In 1810 in the area of Natchez , Mississippi Territory, a Samuel Frye was killed in a duel by Daniel Beasley, the sheriff of Jefferson County, MS. Daniel Beasley would go on to become Major Beasley, the commandant of the ill-fated Fort Mims, scene of the worst Indian massacre in American history.

I am working with a professor at the U of South Alabama who is doing the archelogical dig at Fort Mims and is writing a book on the participants. We are curious about Samuel Frye. We know that he was a young lawyer in Port Gibson, Claiborne Co. MS Terr. in 1810, and that he had a brother named Nicholas Frye in partnership with him(and there were other siblings who probably were not in the MS. Terr.), and that he was killed on the eve of his marriage to Martha Ross, daughter of Isaac Ross of Prospect Hill plantation in Jefferson Co. - a wealthy slave holder who eventually emancipated over a hundred of his slaves and returned them to Liberia.

I have done genealogical research for a number of years, but cannot seem to find anything on this Samuel and Nathaniel Frye. Who are these Fryes? Natchez was a cosmopolitan city in those days and attracted the young and adventurous from all over.
I think they may be a part of the Maine family. Any ideas?
Any help will be appreciated.

Sue M.