William “Smith” Bryan - Do we have any evidence that William "Smith" Bryan actually existed?

This story is getting tangled up in its own underwear. We've got one Sarah Elizabeth Brinker who was the wife of Francis Bryan, and another one who was the wife of John Bryan. Wikitree gave her three Bryan/Bryant husbands (Francis, John and William). So if we look carefully, we might find another version of her on Geni married to a William.

The Sarah Brinker who married John comes with her own problems. She was born in Denmark and died in Ireland, while he was born in Ireland and died in Virginia. When did they meet, and when did they split up? I don't remember the whole fantastic yarn offhand, but I'm not sure that John was ever said to be in Denmark. BTW John is also married to a Sarah Berryman who was the mother of all his children: John “Smith” Bryan, of Nansemond

I noticed that Francis Bryan has a couple of weird siblings. There's a brother named Bryan 5, with descendants running backward numerically to a Bryan 1, and there's nobody in this line who has a real name. Pretty bizarre.

There's also a sister named Christian Council, which sounds like a Puritan name. Cromwell's whole persecution of Ireland thing was based on his hatred of Catholics, and he himself was an uber-Puritan. If the Bryans of Nansemond actually existed and gave one of their daughters a Puritan name after the Puritans drove them out of Ireland, I'd have to say that this was very forgiving of them.

Wikitree says that there actually was a Christian Council (daughter of Hodges Council) who married Edward Bryan. These are Isle of Wight families, nothing to do with the Nansemond crowd. She's mentioned in her father's will, so there's documentation.

Profile at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Council-6

Transcript of the will at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9SG-8N2M?i=61&amp...

In the "weird siblings of Francis Bryan" department, there' s NN Bryan, 5 Personally I would just delete this guy and all his descendants, since they have no validity and serve no visible purpose.

Christian Council is attached to the wrong family. Her actual father is Hodges Council and Christian Bryan is a duplicate profile

I don't know what to recommend about the many manifestations of Sarah Brinker. I'd be inclined to merge both of them with Sarah Bryan who looks more like a real person. If you want to leave the one that's married to Francis alone, I would delete Sarah Elizabeth Bryan or merge it with the Sarah Berryman profile leaving Berryman as the survivor. It's not credible that both Bryan males married the same woman with the same improbable history. At least it's claimed that Francis went back to Europe, so he'd be more likely to meet Sarah Brinker (if either one of them actually existed).