waters, viz. our Discontentment with our present Government, and inordinate desire of our King,' 1647, 4to (sermon, 1 Sam. xii 16 20,at Coventry, on 23 Dec 1646, being the day of public humiliation; dedication issued 'from my study in Coventry' on 26 Dec 1646). 3. The Warwickshire Ministers' testimony to the Trueth of Jesus Christ, and blasphemies of these times, and the toleration of them; sent in a letter to the Ministers of London, subscribers of the former testimony,' 1648, 4to (signed by Bryan, Grew, and John Herring as ministers of Coventry).
4. 'A Publick Disputation sundry dayes at Killingworth [Kenilworth] in Warwickshire between John Bryan, &c. and John Onley, pastor of a church at Lawford, upon this question, Whether parishes of this nation generally be true churches. Wherein are nine arguments alleged in proof of the affirmative of the question, with the answer of I.O. thereunto, together with Dr B's reply, &c.' 1655,, 4to (this discussion was criticised in Animadversions upon a Disputation, &c.,' 1658, 4to, by J. Ley, prebendary of Chester). 5. 'Dwelling with God, the interest and duty of believers, opened in eight sermons,' 1670, 8vo (epistle to the reader by Richard Baxter). 6. Prefatory letter to 'Sermon,'2 Cor v. 20, by S. Gardner, 1672, 4to. 7 'Harvest Home: being the summe of certain sermons upon Job 5, 26, one whereof was preached at the funeral of Mr. Ob. Musson, an aged godly minister of the Gospel, in the Royally licensed rooms in Coventry; the other since continued upon the subject. By J.B. D.D., late pastor of the Holy Trinity in that ancient and honourable city. The first part being a preparation of the corn for the sickle. The latter will be the reaping, shocking, and inning of that corn which is so fitted,' London, printed for the author, 1674. 4to. (this little volume of verse is very scarce; the British Museum has two copies, both with author's corrections; 'Ob.' on the title page is corrected to 'Rich.'[Richard Musson was ejected from the rectory of Church Langton, Leicestershire]; the preface says the author has presumed to send his book 'to some of his most worthy and most noble friends;' he introduces from 1 Pet. i. 4, three perhaps unique words:a kingdom that
Is apthartal [aphthartalMS. corr.], amiantal, Amarantall ).
[Calamy's Accounts, 1713, pp. 546, 629, 735,743,771; Continuation, 1723, pp. 850, 893; Monthly Repos. 1819, p. 600; Sibree and Caston's Independency in Warwickshire, 1855, pp. 27, 29 seq.; Benn's Hist. of Belfast, 1877, pp.719 seq., Wanley's MS. Diary in British Museum; manuscript extracts from corporation records, Coventry, also from burial register and churchwardens' accounts of Trinity parish, per Rev F. M. Beaumont; Cole's MS. Athenae Cantab]5. BRYAN MARGARET, (fl. 1815), natural philosopher, a beautiful and talented schoolmistress, was the wife of a Mr. Bryan. In 1797 she published in 4to, by subscription, a 'Compendious System of Astronomy,' with a portrait of herself and two daughters as a frontispiece, the whole engraved by Nutter from a miniature by Samuel Shelley. Mrs Bryan dedicated her book to her pupils. The lectures of which the book consisted had been praised by Charles Hutton, then at Woolwich (Preface, p. xi.). An 8vo edition of the work was issued later. In 1806 Mrs. Bryan published, also by subscription, and in 4to, 'Lectures on Natural Philosophy' (thirteen lectures on hydrostatics, optics, pneumatics, acoustics), with a portrait of the authoress engraved by Heath, after a painting by T. Kearsley; and there is a notice in it that 'Mrs. Bryan educates young ladies at Bryan House, Blackheath.' In 1815 Mrs. Bryan produced an 'Astronomical and Geographical Class Book for Schools,' a thin 8vo.
'Conversations on Chemistry,' published anonymously in 1806, is also ascribed to her by Watt (Bibl. Britt) and in the 'Biog. Dict. of Living Authors' (1816). Mrs. Bryan's school appears to have been situated at one time at Blackheath, at another at 27 Lower Cadogan Place, near Hyde Park Corner, and lastly at Margate.
[Mrs. Bryan's Works.]
