Individual Details

The four Fry siblings who follow do not appear to have been in New England before 1635, but all were certainly there by 1642. All four are treated in Chamberlain’s History of Weymouth.[1] There is no reason for believing they were related to George Fry(e), of Weymouth, who d. in 1676.[2] It has been recently suggested that Mary may have been from Axminster, Devon.[3] Unfortunately, we have not had access to the best and most recent account of the family, incorporating research in English sources by Douglas Richardson, which appeared in Burton W. Spear, Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John, 1630, v. 16 (199_), the volume being now out of print and practically unprocurable.
The 1901 Meigs genealogy states that Thomasine Fry(e) was a daughter of William Fry(e), of Weymouth, Dorset.[4] The statement has been widely repeated,[5] and the IGI contains a number of entries from patrons’ submission record giving her birthdate (sic) as 29 Feb. 1612. The author of the Meigs genealogy appears to have been imposed upon by one of his informants, who passed on to him a garbled version of an account — unobjectionable in itself — of the family of William Frye, of Lyme Regis (not Weymouth), Dorset, which had been published about six years earlier by H.F. Waters in NEHGR 49 (1895): 495. The children of the William Frye treated by Waters are referred to in the 1620 will of their maternal grandfather as “my daughter Sarah Fry … her three children, Tristram, William and Mary.” This cannot be a reference to the Frye siblings of New England unless Waters’ reading of the name “Tristram” is cast aside, and it is assumed, against all probability, that Hannah/Anna Fry had not yet been born. Thus, it would appear that our subjects were forcibly attached to a family of high social status who happened to live in the same general vicinity as the Meigs family of Thomasine Fry’s husband. The subsequent connection of the Fry family with Weymouth, Massachusetts, may have contributed to acceptance of the very dubious proposition that they were from Weymouth, Dorset.
We continue with a brief outline of what is actually known respecting the four Fry siblings of Massachusetts, more detail generally being available in the sources cited.
Mary Fry, b. say 1604, d. (testate) 24 Jan. 1655/6 at New London. She m. by 1621 (in November of which year their first child was born), Walter Harris, of New London, Connecticut. Her identity is proven by the 1643 will of her brother William Fry, which mentions her son Thomas Harris, and by her own will, dated 19 Jan. 1655/6 and attested by mark rather than by signature, in which she named several collateral relatives including “my sister Migges,” “my sister Hannah Rawlin,” “my cosen [i.e. nephew] Calib Rawlyns,” “my two cosens Mary and Elizabeth Fry [the daughters of her brother William],” and “my two kinswomen Elizabeth Hubbard [i.e. Hubbell] and Mary Steevens [daughters of her sister Thomasine].”[6] They were the great-grandparents of Joseph Harris, of Poughkeepsie, New York, our ancestor.
William Fry, of Weymouth, Mass., b. say 1608, d. shortly before 26 Oct. 1642 (the date of his burial), “being sicke & weake in body.” His name appears in a list of the residents of Weymouth made in 1636.[7] He m. (as her first husband) Elizabeth (Foster?), probably a daughter of Elizabeth (Seamer?) Foster and stepdaughter of Jonas Humphrey (which Jonas Humphrey refers in his will to his “granddaughter Elizabeth Frie”).[8] His will, undated but certainly written before 2 Dec. 1642,[9] and proved 4 Dec. (10th month) 1643, mentions his wife (to whom he leaves the majority of his estate), his “two daughters, Elizabeth & Mary,” and bequeaths “to Thomas Harris, Thomas Rawlens & John Meggs, his three sisters youngest children, each of them a kid.”[10] his widow afterward married secondly, Thomas Daggett. Known issue (per Weymouth VR):[11]
Elizabeth Fry, b. 20 Dec. (10th month) 1639. She m. Nathan Fiske, Jr., son of Nathan Fiske, of Watertown, Mass.
Mary Fry, b. 9 Jan. (11th month) 1641[/2], d. 22 March 1704, and buried in Dorchester Cemetery. She m. Thomas Pierce, and had issue.[12]
Thomasine Fry, b. say 1614,[13] said to have d. 4 Jan. 1671/2 at Killingsworth, Connecticut (but she is not mentioned in the town vital records). She m. by 1641 (possibly in 1632), John Meigs, of Weymouth, Hartford, and Guilford, said to have been b. 1612, d. 4 Jan. 1671/2 at Killingsworth.[14] John Meigs made a will dated 28 Aug. 1671 and proved 4 June 1672, naming his wife as executrix.[15] The 1683 will of Gov. William Leete, of Hartford and Guilford, mentions “land … I bought at Homonoscitt of John Meggs,” though this might equally well be a reference to his son, or some other man of the same name.[16] Her “youngest child” John Meggs is mentioned in the will (proved 1643) of her brother, William Fry. Known issue (order partly inferential):
