Needham Bryan Jr. was born in Johnston County, North Carolina in about 1750. Bryan served as Johnston's sheriff in 1771 and later became a justice of the peace and a member of the local Committee of Correspondence during the revolution. Bryan represented Johnston at the 4th and 5th North Carolina Provincial Congresses in 1776. From 1777 to 1778, he served in the state senate. In 1779 he served on the local freeholders court, which heard cases involving enslaved people. The following year an enslaved person would be found guilty of poisoning several members of Bryan's family. He died in Johnston in about January 1787.