Samuel Bryan was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in about 1726. In 1748 he moved to Anson County, North Carolina and by 1753 he had established his own prosperous farm, mill, and ferry in Rowan County along the Yadkin River. A veteran of the French and Indian War, Bryan openly declared himself as a loyal British subject in 1775, siding with the loyalist cause in the American Revolution. A lieutenant colonel, he led a group of loyalist forces during the Battle of Ramsour's Mill. Bryan continued to command forces in the southern theater throughout the remainder of the Carolina campaign, and he was captured at an unknown time before being tried at Salisbury in 1782. He was eventually exchanged and released and after a brief exile in St. Augustine, Florida, he returned to his estate in Rowan County. He died in Rowan County around November 1798.