Mary Meigs, said in the Meigs genealogy to have been b. 1633, d. 30 April 1702 at Guilford. She m. (as his first wife) 3 March 1652/3, William Stevens (or Stephens), of Guilford and Killingworth, b. 1630, d. 26 Feb. 1704 at Guilford, son of John Stevens. She is “my kinswoman Mary Steevens” in the 1656 will of her aunt, Mary (Fry) Harris. They had six, and possibly seven, children.[17]
Elizabeth Meigs, said in the Meigs genealogy to have been b. 1635, d. in 1664-5, at Pequonnock. She m. (as his first wife) in 1650-51 at New Haven, Richard Hubbell, of New Haven, Guilford, and Fairfield, d. 23 Oct. 1699 at Stratford.[18] She is mentioned as “my kinswoman Elizabeth Hubbard” in the 1656 will of her aunt, Mary (Fry) Harris.
Concurrence Meigs, b. say 1637, d. 9 Oct. 1708. She m. (Capt.) Henry Crane, b. 1635, said to have been an immigrant from Suffolk. He was one of the original proprietors of Killingworth. They had eight children.[19]
(Deacon) John Meigs, Jr., b. 29 [sic] Feb. (12th month) 1641[/2], d. 9 Nov. 1713 “in his 48th year,” and buried in the West Cemetery, Madison, New Haven Co., Conn.[20] He m. (1) Sarah Wilcox, d. 24 Nov. 1691, “æ. about 42 years,” who as “Sarah, wife of Dea. John Meigs, was buried with her husband”; daughter of William Wilcox, of Stratford, by his wife Margaret ____. He m. (2) Lydia (____) Crittenden, widow of Isaac Crittenden. The Meigs genealogy lists eight children for him.[21]
Trial Meigs, said to have been b. 1646 at New Haven, d. 1690 at Killingworth. She m. in 1668 at Guilford, Andrew Ward, Jr., b. 1645 at Stamford, d. 1691 (?) at Killingworth, son of Andrew Ward and Esther Sherman, and had nine children.[22] Through their son Andrew (III) they were ancestors, in two different lines, of the Rev. Henry Ward Beech (1813-1887), the noted divine, and of his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.[23] Through their son William they were ancestors of Emma Hale, the principal wife of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet.[24]
Hannah/Anna Fry, b. say 1616, will proved 29 April 1692. She m. before 1642, Thomas Rawlins, of Weymouth and Boston, who d. (intestate) before 28 May 1670.[25] The 1874 Rawlins genealogy states of this Thomas Rawlins that his “mother was a sister of William Fry.”[26] Chamberlain’s History of Weymouth, p. 562, exhibits the same confusion, calling him “a son of a sister of William Frye,” and neglecting to assign him the son Thomas mentioned in Frye’s will. Why these authors should have placed him a generation too late is inexplicable, unless it was merely that he and his wife outlived her brother by a generation. It is unlikely to have resulted from a simple misinterpretation of the reference to his son Caleb as “my cosen” in the will of William Fry’s sister, Mary (Fry) Harris, for had these authors assumed (in ignorance of seventeenth-century usage) that Caleb and Mary were of the same generation, they would have placed Thomas Rawlins a generation too early. Yet their reconstruction implies that the testator was actually referring to a grandnephew, a somewhat distant relation to be remembered in the will of a woman with children of her own. In any case, his dates forbid him being anything other than Hannah’s husband. As their son Thomas must have been born before 1642 and all their other known children were younger, it leaves open the possibility that they had older children, including possibly the Benjamin and Abigail named in Chamberlain’s Weymouth as “unrecorded” in the town records. Known issue:
Benjamin Rawlins (unplaced).
Abigail Rawlins (unplaced).
Thomas Rawlins (missed in Chamberlain’s Weymouth), called the “youngest child” in the 1642 will of his uncle, William Fry, so b. say 1640.
Joshua Rawlins, of Boston, mariner, b. 2 Dec. (10th month) 1642 at Weymouth. He married, and had at least one child.
Caleb Rawlins, of Boston, housewright, b. 8 March (1st month) 1645 at Boston, mentioned in the will of his aunt, Mary (Fry) Harris. He m. Elizabeth Wilmot, daughter of Nicholas Wilmot, and they had eight children, for whom see the 1874 Rawlins genealogy.
Joseph Rawlins, bapt. 25 June 1648, aged about 11 days, at Boston.
Mary Rawlins, b. 24 Nov. 1652 at Boston.
Samuel Rawlins, b. 1 Sept. 1655.

Birth	Abt 1615
Marriage	Abt 1632	England - JOHN MEIGS

Spouse	JOHN MEIGS ( - 1671)
Child	Mary Meigs (1633 - 1703)
Child	Elizabeth Meigs (1635 - 1664)
Child	John Meigs (1641 - 1713)
Child	Concurrence Meigs (1643 - 1708)
Child	TRYALL MEIGS (1647 - 1690)

Father	FRY ( - )
Sibling	Mary Fry (1604 - )
Sibling	William Fry (1608 - )
Sibling	Hannah Fry (1616 - )