Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Fry, Joshua

FRY, Joshua, soldier, b. in Somersetshire, England; d. at the mouth of Wills' creek, Md., 31 May, 1754. He was educated at Oxford, and, after coming to this country, was made professor of mathematics in William and Mary college, Virginia. He was afterward a member of the house of burgesses, and served on the commission appointed to determine the Virginia and North Carolina boundary-line. 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. In company with Peter Jefferson, he had made a map of Virginia, and his acquaintance of the frontier gained in this employment, with his knowledge of the Indians, secured his appointment to command the expedition against the French in 1754. Col. Fry died while conducting his troops to the Ohio, and was succeeded by George Washington. See his life by Philip Slaughter (New York, 1880).