Have just received my copy of the Mills Bridges document from Wanda. It shows a lot of research in the various records. Having formerly lived in Virginia I also pursued many of these records and found some additional ones. Based on this I think that the father of the 6 boys who went to North Carolina is more likely to have been the William Bridges whose will was presented in 1724 in King George Co. by his wife Ann. The origin of this William is not known and he may have been new to the area. What is clear is that the William Bridges who was the son of the William Bridges who wrote a will 1743 in Prince William County VA. is the same person who appears not long after his fathers death in the records of Westmoreland County where in 1745 William Bridges the son of Wlliam Bridges deceased asks to be bound to Joseph Butler until he was 21. This William Bridges continues to appear in Westmoreland records through the 1750's and is probably the same man who married Amy Bayne, daughter of Matthew. (Matthew Bain/Bean/Bayne bought his first Westmoreland Co land from the William Bridges d. 1743). William and Amy later lived in Stafford County, VA and Spottsylvania Co. VA. where William died. Since Mills Bridges article shows that the William who was related to the other 5 brothers was in North Carolina in the middle 1760's and remained there he could not be the William who was the son of William Bridges 1743 Prince William. Of the other clues concerning early Bridges families in VA. Anthony Bridges of Westmoreland is proven by the records to have left no recognized descendants. The William Bridges who is mentioned getting a land grant with wife Elizabeth in 1690 died by 1706 and the records mention only William and Mary as his children. The William who is mentioned inherited all his land and sold it off between 1720-1740 -he is the same William whose will was written in 1743 in Prince William. Among the problems in sorting our the various Bridges is the movement of boundaries among Westmoreland, Richmond, King George and Stafford during this time period and the loss of many of their records. These counties are close together and you did not have to go far to move from one to the other.