William Christian, recorded among the settlers transported into Virginia in 1652.

A patent of that year for land in Northumberland County, lying north upon the Potomac River and east upon a branch of it dividing the tract from land commonly called the Fort land, was granted on the transportation of forty persons, and William Christian is named among them.

The Manx Christians of Virginia have a documented origin three years later. In 1655 two brothers, William and Jonathan Christian of Maughold, went out to the colony, and a family of Cottiers from Lezayre went at the same time. The two families afterwards intermarried. The Christians acquired considerable tracts of land in Virginia, and descendants of the family came to be possessed of an ample fortune.