John Fry

“ And so Lizzie ran for John Fry at once, and we gave him full directions, how he was to slip out of the barley in the confusion of the breakfast, so that none might miss him; and to run back to the black combe bottom, and there he would find the very same pony which Uncle Ben had been tied upon, and there is no faster upon the farm. ”

“ On this a boat from one of the ships, unknown to the Admiral, was sent to meet them, when one of the men in her, John Fry by name, wishing to become a hostage, that he might hear them speak and observe their manners, leapt hurriedly on shore, and ran on some way from the boat. Before he was aware of his danger, he was seized by the Moors, who, lifting him up on one of the camels, set off with him at a rapid rate. As the rest of the crew were about to land, a large number of the natives sprang out from behind the rocks, and compelled the English seamen to retreat. ”

“ The appearing of the Spectrum (when in her own shape) in the same cloaths, to seeming, which Mrs. Furze her daughter-in-law has on. The intangling of Fry's face and legs, about his neck, and about the frame of the chairs, so as they have been with great difficulty disengaged.
But the most remarkable of all happened in that day that I passed by the door in my return hither, which was Easter-eve, when Fry returning from work (that little he can do) he was caught by the woman spectre by the skirts of his doublet, and carried into the air ”

“ The story told by John Fry that night, and my conviction of its truth, made me very uneasy, especially as following upon the warning of Judge Jeffreys, and the hints received from Jeremy Stickles, and the outburst of the tanner at Dunster, as well as sundry tales and rumours, and signs of secret understanding, seen and heard on market-days, and at places of entertainment. We knew for certain that at Taunton, Bridgwater, and even Dulverton, there was much disaffection towards the King, and regret for the days of the Puritans. ”

“ The Accuser sham'd; or a Pair of Bellows to blow off that dust cast upon John Fry a Member of Parliament by Col. John Downs, likewise a Member of Parliament, who by the confederacy and instigation of some, charged the said John Fry of Blasphemy and [166] Error to the Honorable House of Commons. Whereunto is annexed a word to the Priests, Lawyers, Royalists, Self-Seekers, and Rigid Presbyterians. Also a brief Ventilation of that chaffie and absurd opinion, of Three Persons or Subsistences in the Godhead. By the accused John Fry. London. Febr. ”

“ And there, as I knew from our John Fry (who had been to her about rheumatism, and sheep possessed with an evil spirit, and warts on the hand of his son, young John) , any one who chose might find her, towards the close of a winter day, gathering sticks and brown fern for fuel, and talking to herself the while, in a hollow stretch behind the cliffs; which foreigners, who come and go without seeing much of Exmoor, have called the Valley of Rocks. ”

“ I am akin to thy family, and know the substance of their skulls."
"Let me get up," said I, waxing wroth, for reasons I [Pg 59] can not tell you, because they are too manifold; "take off your saddlebag things. I will try not to squeeze her ribs in, unless she plays nonsense with me."
Then Mr. Faggus was up on his mettle at this proud speech of mine, and John Fry was running up all the while, and Bill Dadds, and half a dozen others. Tom Faggus gave one glance around, and then dropped all regard for me. The high repute of his mare was at stake, and what was my life compared to it? ”

“ FRY, JOHN (1609–1657) , theological writer, son of William Fry of Iwerne Minster, Dorsetshire, by Milicent, daughter of Robert Swaine of Tarrant Gunville, Dorsetshire, was born in 1609, being fourteen years of age at the herald's visitation of Dorset in 1623. Wood's account, to be received with caution, is that he ‘had ran through most, if not all, religions, even to Rantisme.’ In October 1640 he was elected a member for Shaftesbury in the Long parliament, but his election was declared void. ”

“ Doing good became a passion; want, misery, sin and sorrow furnished claims upon her which she would neither ignore nor deny.
John Howard had grappled with the hydra before her, and finally succumbed to his exertions. As the period of his labors lay principally between the years 1774 and 1790, when the evils against which Mrs. Fry had to contend were intensified and a hundred times blacker, it cannot do harm to recall the condition of prisons in England during the last quarter of the eighteenth century; that is, during the girlhood of Elizabeth Fry. ”

