(from the archived Roots of Roane Web site)

The information below was created by Pat Roberts McDonald, apparently from publicity materials provided by the prolific author, Charles Brashear.  In 2006, Pat included a link to Charles Brashear’s Web site. 

He has passed away, and his site was defunct in 2019.  The Internet Archive contains a mirror of Charles Brashear’s Web site content.  Click here to view the archive of his full personal site.

Click here to read the archived page about Charles Brashear’s 9 volumes of family history. 

If anyone can provide information about the current status (2025) of the Brashear books’ availability, we would be grateful.

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A BRASHEAR(S) FAMILY HISTORY

By Charles Brashears

First Three Volumes Now Available
(see bottom of this page)

Charlie now has his own website. See it for up to date ordering info.

http://www.charlesbrashear.com/

There has been much confusion about this old family, and this important work should help straighten out many of the previously-published errors.
PatMcD

The Brashear(s) family was one of the very first in Roane County, TN, and Robert Samuel Brashears is recognized as the first permanent white settler. The family had land on the north-west side of the Clinch River, along Poplar Creek, Brashears Creek, and the Emory Road. At one time, they were very numerous and active in county affairs. [He is registered as a First Families of Tennessee]

For some years, Charles Brashear, a retired professor of English, has been trying to assemble a comprehensive history of this family.

WARNING! Don’t mistake this for something it isn’t. A BRASHEAR(S) FAMILY HISTORY is a series of books is about descendants of Robert and Benois Brasseur, French Huguenot immigrants to Virginia, c1635, whose surname was Anglicized as Brashear. Over the years, many branches of the family added an “s” to make it Brashears. Benois Brasseur was naturalized in Calvert Co, MD, in 1662, and became known as Benjamin Brashear; he is the progenitor of virtually all Americans with surnames Brashear, Brashears, Brashares, Breshear(s), Breashear(s), Broshear(s), Beshear(s), Boshear(s), Beshires, often Brasher, Brashers, Brashier, Brashiers, sometimes Brazier, and about 35 other spellings.

******VOLUME THREE *******

Vol. 3 of A BRASHEAR(S) FAMILY HISTORY:
“Robert Samuel Brashears and Some Descendants in TN and KY”

If ever there was a tale of woe, getting this monster off my back is one of them. It turned out to be 496 pages, over 50% larger than the other two volumes. It overloaded my computer and I had to go out and buy a bigger, ?better, more sophisticated computer with more bells and whistles than I’ll ever have any other use for. For the reason that it’s going to cost me a great deal more to get it printed, I will have to charge a bit more for it. So I’ve set the price at $40, plus $3 postage and packaging, and 7% sales tax for CA residents only.

Just so no one makes any mistakes about what Vol. 3 is about, this book follows Robert Samuel Brashears and his wife, Phoebe Nicks, to the wilds of Tennessee, where the last of their children were born. Sons Isaac and (Capt.) Samuel (and their families) make up most of the book, but all the daughters get pretty fair treatment and Basil gets a rather large chapter. In the cases of Isaac’s last three children (including my own Absalom Alfred) and Capt Samuel’s last four children, the families in question moved to Arkansas and Texas where they raised their families; those descendants will consequently have to wait until Vol. 7 for their day.

Here’s an abbreviated Contents

PREFACE.
1. ROBERT SAMUEL BRASHEARS, “THE ROLLING STONE,” and PHOEBE NICKS
2. PHILIP BRASHEARS, son of RSB.
3. ISAAC BRASHEARS, THE PATRIARCH .
4. CAPT. SAMUEL BRASHEAR and MARGARET EAKIN
5. THE DAUGHTERS OF ROBERT SAMUEL BRASHEARS
6. BASIL BRASHEARS and MARGARET “PEGGY” HORTON

These next are Children of Isaac Brashears, The Patriarch:
7. JOHN BRASHEARS and CHARITY BRADLEY
8. ROBERT B. BRASHEARS and SARAH RHEA HANKINS, of Lawrence Co, TN
9. WALTER BRASHEARS AND ELIZABETH ROBERTS
10. THE DAUGHTERS OF ISAAC BRASHEARS:
11. JUDGE SAMUEL BRASHERS AND HIS DESCENDANTS
12. ABSALOM ALFRED BRASHEARS and ELLENDER “NELLIE” ROSS

The remainder are children and grandchildren of Capt Samuel Brashear:
13. MARGARET BRASHEAR and JOHN LARKEY
14. SAMPSON BRASHEAR AND MARGARET BRIGHT
15. ROBERT S. “Old Bob” BRASHEAR and MARY EVERIDGE
16. TWO BROTHERS of WEBSTER Co, MO
17. JAMES N. BRASHEAR Sr AND ELIZABETH YOUNG
18. ELI BRASHEAR and SARAH “SALLY” CAMPBELL
19. ROBERT S. BRASHEAR and SARAH “SALLY” HALL
20. ADELINE BRASHEAR and ROBERT S. CORNETT
21. JAMES N. BRASHEAR Jr and ELIZABETH PRATT
22. SAMPSON BRASHEAR and MARY ANN HALL.
23. (Rev.) WILLIAM E. BRASHEAR and MARY HAMPTON/ FANNY ELKINS
24. ELIZABETH BRASHEAR and BENJAMIN ENGLE

VOLUME ONE Still available [as of 2018]

Vol. 1 THE FIRST 200 YEARS OF BRASHEAR(S) IN AMERICA, and Some Descendants in Western Maryland

This is a book about the first five generations (roughly) of the descendants of Robert and Benois Brasseur, French Huguenot immigrants to Virginia, ca 1635, whose surname was Anglicized as Brashear.

This volume only treats the first 200 years of the family, mainly in VA and MD, from about 1635 to about 1835, except those who left Maryland before the Revolution and moved to North Carolina or the Ohio Valley.

VOLUME TWO Still available [as of 2018]

Vol II “ROBERT C. BRASHEAR of NC, and Some Descendants in TN, KY, MO, TX, etc”

The 1740s were an economically rough time in Maryland (some of our family lost their land and/or spent time in debtors’ prison). Newly opened land in the Granville District of North Carolina was an invitation to a new start.

Three Brashear brothers–Robert C., Basil, and Otho–migrated to NC in the late 1740s, early 1750s, where Robert and Basil got land grants. Basil went broke again and left about 1766, and Otho simply disappeared, but Robert C. Brashear and his wife, Charity Dowell, stayed on and (we think) prospered. They were patriots during the Revolutionary War, after which newly opening land in western places beckoned again, and the family succumbed to wanderlust or land-hunger; they became part of the American westward movement. This book traces the families of sons Philip, Asa, and Zaza, and daughter, Ann (Brashear) Ball; Robert Samuel Brashear and Jesse Brashears have to wait for vol. 3 and vol. 5, respectively.