6. BRYAN MATTHEW, (d. 1699), Jacobite preacher, son of Robert Bryan of Limington, Somerset, sometime minister of St Mary's, Newington, Surrey, was born at Limington, became a semi commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1665, and left the university without taking a degree in arts. After holding a benefice in the diocese of Bath and Wells for about ten years, he was appointed to his father's old living, St. Mary's, Newington, and to the afternoon lectureship at St. Michael's Crooked Lane. His living was sequestered for debt in 1684. A sermon preached by him at Newington and St. Michael's (26 Oct and 2 Nov of the same year) on 2 Cor. v. 11 was said to contain reflections against the king's courts of justice, and an accusation was laid against him before the dean of arches. In order to vindicate himself he printed this sermon, which certainly does not appear to contain any such reflections, with a dedication, dated 10 Dec 1684, to Dr. Peter Mew, bishop of Winchester, formerly his diocesan in Somerset. The archbishop was satisfied that the charge against him was groundless, and it was quashed accordingly. In July 1685 Bryan accumulated the degrees of civil law at Oxford. Refusing to take the oaths on the accession of William and Mary, he lost his preferment, and became the minister of a Jacobite congregation meeting in St. Dunstan's Court, Fleet Street. This brought him into trouble several times. On 1 Jan 1693 his meeting was discovered, the names of his congregation, consisting of about a hundred persons, were taken, and he was arrested. He died on 10 Mar. 1699 and was buried in St. Dunstan's in the West. His works are: 'The Certainty of the Future Judgement' (the sermon referred to above), 1685; 'A Persuasion to the stricter Observance of the Lord's Day,' a sermon, 1686; 'St. Paul's Triumph in his Sufferings,' a sermon 1692. in the dedication of this discourse he describes himself as M.B. Indignus, probably in reference to his sufferings as a Jacobite preacher, the sermon itself being on Eph. iv. 1. He also wrote two copies of verses printed in Ellis Walker's translation of the 'Encheriridion' of Epictetus into English verse, 1702, and republished Sir Humphrey Lynd's 'Account of Bertram the Priest,' 1686.
[Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 602, iv. 799, Life, cxiv; Luttrell's Relation, ii. 398, iii. 1; Cox's Literature of the Sabbath, ii. 81; Bryan's Certainty of the future Judgement and his St. Paul's Triumph.]
7. BRYAN, MICHAEL (1757 1821), connoisseur, was born at Newcastle on Tyne on 9 April 1757, and was educated at the grammar school of the town under Dr. Mac. In 1781 he first visited London, whence he accompanied his elder brother to Flanders, where he became acquainted with, and afterwards married, the sister of the Earl of Shrewsbury. In Flanders he continued to reside, with the exception of occasional visits to England, until 1790, when he finally left the Low Countries and settled in London. In 1793 or 1794 Bryan again went to the Continent in search of fine pictures. Among other places he visited Holland, and remained there until an order arrived from the French government to stop all the English then resident there. He was, among many others, detained at Rotterdam. It was here that he met M. L'Abord. In 1798 Bryan was applied to by L'Abord for his advice and assistance in disposing of the Italian part of the Orleans collection of pictures. He communicated the circumstance to the Duke of Bridgewater, and his grace authorised him treat for their purchase. After a negotiation of three weeks, the duke, with the Marquis of Stafford, then Lord Gower, and the Earl of Carlisle, became the purchasers, at the price of 43,500£. In 1801 Bryan obtained, through the medium of the Duke of Bridgewater, the king's permission to visit Paris for the purpose of selecting from the cabinet of M. Robit such objects of art as he might deem worthy of bringing to England. Among other fine pictures, he brought from Paris two by Murillo, the one representing the infant Christ as the Good Shepherd, and the other the infant St. John with a lamb. In 1804 Bryan left the picture world, and retired to his brother's in Yorkshire, where he remained until 1811. In 1812 Bryan again visited London, and commenced his 'Biographical and Critical Dictionary of Printers and Engravers,' 2 vols. 4to. The first part appeared in May 1813, and concluded in 1816. New editions appeared in 1849; in 1886 (edited by R.E. Graves), 2 vols; in 1893 5 (edited by R.E. Graves and Walter Armstrong), 2 vols.; and in 1903 5 (revised and enlarged by C.N. Williamson), 5 vols. In 1818 Bryan engaged in some picture speculations, which proved a failure. On 14 Feb 1821 he had a paralytic stroke and died on 21 March.
[Literary Gazette, 1821, p. 187; Magazine of Fine Arts, i. 37.]