“ Then Fry rode homewards attended by a servant of Mrs. Furze. But being come into Spreyton parish, or rather a little before, he seemed to carry an old gentlewoman behind him, that often threw him off his horse, and hurried him with such violence, as astonished all that saw him, or heard how horridly the ground was beaten; and being come into his master's yard, Pry's horse (a mean beast) sprung at once twenty-five feet. The trouble from the man- spectre ceased from this time. But the old gentlewoman, Mrs. Furze, Mr. ”

“ Fry died after a few days' illness on 29 March 1787, aged 59, having retired from business a short time before. Like his father and grandfather he was a member of the Society of Friends, and was buried in their burial-ground at the Friars, Bristol. After his death the chocolate and cocoa manufactory was carried on by his widow under the style of Anna Fry & Son. The previous title had been Fry, Vaughan, & Co. In 1795 the works were removed from Newgate Street to Union Street, where a Watt's steam engine was erected, the first in Bristol. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to say that these stirring reminiscences made a deep impression on young Fry’s mind and that, while as a man to-day his preference is for his adopted country and his faith strong in the greatness of its future, he still yields to none either in love for Old England or in unswerving adherence in public and private to the sturdy principles of rectitude which seem to have been so marked a characteristic of his worthy father. ”

“ At one meeting, held at the Freemasons' Hall in 1821, in order to further the work of this society, Lord John Russell made an eloquent speech, concluding with the almost prophetic words: "Our country is now about to be distinguished for triumphs, the effect of which shall be to save, and not to destroy. Instead of laying waste the provinces of our enemies, we may begin now to reap a more solid glory in the reform of abuses at home, and in spreading happiness through millions of our population." ”

“ Through his father, whose circle of acquaintances included Lord Brougham, Leigh Hunt, and others interested in social and political reforms, Fry was friendly from an early age with Charles Knight and with Sir Rowland Hill's family. Economic and philanthropic problems occupied much of his attention, but his leisure was devoted to philology, and he became an expert student of both old English and old French. ”

“ He wanted to show them the nice young polly-wogs they were to have for breakfast, too. No one has to teach a little duck to swim any more than a young robin has to be taught to eat worms. A duckling seems to know all about swimming from the day he leaves the nest.
When the ducks were all in the water, the frogs who were watching on the opposite side of the pond saw Mr. and Mrs. John Bull Frog quietly slip into the pond and go out of sight. Then very soon they saw two of the little ducks suddenly disappear under the water. In a short time Mr. and Mrs. John Bull Frog climbed back on their rock. ”

“ It is true that Paul Fry, the Bohemian, was a player of extraordinary strength and fortune at every game, who always tried to play with millionaires and millionairesses; but the great potin, with which Giorgio Galanti attracted the most Catholic and snobbish Spaniard, Donna Mercédès de Fuentes, was when Fry, bold and cool, began to play with Signora Azquierda, an immensely rich Argentinian, who lived at Paris, and having tried conclusions with her, she won from him three thousand francs at poker—she, the woman, from him, Paul Fry, the invincible! ”

“ A few hours of spasmodic suffering followed, very trying to those who watched by; but suddenly, about four on the morning of October 13th, 1845, the silver cord was loosed, the pitcher broken at the fountain, and the spirit returned to God who gave it.
In a quiet grave at Barking, by the side of the little child whom she had loved and lost, years before, rest Elizabeth Fry’s mortal remains. "God buries his workers, but carries on His work." The peculiar work which made her name and life so famous, has grown and ripened right up to the present hour. ”

“ Fry to suffer without experiencing an unwonted measure of sympathy from all classes of the community. Many hearts followed her most lovingly in these hours of humiliation and sorrow; and when it was known that she must leave Plashet House, the tide of deep sympathy overflowed more than one heart. As a preliminary step the family moved, first to St. Mildred’s Court, then to the home of their eldest son. The business which had been carried on there by Mr. Fry and his father, was now conducted by his sons; and by this the young men were enabled to provide for the comfort of their parents. ”

