| William Bryson | |
| Birth Date: | 1730 |
| Death Date: | 6 May 1815 |
| Nationality: | Irish |
| Occupation: | Presbyterian minister |
William Bryson (1730 – 6 May 1815) was an Irish Presbyterian minister.
Bryson was said to have come of a Donegal family, became minister of the nonsubscribing congregation at Antrim in August 1764. Without the pulpit reputation of his cousin James, he was a man of more influence in matters theological. He adopted Arian Christology and rejected the tenets of original sin and imputed righteousness. The ground he took was that of a strong scripturalist, and he upheld sabbath observance, eternal punishments, and Satanic agency. Bryson, though a member of the outcast Antrim presbytery, was, as his manuscripts show, a frequent preacher in neighbouring congregations of the general synod. His first publication was a funeral discourse for a distinguished minister of the synod. At the time of the rebellion in 1798 Bryson was a staunch loyalist, in this, as in other matters, following the lead of his co-presbyter, Bruce of Belfast. In September 1809 his age and infirmities rendered him desirous of resigning his pastorate, but as his people could not agree upon a successor, he did not do so till November 1810. He died on 6 May 1815, in his eighty-sixth year. He is said to have been buried at Antrim, but his name is not on the family tombstone. In the vestry of the First Presbyterian Church, Belfast, hangs a likeness of Bryson, copied by his son Patrick from a silhouette taken in his forty-sixth year. When about that age he married a daughter of Alexander Maclaine, M.A., minister at Antrim, 1742-59, and granddaughter of John Abernethy, by whom he had six children. His daughters kept school at Antrim for many years.
Bryson published: