Bradney Family
This site focuses on Thomas Jefferson Bradney and his descendants who are my direct ancestors. The outline descendant tree at the bottom of the page shows only William and Elizabeth Bradney's children (although I have some information on other descendants). There are other Bradney descendants with extensive research on other Bradney families. None of us, however, has been able to find more definitive information about William and Elizabeth Gore Bradney and their origins. I welcome any input from the Bradney cousins worldwide and would link to other Websites devoted to Bradney relatives.
The Bradney name seems to be English (Anglo-Saxon). There was a small estate and village of Bradney near Bridgwater and Bawdrip in Somerset belonging to a Bradney family identified in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was part of the "North Petherton Hundred" given to a Norman, Walter de Douai, who gave it to Rainward. Bradney is shown on old maps from the 1800s [see maps below]. There is no longer a village but the name remains as Bradney Lane and is shown on online maps (even with a satellite view).
Several Bradney families are listed in Burke's Peerage and the Who's Who of Great Britain. The International Genealogy Index (IGI) is replete with English Bradneys who lived in various parts of the country. Sir Joseph Bradney was a renowned scholar and lived in Wales which is close to Somerset. There is a Bradney coat of arms but I'm unsure as to how authentic it really is.
Some say that the first Bradney in our family was a Scot from Glasgow, Scotland. His wife was an English woman from London. They apparently came across the Atlantic and settled at or near Fredericksburg, Virginia. William Bradney is said to be their son and was born in Virginia (around Alexandria) in 1777 but I can find no record of him there.
Another story says that William's father was riding horseback with considerable money in saddlebags and was robbed, murdered, and buried on the banks of the James River. His widow remarried a man named Stith but they did not seem to leave any descendants.
It may also be possible that we found little record of the earliest Bradney because he or his ancestor was deported or "transported" to the United States from England. In the Complete Book of Emigrants 1700-1750 by Peter Wilson Coldham, there is a William Bradnee, St. Dunstan in the West, London, goldbeater, aged 17, who was bound to Neal McNeal in Jamaica on November 12-19, 1736, to serve five years with the consent of his father, William B. Bradney. Another entry lists John Bradney alias Bradin alias Ross of Linslade in the Norfolk Circuit Court district who was reprieved to be transported to America on July 3, 1702. The first Bradney in Australia was deported there in 1818 for forging counterfeit pound notes.
