Colonel Joshua Fry was a surveyor, adventurer, mapmaker, soldier, and member of the House of Burgesses

House of Burgesses

The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America...

, the legislature of the colony of Virginia. Born in Crewkerne

Crewkerne

Crewkerne is a town in Somerset, England, situated south west of Yeovil and east of Chard in the South Somerset district close to the border with Dorset. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Woolminstone and Henley...

, Somersetshire, England, he moved to Essex County, Virginia

Essex County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 9,989 people, 3,995 households, and 2,740 families residing in the county. The population density was 39 people per square mile . There were 4,926 housing units at an average density of 19 per square mile...

 as a young man to marry the wealthy widow Mary Micou Hill, who bore him five children who grew to adulthood, viz., John, Henry, Martha, William, and Margaret. He was educated at Oxford, and after his arrival from England was made professor of natural philosophy and mathematics at William & Mary College. He was afterward a member of the House of Burgesses, and served on the commission appointed to determine the Virginia and North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 boundary-line. In 1743-1744 Fry and his family moved to what is now Albemarle County, Virginia

Albemarle County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 79,236 people, 31,876 households, and 21,070 families residing in the county. The population density was 110 people per square mile . There were 33,720 housing units at an average density of 47 per square mile...

 to claim unclaimed plots of land and take advantage of surveying opportunities. There he built a house called Viewmont that sat on a 800 acres (3.2 km²) plantation bordering the Hardware River

Hardware River

The Hardware River is a tributary of the James River in central Virginia in the United States. Via the James River it is part of the watershed of Chesapeake Bay....

. He was a colonel of militia and a member of the governor's council in 1750, and in 1752 was a commissioner to treat with the Indians at Logtown. Fry, along with fellow member of the Loyal Land Company, Peter Jefferson

Peter Jefferson

Peter Jefferson was the father of American President Thomas Jefferson . A surveyor and cartographer, his Fry-Jefferson Map of 1751 accurately depicted the Allegheny Mountains for the first time and showed the route of "The Great Road from the Yadkin River thro Virginia to Philadelphia distant 455...

, created the famous Maryland-Virginia Fry-Jefferson Map in 1752. In the early days of the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

, Fry was given command of the Virginia Regiment

Virginia Regiment

The Virginia Regiment was formed in 1754 by Virginia's Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie, initially as an all volunteer militia corps, and he promoted George Washington, the future first president of the United States of America, to its command upon the death of Colonel Joshua Fry...

 and ordered to take Fort Duquesne

Fort Duquesne

Fort Duquesne was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania....

 then held by the French. During the advance into the Ohio Country

Ohio Country

The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...

, Fry suddenly fell off his horse and died from his injuries on May 31, 1754 at Fort Cumberland

Fort Cumberland (Maryland)

thumb|380px|Fort Cumberland, 1755 Fort Cumberland was an 18th century frontier fort at the current site of Cumberland, Maryland, USA...

, Maryland. George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 succeeded him in command of the regiment. Fry is buried somewhere in the Rose Hill Cemetery

Rose Hill Cemetery

Rose Hill Cemetery may refer to:in the United States:*Rose Hill Cemetery , listed on the NRHP in Arkansas*Rose Hill Cemetery — Antioch,California* Rose Hills Memorial Park, a cemetery in Whittier, California...

 in Cumberland, Maryland

Cumberland, Maryland

Cumberland is a city in the far western, Appalachian portion of Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Allegany County, and the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a...

.

External links

• Albemarle Adventurers: Joshua Fry
• The Political Graveyard: Fry