We know from land records that my GGGG Grandmother Charity Bryant lived in Fairfield Co. SC from 1785 to 1809. She lived in Knox Co. KY in 1810.

Her maiden name is said to have been Copeland but there is no original documentary proof of this. The oldest source found for the claim that Charity's maiden name was Copeland comes from a 1986 publication titled "Index of 1850 Whitley County, Kentucky federal census : annotated version" by Kathleen Stanfield Cook, based on extensive research by her father John Stanfield, who compiled the info from letters, correspondence and from "Early marriages, Whitley County, Kentucky" by Charley Maynard Cornelius (1981). (The reference to Charity Copeland is not found in the Cornelius book, however.)

[Update: A snippet from a 1971 publication entitled "Kentucky Ancestors, Vol 7-8," on Page 53 under "Queries," shows that someone inquired: "1851 BRYANT: Desire information on the ancestry of Edward Bryant, b. 11 Nov. 1831, Corbin, Whitley Co., Ky.; d. there 13 Apr. 1908; m. 21 Mar. 1852 Nancy Siler. He was son of William Bryant and Annie Eaton and grandson of John Bryant and Charity Copeland." So that shows that Charity's maiden name was rumored to be Copeland as early as 1971.]

Charity is tallied in the 1800 Fairfield County SC census record of her husband John Bryant as a "female aged 45 or above," which would indicate a date of birth before about 1756. But she probably wasn't born long before 1756 because her last child, John Jr., was born within a year of 1795.

Charity died sometime after September 11, 1822, most likely in KY. We know this because she was still alive in KY when a court record regarding litigation over her late husband John Bryant's estate was written on September 11, 1822.

[In 2020, Ancestry.com's automatic mis-information generator took the info that Charity died sometime after 9/11/1822, and changed it to read that Charity died ON 9/11/1822. This is inaccurate. Update: By 2024, people at Geni dot com, had inverted the numbers and were saying that she died on November 9, 1822. This is a mistake on top of a mistake. ]

I've attached to her son John Bryant Junior's Find-A-Grave memorial, the KY court records regarding litigation over her husband's estate, which mention her by name.

Children:

William Bryant (b. 1785 SC), husband of Anna Eaton.

John Bryant Jr. (b. within 1 year of 1795 SC), husband of Cenia/Sena Bryant.

Rebecca Bryant, wife of Aires Witt.

Mary Bryant, wife of John Polly.

Genealogy notes: In 2019, some genealogy dabblers randomly slapped Charity together with some alleged Neely and Moberly relatives, without any source or apparent reason. There is no reason to believe that she is connected with any Neelys/Neeleys or Moberlys. They have also taken estimates and guesses of her dates of birth and death and cited them as known facts. Currently in 2022, Ancestry only cites "Geneanet" as a source for this misinformation, and Geneanet only cites "Ancestry."

[Update, 2024: After a lot of digging, I figured out how people got Charity mixed up with the Neeleys. There was an Ann Nancy Neeley who married a man named John Brent (not Briant or Bryant). Totally disregarding the difference in names and all other differences between the two women, and the differences in the two men, they decided that the wife of John Brent "must be" the wife of John Bryant, and just changed Ann Nancy Neely's given name, calling her "Charity Copeland Neely," to "make it fit," which is very wrong.]

Also in 2019, someone decided that Charity's last name was "Ball," based on an 1858 NC marriage record between a Charity Ball and a John Bryant. Considering that we know from court records that Charity Bryant's husband John Bryant Sr. died right about 1812, he obviously didn't marry anyone in 1858, 46 years after his death. And certainly not in NC, because he and Charity moved to KY in 1809 and lived there thereafter. So there's no good reason at all to believe that Charity's last name was Ball.