William Bryan was born in Bertie County, North Carolina on October 31, 1724. A resident of Johnston County, Bryan was an owner of enslaved people, a colonel in the local militia, and a justice of the peace. He was also a member of the local Committee of Correspondence and the North Carolina Provincial Congress in 1775. Bryan died in Johnston County in 1780. According to a trial document from later that year, Bryan was poisoned by Jenney, an African American woman enslaved by Bryan's son Lewis.