He moved to Frederick County, Virginia 1743. His sons William, Abraham, Benjamin, and Samuel migrated into Westmoreland and Washington County, Pennsylvania.
Benjamin FREY I, born 1701/2 in Philadelphia Co., PA, was the fifth of seven sons born to Heinrich Frey and Anna Catharine Levering. About 1720 Benjamin married Christen Ann Markley, and they had nine children, all born In Pennsylvania. As was common practice at that time, Jacob, the eldest son of Heinrich was to inherit all the estate, and the other sons were left to make their own way in the world.
Land was becoming scarce in eastern Pennsylvania, and Benjamin had six sons who were also desiring to obtain land of their own. As the flow of German/Swiss emigrants increased, and desirable land became more scarce, it caused concern for the people of English descent, and German emigrants felt they had to look elsewhere for a place to resettle. Shenandoah Valley, which lay in northwestern Virginia, between the Allegany Mountains to the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east, remained unsettle.
Lord Thomas Fairfax (1693 - 1781), an English nobleman, who through his mother, a Culpepper, had inherited a large tract of land between the Rappahannock and Potomac River, but the exact extent of the grant was not really known. As explorers reached the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains they saw the vast, virgin expanse of the valley, laced with two forks of the Shenandoah River. As their accounts of this rich country reached Lord Fairfax, and the Governor of the Colony of Virginia, the decision was made to survey the princely domain of Fairfax. Lord Fairfax developed a plan to offer cheap homesites to families who would come to the wild and uncultivated land to settle.
Beginning in 1730, several prominent men were granted thousands of acres in Shenandoah Valley to act as agents to procure settlers. Joist Hite, who married Anna Maria Merkle (Markley), Benjamin's brother-in-law, credited with being one of the first white men to settle in Shenandoah Valley, was granted 20,000 acres. Paul Froman, who married Joist Hite's daughter, Elizabeth, came to the valley about 1732, and selected for their homestead a large tract of land on the north side of Cedar Creek. They were known to belong to the Quaker Society, and they lead a large movement of the Germans to come and settle here. John Richards received 500 acres from the Colony of Virginia 12 Nov 1735. The tract, (#137) located on both sides of Cedar Creek, is approximately three miles south of Mountain Falls.
Benjamin Frey had heard stories from friends of the Quaker families who had gone to Shenandoah Valley, as well as the returning Moravian missionaries, of the cheap rich land being promoted as the "Promised Land", and decided that was the place to go. On June 18, 1744, John Richards sold his 500 acre tract to Benjamin for 160 pounds. An older brother, Abraham, also came to settle here at the same time. Another older brother, William Frey, who had remained in Pennsylvania, was a member of the Moravian religious movement which sent a number of their missionaries into the Virginia frontier from 1743 to 1753.
May 13, 1751 Benjamin Fry of Cedar Creek ..."in consideration of Love good will & affection which I have & do bear toward my loving son Joseph Fry " a parcel of land on Cedar Creek bounded by Abraham Fry's plantation "...with all Moveable Chattels such as Horse Mares, cows, sheep & swine...". On November 6, 1753 Benjamin Frey's will was probated in Frederick County, Virginia with his sons, Abraham and Henry Frey, as executors, and proved November 10, 1753.
Benjamin Fry 
- b. in Zurich, Switzerland
- b.16 Apr 1623