Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Bryan, William
O'BRYAN, WILLIAM (1778–1868), founder of the Bible Christian sect, claimed descent from one of Oliver Cromwell's Irish officers who settled at Boconnock, Cornwall, on the Restoration, probably the Colonel William Bryan, or Brayne, from Ireland who was employed in the pacification of the highlands of Scotland in 1654, and afterwards, with the rank of lieutenant-general, commanded the forces in Jamaica (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, and 1657–9; Whitelocke, Mem. p. 592; Thurloe State Papers, ii. 405).
After the settlement of the family in Cornwall the name was spelt indifferently Bryan or Bryant, and William O'Bryan was the first to restore the Irish orthography. He was the second son of a substantial yeoman who owned several farms in the coterminous parishes of Luxulyan, Lanivet, and Lanivery, Cornwall, by Thomasine, daughter of John Lawry of Luxulyan, and was born at Gunwen, Luxulyan, on 6 Feb. 1778. Both his parents were church people, but had joined the Methodist Society before their marriage. His maternal grandmother was a quakeress. From the first an extremely religious lad, O'Bryan was much impressed by the preaching of John Wesley, and studied his ‘Christian Pattern.’ Other favourite books were Law's ‘Serious Call,’ Baxter's ‘Saints' Rest,’ and Bunyan's ‘Holy War.’ His actual conversion took place on 5 Nov. 1795, and he at once began to preach, and for some time laboured with marked success in East Cornwall and West Devon. Differences with the methodists in regard to matters of discipline led to his expulsion from their society in November 1810. He continued his labours, however, and gradually formed a little sect of his own, which was formally constituted in 1816 under the designation of Arminian Bible Christians. The tenets of the Bryanites—as these sectaries were popularly called—did not materially differ from those of the Arminian Methodists.
O'Bryan was a man of immense zeal and some power, but his methods of church government were felt by his adherents to be unduly autocratic, and in 1829 the major part of them seceded and formed themselves into a separate society under the name of Bible Christians. The omission of the term Arminian, however, denoted no modification of doctrine, and the new society continued to cherish the memory of its founder. Its members now number more than thirty thousand. In 1831 O'Bryan emigrated to America, where he preached much, but failed to found a church. During his later years he resided at Brooklyn, New York, but frequently visited England. He died at Brooklyn on 8 Jan. 1868.
O'Bryan married on 9 July 1803 Catherine, daughter of William Cowlin, farmer, of Perranzabuloe, Cornwall, a woman of strong understanding and fervent piety, by whom he was assisted in his work. She died at Brooklyn in March 1860. O'Bryan published the following works: 1. ‘The Rules of Society, or a Guide to conduct for those who desire to be Arminian Bible Christians, with a Preface stating the Causes of Separation between William O'Bryan and the People called Methodists,’ 2nd ed., Launceston, 1812, 12mo. 2. ‘A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Arminian Bible Christians’ (based upon the Wesleyan hymn-book), Devon, Stoke Damerel, 1825, 12mo. 3. ‘Travels in the United States of America,’ London, 1836, 12mo.
[Stevenson's Jubilee Memorial of Incidents in the Rise and Progress of the Bible Christian Connexion, 1866; Bible Christian Magazine, 1868; Thorne's William O'Bryan, 1888; Hayman's History of the Methodist Revival of the Last Century in its Relations to North Devon, 1885; Digest of the Rules and Regulations of the People denominated Bible Christians, 1838; Allen's Liskeard, p. 106; Complete Parochial History of Cornwall, 1870, iii. 195; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub.; London Quarterly Review, July 1887.]