Simon Bryan was born in Virginia in about 1689 and moved to Pasquotank County, North Carolina by 1729. An owner of enslaved people, in 1741 Bryan was a member of the local freeholders court which heard cases involving enslaved people. From 1738 to 1739, 1742 to 1744, and in 1746 he represented Pasquotank in the North Carolina Colonial Assembly. He died in Bertie County, North Carolina by May 1753.