Introduction
The Fry family in Bristol were famous for their chocolate but members of the family were involved in various engineering works such as the Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works Co., Ltd., and Frenchay Products which among other things made Moulton Bicycles and the French/Swiss designed Chantal Meteor 200 jukeboxes.
Chocolate
Chocolate has a long and interesting history. Cocao beans, from which chololate is made, were first cultivated around 6,000 years ago, starting in 5,300 BCE in southeastern Ecuador in the Amazon basin. It then spread through the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations.
Although Christopher Columbus first brought cacoa beans to Spain in 1502, it was the Conquistador Hernán Cortés who popularized the bean in 1519. Spain managed to keep the secret of chocolate for nearly a century, but by the early 17th century it had spread to Italy, France, the Netherlands, and England but only the wealthy could afford the exotic drink. Europeans found the drink made from the beans too bitter and added sugar to sweeten it.
In 1828, the Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the cocoa press and the Dutch Process. These inventions and methods produced a better, more soluable powder.
Up until this time chocolate was a drink or a flavouring. In 1847, J. S. Fry & Sons produced the world's first edible chocolate bar. How they did this was to mix cocoa powder, sugar, and cocoa butter to create a dough, which was poured into molds and hardened. The choclate bar produced was dark because milk chocolate would not be invented for another 8 years.
Abou the same time as J. S. Fry & Sons were producing their solid chocolate bar the Swiss Daniel Peter was trying to develop milk chocolate. The problem was that mixing fresh milk with chocolate created too much moisture, causing the chocolate to spoil easily. He eventualy used the condensed milk technology of Henri Nestlé. In 1875, he produced a solid choclate that was much smoother and sweeter than dark chocolate.
In 1879, the Swiss Rodolphe Lindt developed the process of conching which is the process of continuously stirring a chocolate mixture while heating it for extended periods. This produced a chocolate that was smoother, sweeter, and richer than anything made before it.
American Vs British Vs European Chocolate
European chocolate such as that made in Switzerland or Belgium generally tastes richer and ccreamier than British chocolate, but I have lived in the US for 25 years and cannot get used to the strange taste of American chocolate. The difference in taste is because of the way the chocolate is made.
In the UK, chocolate has to contain 20 per cent cocoa solids provided the product also carries 20 per cent milk solids. In most of Europe, the standard is 25 per cent cocoa. This means that standard British chcolate has to be sold as something like "Family Chocolate" in the rest of Europe. In the US, the standard is 10 per cent cocoa.
There is also a difference in the way the milk used in chocolate bars is processed. Because the milk had to travel farther to the factories in the US, Milton Hershey invented the Hershey Process which uses lipolysis which slightly sours the milk before it is transported and which prevents further spoilage. A by-product of the process is butyric acid and it is this that gives American chocolate it's odd flavour.
Joseph Fry (1728 - 1787)
Joseph Fry was born in 1728, the son of John Fry of Sutton Benger, near Chippenham, Wiltshire. He became the first member of the family who settled in Bristol. He became an apprentice to Henry Portsmouth of Basingstoke, a doctor, and married Anna, Portsmouth's daughter. Moving to Bristol he soon developed a large practice among the wealthy. Joseph was also a chemist and very industrious.
Joseph aided Richard Champion, a fellow Quaker, in his porcelain manufacturing business.
Joseph then became interested in chocolate and opened a business selling the powder in 1753 in partnersip with John Vaughan. Bristol apothecary Walter Churchman had a patent issued in 1728 for a machine for the grinding of fine chocolate powder. Walter died in 1741 and was succeeded in the business by his son Charles. Charles died in 1761 and their business and the cocoa grinding machine patent was sold to Joseph Fry.
In 1764, Joseph entered into a partnership with William Pine. William was the first printer of the Bristol Gazette and a wine-merchant in Wine Street, Bristol. Between them they set up the Bristol Letter Foundry with Isaac Moore as manager of the business. After this company moved to London, Joseph took two of his sons, Edmund and Henry, into the company's partnership.
In 1745, Samuel Fripp and Henry Davis went into partnership and formed the soap manufacruers of Samuel Fripp & Co. In 1771, Joseph Farrell, John Vaughn, Joseph Fry and William Jones joined the partnership and the name was changed to Fry, Fripp & Co.
Joseph was also involved in a chemical works in Battersea.
