\1RG1X1A iJlOGRAPHY
59
Randolph, with a younger brother. Thomas,
came to Virginia at the earnest solicitation
of the master of "Roanoke," who wanted his
namesake near him and who urged the l)et-
ter facilities for education in this state.
Here he remained at school for four years, he and his brother spending all their win- ter holidays and summer vacations at "Roanoke," and from that time ]\Ir. Ran- dolph always regarded and treated him as a son. At the expiration of this time, he returned to Georgia to be with his mother, and, after spending two years at school there, came north in the summer of 1822, where for a short time he attended a fitting- school at Repton, Connecticut, and in Octo- ber of that year, entered Yale College at the age of sixteen. He remained at Yale but a single year, for having applied for a warrant as midshipman in the navy, of the United States, his application was promptly grant- ed, chiefly through the active interest of his father's old friend and neighbor. Colonel Edward Tatnall, of Georgia, brother of Commodore Josiah Tatnall, of "Peiho" fame, afterward a distinguished officer of the Con- federate navy.
He remained in the navy little over seven years, seeing much active sea-service, but in January. 1830. he married John Randolph's "darling niece" (as Randolph calls her in his letters), "Betty Coalter.'" at her father's home, the historic "Chatham." opposite Fredericksburg, and almost immediately afterward resigned his commission, the young couple taking up their residence at "Eagle Point." There were ten children born of this union. Airs. John Randolph Bryan died at "Eagle Point" in 1856. Her husband survived until 1887. They sleep side by side in the beautiful old family bury- ing ground almost wdthin a stone's thrown of the home of their married life. There is no need of any note touching "I)etty Coal- ter's" family. The history of her family is, in great measure, the history of the Colony and of the Commonw^ealth.
T am indebted for the larger portion of data relating to Jonathan Bryan and his de- scendants to the courtesy of the Rev. C. Braxton 13ryan, D. D., of Petersburg, Vir- ginia, a younger brother of the subject of this slight memoir. Dr. Bryan is a keen antiquarian, and by patient industry has collected a great mass of most interesting and valuable papers and records touching
his family. As he has "the pen of a ready
writer." it is greatly to be hoped that he
may be induced to publish in this, or some
other historical work, or even in more am-
bitious guise, the results of his researches
concerning the Bryans of Georgia and Vir-
ginia and their times. — W. G. McCabe.
"Betty" (Coalter) Bryan, allied by blood to what were known in colonial days as "the grandees" of Tidew^ater Virginia, was a beautiful woman or rare culture, wrapped uj) in husband and children, known and loved through all the countryside for her gentleness, her ready sympathy, cheerful piety and unobtrusive benefactions. Words- worth might, indeed, have had her in his mind's eye when he spoke of "Those blessed ones who do God's will and know it not." Such was the refined, cultured, and whole- some home that "Joe" Bryan (for no one ever called him Joseph) was blessed with in his boyhood, and, in the coming years, when tried by both extremes of fortune, re- membering the lessons taught there, he show^ed himself equal to each and proved himself worthy of the noble stock from which he sprang.
When this lovely X^irginia matron lay a-dying, she called her little brood about her, and taking them one by one in her arms, whispered, along with the mother- kiss, a few words of loving counsel, well within their comprehension, then, smiling, quietly fell on sleep. The memory of that scene and of her words never faded from heart or brain of "little Joe," and in the days of stress and storm (happily not many) he ever counted them a precious sheet-anchor in life.
On the death of his mother, Joseph Bry.an entered the "Episcopal High School" (near Alexandria. \^irginia). then under the head- mastership of the Rev. John P. McGuire, and remained there until the beginning of the w^ar (1856-1861). Though not sixteen when the war began, he was eager to enlist at once, but he was a delicate lad, and. as an ever obedient son, he yielded to his father's earnest wishes in the matter, and remained with him at "Eagle Point," and, later on, at another of his plantations. "Carysbrook," in Fluvanna county (whither they went on the occupation of the former by the enemy), until the autumn of 1862. In October of that year, he entered the Aca- demic Department of the University of Vir-