“ Fry’s later life was one of singular and beneficent activity. He took more than four years of leisure and travel, and then, when on the verge of seventy years, he plunged once more into the turmoil of work. He accepted in 1897 the offer to preside over the royal commission on the Irish Land Acts, an office which he filled with such capacity, knowledge, and tact that his services were at once widely called upon. ”

“ Fry’s interest in local affairs of a religious and social character was deep and constant. For many years he conducted a brief service with the employees of the cocoa works, and in his will he left £42,000 to be distributed among them. In 1871 he joined the Young Men’s Christian Association in Bristol, and he became president in 1877. In 1887 he was elected a member of the committee of the Bristol General Hospital, becoming later chairman, treasurer, and president. ”

“ Certainly no one ever became a preacher among the Friends "for a piece of bread." If fanatics sometimes "prophesied" out of the fulness of excited brains, or fervid souls, no place-hunter adopted the pulpit as a profession. Only, sometimes, it needs the presence of an overwhelming trial to bring out the latent strength in a person's nature; and this trial was furnished to Elizabeth Fry in the shape of her father's death. The thanksgiving uttered by her at his death was also publicly repeated at the funeral, probably with additional words, and from that time she was known as a "minister." ”

“ Fry, "he ain't here. He's went to the drug store with a mess of kids. Yuh can set, or yuh can go. He don't care. That's the kind of a man he is."
The man who stood on the Rectory porch said he would wait. As he stepped across the threshold Mrs. Fry recognised him as a doctor who had been uppish and sent in his card, "like he was a King." She looked critically at his boots. "Trackin' in dust all the time——" she muttered. Then she went heavily down the hall, slamming the dining-room door after her.
"He never gets no rest!" she stated aloud to a picture of a dead duck, hanging by its feet. ”

“ In 1776 Isaac Moore severed his connection with the firm. In 1782 Mr. Pine also withdrew, and Joseph Fry admitted his two sons, Edmund and Henry, into partnership. At length in 1785 appeared the first specimen-book of Fry's foundry, and it was frankly admitted in the preface that the founts of Roman and italic were modelled on those of Caslon.
Joseph Fry retired from the business in 1787. Amongst the books printed with his later type may be mentioned the quarto edition of the classics edited by Dr. Homer. ”

“ She is a woman full of energy of spirit and mental endurance, which has been the secret of her success, both as a philanthropist and a Christian. She has taken an active and aggressive part in all temperance projects. In the Prohibition campaign in Texas, in 1889, she followed every line of defense and gained admiration for her pluck and willingness to express publicly her strongest views. Several years ago a hull-fight on Sunday was a public sport in San Antonio. The public and offices did not seem to suppress it, and finally Mrs. Fry deckled to take the matter in hand. ”

“ Fry’s first step towards reforming the women took the form of starting a school for the children in the prison. As usual in all good work of a novel kind, those who knew nothing about it were quite sure that Mrs. Fry would have been much more usefully employed if she had turned her energies in a different direction. People who have never stirred a finger to lighten the misery of mankind always know, so much better than the workers, what to do and how to do it. ”

“ None ever carried into practice more fully the old monkish maxim Labor est orare. Refuges had been formed, at Chelsea for girls, and at Clapham for women, while the Ladies' Society and the convict-ships demanded funds incessantly. A fancy sale was held in Crosby Hall, "conducted in a sober, quiet manner", which realised over a thousand pounds for these charities. After recording the fact with thankfulness, Mrs. Fry paid her second visit to the Continent, going as far as Switzerland on her errand of mercy. ”

“ Joseph Fry, the Christian gentleman, the gallant sailor, the humane commander, the chivalrous soldier, is known to [Pg 240] readers of American history. Of heroic mould and dignified address, he was
"A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal
To give the world assurance of a man."
When the Civil War came, it found him among the most beloved and honored officers in the service. The trial of his faith was bitter but brief. He could not fight against his home and loved ones, much as he honored the flag which he had so long and faithfully cherished. ”