Joseph Fry was a very astute businessman. The businesses he created, although they may have changed owners and names, long outlived him. The chocolate business was sold to Cadbury's in 1919, who continued production of chocolate in or near Bristol until 2010 - a life of 257 years. The type foundry continued until 2005 - a life of 247 years. The soap manufacuring business ceased trading in 1954 - a life of 209 years.
Anna Fry née Portsmouth (1733 - 1803)
Joseph Fry (1728 - 1787) was apprenticed to Henry Portsmouth of Basingstoke, a doctor, and married Anna, Portsmouth's daughter, on April 17, 1755 in Alton, Hampshire at the age 22. When Joseph died in 1787, she gained control of the chocolate factory and Anna and their son, Joseph Storrs Fry I (1769 - 1835), renamed the company as Anna Fry and Son and also made made some significant innovations.
Anna died in 1803, aged 70 at 1, Berkley Square, Bristol.
Joseph Storrs Fry I (1767 - 1835)
In 1795, Joseph Storrs Fry took control of the chocolate factory. In the same year the factory was moved from Newgate Street to Union Street. The water supply from the River Frome was not reliable and Joseph installed one of James Watt's steam engines at the chocolate works. It revolutionised cocoa production and attracted a great deal of interest from other manufacturers. George III also granted him a patent to build a new machine for roasting the beans. This was installed in the factory next door.
Joseph Storrs Fry, took a business partner, Henry Hunt, a fellow Quaker. During this partnership the firm was Fry and Hunt. Mr. Hunt retired in 1822, and Joseph Storrs Fry made his sons Joseph, Frances, and Richard partners and formally established J. S. Fry & Sons. By 1824 Frys were using forty per cent of the cocoa imported into Britain and their sales had risen to £12,000.
Joseph (1795 - 1879), Francis (1803 - 1886) and Richard (1807 - 1878) Fry
The three sons of Joseph Storrs Fry, Joseph, Francis, and Richard, were already partners in the company and when their father died in 1835, they continued running J. S Fry & Sons. In 1847, they produced the world's first edible chocolate bar. How they did this was to mix cocoa powder, sugar, and cocoa butter to create a dough, which was poured into molds and hardened.
Frances and Richard Fry were also heaily involved with the Bristol Water Works. Some of the city's water came from wells and the water from some of these was not very good. Water was supplied by the Bristol Water Works Company in 1848. Francis Fry was one of the provisional committee. The first directors (all of whom he survived) were Messrs. John Bates, William Budd, M.D., Charles Bowles Fripp, Francis Fry: Richard Fry, John Kerle Haberfield, William Hooper, Philip Jones, Robert Leonard, George Eddie Sanders, George Thomas, and Richard George Shum Tuckett. After the death of Mr. Abbot in 1874, Francis Fry occupied the post of Chairman, a position he held until his death.
Joseph Storrs Fry II (1826 - 1913)
J. S. Fry & Sons became a limited company with Joseph Storrs Fry II the first chairman and by 1907, J. S. Fry & Sons Ltd was Britain's fifty-first largest manufacturing employer. The chocolate factory was a wild success. In 1869, the firm employed two hundred and fifty people but by January 1896, the number had grown to four thousand five hundred. Joseph Storrs Fry II died in 1913 and in 1919, Frys merged with Cadburys and by 1981 the name Fry had ceased to be used.
Here are how the various members of the Fry family involved in the chocolate business were related.
Portion of the Fry family tree
Those involved in the chocolae industry have heavier borders than the others
Click on the image or click here to open the image in a new tab
The factories that Fry's owned was huge and stretched from Nelson Street to Union Street. The factory complex was demolished in 1939.
Fry's chocolate factories in 1882 and an aerial photo taken in 1921.
Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works Co.
Frenchay Products
Sources & Resources
Bristol Companies - Grace's Guide To British Industrial History
Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works Co., Ltd. - Eric Brain (Internet Archive)
Chantal-Meteor 200 jukebox - National Museums Scotland (Internet Archive)
Chocolate - Wikipedia
Conserving the Chantal-Meteor 200 jukebox - National Museums Scotland (Internet Archive)
Fry Family Tree - Frenchay Village Museum (PDF)
J.S. Fry & Son Ltd 1961 - Histories of Bristol Companies (Internet Archive)
Joseph Fry - Wikipedia
Portraits of the Fry Family - Frenchay Village Museum
The Fry Family, Chocolate Makers - Quakers in the World
The History of Broad Plain and the Soap Factory - Gardiner Haskins
The History of Chocolate - Origin Trace
Why Does American Chocolate Taste Different? - Sweet and Glory