Joseph Fry

Joseph Fry (172827 March 1787) was an English type-founder and chocolate maker, founding the family chocolate company that would later become J. S. Fry & Sons, and founder of the Bristol branch of the Quaker Fry family. He was the first member of his family to settle in Bristol, where he acquired a considerable medical practice, and 'was led to take a part in many new scientific undertakings'. Early life and education The eldest son of John Fry (d. 1775) of Sutton Benger, Wiltshire, author of Select Poems (1774), Fry was educated in the north of England. He was bound as an apprentice to Henry Portsmouth of Basingstoke, a doctor, and married Anna, Portsmouth's daughter. Business pursuits Chocolate production After a time he abandoned medicine for business pursuits. He helped Richard Champion in his Bristol works, and began to make chocolate having purchased Walter Churchman's patent right.