Joseph Storrs Fry
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Joseph Storrs Fry (1767–1835) was an English chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and a member of the Fry Family of Bristol, England.
He was born in 1767, son of Joseph Fry (1728–1787),[1] in business as a manufacturer of chocolate and of soap, and as a type founder, and his wife Anna, daughter of Dr Henry Portsmouth, of Basingstoke, Hampshire.[2] His father had started a number of businesses including an experimental chocolate factory, Fry, Vaughan and Company.[1][2]
Career
In 1795, he assumed control of his parents' chocolate business, now known as Anna Fry & Sons. He created the first chocolate bar and patented a method of grinding cocoa beans using a Watt steam engine resulting in factory techniques being introduced into the cocoa business, building a plant in Union Street, Bristol.[1] He moved to Grove House (now Riverwood House), Frenchay in 1800. In 1803, his mother, Anna Fry, died and Joseph Storrs Fry partnered with a Dr Hunt and renamed the business Fry & Hunt. He married Ann Allen (1764?–1829) and had seven children.[3]
Dr Hunt retired in 1822 and Joseph Storrs Fry took his sons, Joseph (1795–1879), Francis (1803–1886) and Richard (1807–1878) on as partners renaming the firm J. S. Fry & Sons under which name it became the largest commercial producer of chocolate in Britain.
