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THE FRYER FAMILY
FRANCIS FRYER and POLLY FRYER
The FRYERS were the great grandchildren of MARY FRYER who was born in the late 1700s in Yorkshire. Mary gave birth to 3 illegitimate children (Jane, HARRIET and Benjamin) before marrying Richard Iveson. They had one child - Sarah. Tragically Richard, who worked as a Cordwainer (shoemaker), died a year after the birth of their child. Mary's daughter, HARRIET FRYER (baptised in 1814), gave birth to an illegitimate son, JOHN FRYER, in 1829. It was to be hoped that a search for 'Bastardy Bonds' might throw some light on the fathers of Harriet and John Fryer, but unfortunately, to date, no such bonds have been found. 1841 CENSUS
In 1841 John Fryer at the age of 12 was living in Yorkshire with his mother HARRIET FRYER, grandmother MARY (FRYER) IVESON, and SARAH IVESON, in Ramsgill, Stonebeck Down, where he was born. His grandmother was described in the Census as a Pauper. Their circumstances must have been grim.
MARY FRYER died in 1848 at the age of 61 years of age in Ramsgill. It was 1847 when John's mother, HARRIET FRYER, died of Typhus Fever at the young age of 34. By 1851 John had moved to Hackforth near Crakehall, close to the Tattersall family, and was working as a Farm Servant. His employer was a Farmer and Innkeeper. (Same profession as Thomas Tattersall who had married his mother's sister, Jane Fryer.) With no father and no grandfather, Thomas Tattersall, must have had a large influence on John Fryer. In 1856 in Crakehall John married ANN WEBSTER (who was born in Aberdeen). He named one of their sons Thomas Tattersall Fryer. Thomas was later to be elected as one of the first councillors for the Municipality of Kokstad in East Griqualand on February 8, 1892. Considering his unfortunate start in life, JOHN FRYER appears to have done well for himself and his family. He employed staff in his business and home. The family moved to Staveley in Yorkshire and later to Stockton-on-Tees. John worked as a Master Butcher, a profession he taught his sons. John Fryer died of cancer at the age of 49 in 1878. The mother of Ann (Webster) Fryer was JEAN BRANDER. Jean had three children: John McGregor (father of Jane McGregor) and Alexander and Ann Webster (mother of Tom Fryer). The father of Jean's eldest son was JOHN McGREGOR. The father of Alexander and Ann was WILLIAM WEBSTER. Parents and children were all born in Scotland. Alexander Webster remained in Scotland where he worked for many years as a wood turner. He lived in Jarrow. He never married. Sadly in 1901 Alexander developed bronchitis and died in the Union Workhouse, Harton Road, South Shields, Durham. Life in the old days was often rather harsh. According to family tradition Jean Brander had followed her son, John McGregor, to S Africa and was buried in Kokstad Cemetery (as yet unconfirmed). Jean Brander died in 1898, four years after John McGregor's death. Ten years after the death of JOHN FRYER in 1878, Ann (Webster) Fryer and most of her children were living in S Africa in MOUNT FRERE - where the niece of Ann, Jane McGregor (who had married Donald McKay), was living. The shop of Mr McKay is mentioned below in the 1887 letter written by Thomas Tattersall Fryer.
In applying to build a house, Thomas Tattersall Fryer stated: 'I am a butcher and baker by trade and desirous that any dwelling house should be near my trade'. The eldest son of John Fryer and Ann Webster, John, remained in England. Their eldest daughter, Harriet (named after John's mother), married Rodger Stamp in England. She had several sons. The Stamp family emigrated to Canada.
ANN (WEBSTER) FRYER lived in Hope Street, Kokstad, where she died in 1921. She is buried in the Cemetery with her 2 daughters and 1 son.
Great Great Great Grandson of MARY FRYER
1950s: EX-KOREA POW back home with family in Durban
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