"A beautiful but pathetic story, handed down in the family, tells us that their father was abducted from Edinburgh, Scotland, about 1720. As the story goes, one James Brand, then about twelve years old, when on his way home from school with his little sister and several playmates, was induced, with the other boys, to go on board a British trading vessel to see the beauties of the ship and to hear the music. The girls remained on shore. While the boys were seeing the sights and were writing their names in a book, the vessel quietly withdrew from shore and was several feet from land before they realized it was moving. Little James Brand came upon deck just long enough to hear his sister's bewailing cry and to see her beckon him to jump off the ship. He attempted to do so, but was caught and taken below deck where he was securely kept. After fourteen months of sailing on a stormy ocean, the ship with her human cargo reached the colony of New Jersey. Here the little boys, twelve in number, were sold out to serve as apprentices until they became twenty-one, James Brand to a Presbyterian preacher, whose home was near the sea. Often, it is said, little James would go out into a clearing along the beach to sit upon a stump and long for a ship to come and take him back to Scotland. But he was closely watched and was not allowed to stray far from home. Being kindly treated by his new associates, gradually he began to be reconciled to his new surroundings; and gradually there came into his life another to take the place of that little sister, whose despairing cry had been the sad farewell of his native land. The daughter of the Presbyterian preacher, according to the tradition, became his wife and the mother of John and James. Another version of the story is that, not being treated well, he 'upset' his master shortly before his apprenticeship expired and then ran away.
"John Brand, James Brand, and Joseph Brand, three sons of James Brand, on many occasions repeated the above story of their grandfather to the younger generations. No trace of it can be found in the Samuel Brand family or in any of the families on the John Brand side. Unfortunately, however, a diligent search among early records of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania has failed to confirm this tradition." (1)