They lived at The Wergs Old Hall and had seven children, including Willian Fleeming Fryer who inherited the estates.
Shares were offered to the public and the funds were raised to build a large steam-powered mill on the banks of the Birmingham Canal Navigations at Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton.
The local Methodists were looking to build a new church and the plot seemed ideal but there was opposition from Anglicans in the town fearing an increase in non-conformist influence.
In 1845 Fryer obtained a lease of land from Lord Hatherton for a colliery and ironworks near Leamore Lane, Bloxwich, where two furnaces were built in the 1850s.
Richard's son, William Fleeming Fryer, leased the works, then known as Hatherton furnaces, to G. and R. Thomas of Bloxwich.