His parents, William and Thomasine O’Bryan, were ‘Church Methodists’ who attended the local Luxulyan Church on Sundays occupying the Tredinnick pew. When itinerant Methodist preachers came to their area, the O’Bryans in— vited them to stay in their home where services were held through the week. The father, William O’Bryan, Sr., was one of three brothers, who came over from Ireland with Oliver Cromwell. At some time, the family dropped the “O” and were known among the Luxulyan people as “Bryan” or “Bryant” and the future preacher was known to visiting ministers as “Little Billy” Bryant. When William was a boy, he was taken to St. Austell where the eighty-year-old Rev. John Wesley laid his hands upon the boy’s head and said, “May he be a blessing to hundreds and thousands.”

Other preachers, including the great Adam Clarke, travelled on horseback about the wide-spread East Cornwall Circuit, and all came to Gunwen where they stayed with the O’Bryan family. With all of these influences upon him from his earliest days, and through his teenage years, most people accepted the fact that their Billy Bryant would some day become a Wesleyan Methodist preacher. In addition, the effects of a devoutly religious home resulted in his conversion at the age of eighteen when he began at once to preach. He received his license as a “local preacher”, the first step of his plan to become an itinerant Wesleyan

preacher.

Gunwen Farm, Carnivall, Englah , Birthplace of Rev. William O’Bryan 0055 Call.

174